A REGIONAL CULTURE HAS ITS ROOTS in the battles and the love between people and their local environment. In Houston, the conflicts and resolutions that develop between human settlements and nature simultaneously -- and paradoxically -- have both everything and nothing to do with this particular region: Ways of living in Houston are universal in the sense that the solutions usually applied here by and large have far more to do with the generic idea of settlement anywhere than with local conditions; but they are also regional in that these generic solutions have been applied so persistently here that they have established themselves as a significant aspect of the local culture.

In Houston, the attempt to insulate human life from any hazards anywhere has staked a strong claim as an appropriate, if not quite indigenous, way of life.

For these same reasons, the more seemingly placeless Houston grows, the more it can seem like Houston. If the generic colonization of sprawling settlements with little regard for local conditions can be said to have a hometown, here it is.