Cities

So I’ve been reading Evan’s blog and thinking about him over there in Japan, surrounded by Babely sky scrapers, hovercraft cars, video arcade mini-cites, slave robots and discothèques électroniques. I wonder what he thinks of that environment. It’s a big change from Missoula, that’s for sure. As he would say, “It’s real good for the ol’imagination-station to think about you over there!”
Today, thanks to reading and thinking about Evan, my ol’imagination-staion has brought me to cities in general. So far I’ve come up with this:
There are many negative parts to cities. Obviously, pollution sucks. Also, People can loose touch of their earthy sides and become sort of halfway space creatures that are always floating in an unnatural habitat, which while super interesting, can be scary and isolating/suck. Cities can seem cold and dark. They can seem fake and unhealthy. Consumerism can make you sick. People throw away old but still useful things to buy new shiny ones. They devalue the earth by wasting its resources and they devalue themselves by living insincere and superficial lives. In the end, cities can make you feel confused or just skeptical of the evolution of mankind.
But cities can also be really cool and fun and good! To me, cities are like compost piles for cultures. People come together with their life styles, music, foods and ideas; they mix and sit in the sun; they stink a little bit; they settle and even out and eventually you have a big ripe pile of rich organic fuel that can be used to grow beautiful things. Where compost piles turn into soil for veggies and flowers, cities turn into exciting places to live from which people can identify themselves, socialize and begin to create art. I live in a city called Granada. It’s a charming city with buildings older than old and hip kids younger than young. So far I’ve been pretty impressed by what Granada has to offer. I like the opportunities it brings me; if I would live in a small town in Alaska all my life, its very likely that I would never get to meet anyone from Greece, see a Tango concert, eat Turkish döner kebab or learn a second language. All these things enrich my life and make me happy.
What’s more, tonight I’m going out with a Spanish girl! Where else but in a big happenin’ city like this one could an Alaskan boy and a Spanish girl meet by a big beautiful old fountain, colored with green and blue and orange lights, go drink coffees in a dirty café, and then see a jazz concert?! Sure there are a lot of bad things about cities and, while it’s pretty easy to dwell on them, that’s negative and backwards thinking! Both humans and cities will always have some bad parts but they will also always have some good parts. You just have to choose where to focus your energy.