BOSTON -- The Berkshires of western Massachusetts are a truly beautiful place.

We here in the eastern part of the state tend to forget that and I'm really not sure why.

Oh, sure, we are reminded every summer of some longtime east-west links. The Boston Symphony Orchestra a most quintessentially Boston institution, has made Tanglewood its summer home in the Berkshires since 1936.

Indeed, the arts in general bloom like summer flowers in the Berkshires, from theater and dance, to music and the visual arts.

But that’s like saying one likes Cape Cod because of the lobster. It’s only part of the region’s appeal.

True, given the long, tortured Red Sox/Yankees feud, Bostonians are rightly suspect, I suppose, of the one part of the Bay State that, in summer anyway, has as many cell phones ringing to a “212” (Manhattan) number as a “617” (Boston proper).

Of course, that’s just silliness.

Besides, some wonderful New Yorkers have made the Berkshires their home for the same reason Bay Staters who know the area love it.

People such as former Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton .

Some years back, I spent an afternoon interviewing him at his South Egremont home. We sat on his deck, overlooking the fall-colored Berkshire Hills, and while he waxed nostalgically about his glory days in baseball (a sport he reveres), he could only gaze out and shake his head in quiet, wordless affection when asked about western Massachusetts.

There are also people like singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie, who has lived in the tiny Berkshire town of Washington for decades. Guthrie’s song, “Massachusetts” is the state’s official song, and while he may be singing of the state as a whole, one naturally imagines his backyard in the Berkshires with such lines as:

“I could spend all of my days
And remain each day amazed
At the way each day is phrased
In Massachusetts.”

But for me, it is not ultimately about the gently-sloping hills, the small farms, the tidy little towns of Stockbridge, Lenox or Monterey. Or even a surprisingly happening town like Great Barrington, where upscale shops and restaurants lure tourists and transplants (there’s a lot of them) alike.

For me, the most appealing feature of the Berkshires is a quality that can’t be depicted on postcards or Web sites. It’s an attitude. A sense of tolerance. It’s not merely a crunchy, Birkenstock, aging-hippie kind of thing, either. It’s more subtle. But it’s real. If New Hampshire’s license plate motto is, “Live Free Or Die,” the Berkshires’ would be, “Live And Let Live.”

I thought of that recently after seeing a clip of Bill Ayers’ appearance on “Good Morning America.”

He may be no friend of Barack Obama, he may not be a domestic terrorist (or he may be), but he still clearly thinks people give a crap about what drove him to bomb buildings in the 1960s. Or maybe it’s just his new book that’s caused him to pop up now with the welcome of a pimple.

In the Berkshires recently, I met Rick Wilcox, the chief of police in Stockbridge. In 1969, he was serving a tour of duty in Vietnam. His neighbor, Arlo Guthrie, was filming the counter-culture film, “Alice’s Restaurant” (based on Guthrie’s song) in Stockbridge.

Wilcox and Guthrie did not meet until the 1980s. Today, they are good friends who clearly respect each other’s personal history. But they never talk about the 1960s.

They’ve let it go. They would each rather talk about life these days, their kids, their causes and the Berkshires they both love so much.

(Note: Ted’s most recent visit to the Berkshires can be seen on “Chronicle”, Monday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 on WCVB-TV.)