Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Location has something to do with a person. It is, however, a small and maybe diminishing factor.

I live in Virginia. Start making assumptions about what that means. But first, ask yourself, “which Virginia?”
There are three Virginia-s:

1. Federal Virginia
2. Navy Virginia
3. Virginia Virginia

I live in Federal Virginia and worked in the Federal government for 28 years before retiring from such last Fall (to go on and get a job with a government contractor). Federal Virginia, a.k.a. Northern Virginia, comprises the ever expanding suburbs of Washington, D.C. The area consumed is proportional to the size of the Federal budget. Bye, bye farmland. Most of the Federal government resides outside the confines of Washington, D.C. Most Federal workers live near their jobs and pray they never have to commute into “the district” to work.

Navy Virginia is in the southeastern corner of the state on the coast. I have visited there a few times in an official capacity.

Virginia Virginia, a.k.a. Real Virginia, is the remainder of the state. I had the pleasure of walking through most of it last year.

I also lived a lot of my live in Louisiana. People in New Orleans used to claim that there were two Louisiana-s: New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. I never bought that one. I mostly felt that New Orleans wasn’t part of Louisiana, but that is another story.

I once lived in California for four years. How many California-s are there? A dozen?

All this goes towards a thought:

There is a lot of variation in location

Perhaps you have to go down to the zip code to understand something about a person when they tell you where they live. Perhaps you have to go to the ten-digit zip code? Maybe that doesn’t matter either.

Environment, the environment based on geographic location, has much to do with a person. It is, however, only one factor.

So the next time a person tells you they are “from New York,” “from Virginia”, or from anywhere, pause a while before making assumptions.