The American Wanderer, in All His Stripes

(NYTimes) - ... Even the log cabin might be seen as a symbol of transience; the stone house speaks to wealth, permanence and belonging, and as often as not comes later. "Alexis de Tocqueville said Americans start building a house and leave before the roof is built," said the historian Eric Foner of Columbia University.
Failing to strike out for unknown parts was sometimes taken as lack of gumption. To remain in a New England town square or a sun-baked cotton town in Oklahoma was to risk soul death. "And I made myself a promise when I was old enough to run, that I'd never stay a single day in the Oklahoma Sun," Johnny Cash sang in "I Never Picked Cotton."
None of which is to argue, precisely, that Americans are at peace with the rootless. ... Continued

Photo: Washington Boro, PA, Canon EOS 20D