people as places

"I'll be scrambling 'round, hunting high and then low
Looking for the face, love; or somewhere to go
I hardly had places that I needed to go
Cause you're the places that I wanted to go"
-- "People as Places as People", Modest Mouse

recently i got to thinking about this - people as places.

does this happen to everyone? where a person and a place get lodged together so completely in your mind and heart, you can't think of one without thinking of the other?

what is it about certain people that leads to this phenomena? are they the people who are themselves so attached to their place, that one can't imagine them anywhere else? or is it something about our specific set of experiences with a certain person that leads to this mental confusion? do we have our significant experiences in unique, place-specific settings as opposed to generic ones, and that's what makes them people as places as people?

i've had entire states break my heart. i look at a map, and see pain in the shape of a specific geography.

or, conversely, in a moment of sublime beauty & happiness i occasionally wonder: do i love this landscape because of who i'm with? or do i only like this person next to me - because of what i see?