It is interesting for me to find and read other bloggers from Alaska and their thoughts on Alaskan life. I discovered this one last Christmas, just about the time he and his family moved from Fairbanks to Houston, Texas. He’s spent the last year writing about Houston and it’s climate – and Texas culture in general - like he’s moved to another planet. He wrote this week about missing Alaska:

"We’ve not been in [our new home in Houston] for a year yet, but [we] have been in Houston for some large fraction of a year now. It’s tough on us. Alaska is an outdoorsy, tough sort of place, yet full of life and rewarding. People [are] an outdoorsy, tough sort of people, yet accepting and accommodating. We miss that, since Houston is very much like a large conglomeration of strip malls approved by some faceless urban planning board with Darth Vader as Chair Cyborg."

This description of Alaska resonates with me. In it I recognize the Alaska that I know. The environment is extreme and dangerous. Surviving takes a lot of work, and life can end suddenly and dramatically. Yet the place is “full of life and rewarding,” and the people are tough, “yet accepting and accommodating.” There is a great diversity of people and viewpoints in Alaska, and yet people here seem to have a common, uniquely Alaskan sensibility that creates a sense of community across the state. And beyond.