Well, it's official: After 17 years as a New Yorker, I'm moving to Los Angeles in six weeks. I've already completed the stages of grief, including a few new ones I've added as I wander around New York City feeling self-important and wistful like I'm in a Wes Anderson movie. I'm now excited as heck! But it's got me thinking about place and how we relate to it and, because my mind always goes there, how those ideas relate to journalism. 

I've never felt that I could just live somewhere. I've always believed that life requires some kind of symbiosis with our current home, one in which we savor whatever joys the place has to offer (there are always some), while also bettering it however we can during our stay. Despite all the obstacles journalism faces at the moment, I still believe this profession is one of the best ways to do that.

That idea is why I love solutions journalism. It's also why I love meaningful engagement, service journalism, restorative narratives and all the other ways we tell healthier stories and share information holistically. When we report responsibly and constructively, we leave seeds around our town or city, small though they may be, that could grow into something meaningful. I typed this wearing a Joanna Newsom T-shirt and thinking of her song "Sapokanikan," a song about how we all try to leave our little mark whether it survives or not, and its music video which features her — voila! — wandering around NYC. She gets teary-eyed at the end, but she just keeps walking. I know the feeling.