Message of a City
(via bwilder: Cities and Ambition. Read it, then come back. I'll wait.)
...Ok. This is way oversimplified, obviously. I won't get into all the business about defining "city" or boiling the overheard thoughts of hundreds of thousands of people into a one-word "message." Bottom line: I basically agree with him, that cities have character, and certain cities have more character than others. Camberville's character immediately spoke to me, and it's why I've lived here longer than I've lived anywhere in my life (...whoa). My community gives me the inspiration to continue being the person I want to be.
An early commenter mentions online communities, but that discussion doesn't go as far as I wanted. Can you get enough inspiration from the online communities you choose to make up for living in a less-inspiring place? For me, the answer would definitely be no. I need those walks through town at dusk, looking through windows at quirky cafes and people's book-lined living rooms. I'm a sensual person (in the original sense of "using all my senses," not the current sense of "My hobby is buying sex toys at Grand Opening"), so an online life wouldn't cut it. Are there people for whom it does?
And then there's the issue of how important atmosphere is, anyway:
[T]hough there are plenty of people strong enough to resist doing something just because that's what one is supposed to do where they happen to be, there are few strong enough to keep working on something no one around them cares about.
What this immediately made me think of is environmentalism. I've been an environmentalist almost literally my entire life -- since I was 5 or 6, when I first read about acid rain and landfills in National Geographic for Kids or whatever, I've been driven by the horror of what we might be doing to ourselves. (I say this not to fish for pats on the back, but as simple fact.)
But I haven't been much of an activist. I've made plenty of changes to my own life, but I haven't stuck my neck out, because I felt like every time I tried, I got mocked. I've beaten myself up about this forever, but that quote made me feel a bit better. Up until the last year or so, I was caring about something no one around me cared about -- or at least, something I didn't see anyone around me caring about. That's finally changing, and so I am changing, too.
...Ok. This is way oversimplified, obviously. I won't get into all the business about defining "city" or boiling the overheard thoughts of hundreds of thousands of people into a one-word "message." Bottom line: I basically agree with him, that cities have character, and certain cities have more character than others. Camberville's character immediately spoke to me, and it's why I've lived here longer than I've lived anywhere in my life (...whoa). My community gives me the inspiration to continue being the person I want to be.
An early commenter mentions online communities, but that discussion doesn't go as far as I wanted. Can you get enough inspiration from the online communities you choose to make up for living in a less-inspiring place? For me, the answer would definitely be no. I need those walks through town at dusk, looking through windows at quirky cafes and people's book-lined living rooms. I'm a sensual person (in the original sense of "using all my senses," not the current sense of "My hobby is buying sex toys at Grand Opening"), so an online life wouldn't cut it. Are there people for whom it does?
And then there's the issue of how important atmosphere is, anyway:
[T]hough there are plenty of people strong enough to resist doing something just because that's what one is supposed to do where they happen to be, there are few strong enough to keep working on something no one around them cares about.
What this immediately made me think of is environmentalism. I've been an environmentalist almost literally my entire life -- since I was 5 or 6, when I first read about acid rain and landfills in National Geographic for Kids or whatever, I've been driven by the horror of what we might be doing to ourselves. (I say this not to fish for pats on the back, but as simple fact.)
But I haven't been much of an activist. I've made plenty of changes to my own life, but I haven't stuck my neck out, because I felt like every time I tried, I got mocked. I've beaten myself up about this forever, but that quote made me feel a bit better. Up until the last year or so, I was caring about something no one around me cared about -- or at least, something I didn't see anyone around me caring about. That's finally changing, and so I am changing, too.