What makes a place?

When I started studying the 'psychology of place" in 1994, my public health colleagues were quite skeptical. What did that have to do with risk for disease? Twenty-two years and studies from many researchers later, we have a much better picture of the ways in which the near environment influences our well-being.  In the course of that work, all the scholars of place have run across stories like this one, about the musical Oklahoma!, which became a smash hit in 1943 because it expressed the nation's determination to fight fascism.  It is a story the war reporter and novelist John Hersey wrote to Richard Rodgers, on the occasion of a 1970 revival of the musical.  Hershey related,

I’d had a pretty crummy night, sleeping on the ground, muddy and damp, nothing to look forward to but cold C-rations for breakfast. A G.I. who might perfectly well get killed that day (because though the Italians were retreating, there were some nasty skirmishes) got up and stripped to the waist and poured some cold water in his helmet and began to shave. The sun hit us. Everyone was grumbling as usual. Suddenly the soldier stood up and began singing, ‘Oh, what a beautiful morning.’ A pretty good voice. There was a fair amount of irony in his singing, and his pals laughed. All the same, it was a beautiful morning, and all of a sudden there was an almost unbearable intensity in the way the men looked around at the view.

That is the way in which place -- in this story the soggy GI's camp in Sicily, at front of the Italian campaign -- is transformed by a ray of sunlight, a flash of humor and a well-loved musical phrase.  We have all had such moments.  Reflecting on this short story, we can think about the elements of place: the location, the people, their shared culture, and their time, not only the year and the moment in the war, but the time of the day.  When we understand these elements, we can work with the power of place of improve our spirits and our health, as that unnamed GI did for his brothers-in-arms that day.

I hope he lived to go home to his family, and sing for many decades to come.  Should he have died, I believe it was not in vain.