two sides of a city.

Most who have not lived in a city see only one side or another of city life. A city can be beautiful, a life lived in it worth every second, every penny. The architecture of quaint row houses, or old buildings set an atmosphere of solidity and vitality. The message is to have a good time with friends, speak of life over good food and a good beer. This atmosphere reenergizes a person for the road ahead. People walk most places because they can. One may pass several days in such a place and not even realize the passage of time. But that’s ok, that’s the point; living life without focusing on living it.

There sits another side of the city. The buildings bring no joy in their visage. They speak of people just barely getting through the day. You expect to see people up during the night wishing to sleep, up over nothing much. The never extinguished lights and the sounds of traffic perpetuate a feeling of struggle long after you reach home from work. Stores yell at you to buy buy buy. You aren’t happy, here, this will make it better. You own a car if you have the money cuz only the poor people walk anywhere. This is the dirty city most people bring up when they say they hate “the city”.

I sit in a mall clinging by its fingernails. Everything is clean, neat, orderly, empty. Clerks chat with each other as they eye the potential customers pass by. Many stores have given up; neat sheets of paper cover the windows. Everything waits for the hoards of mall-goers who used to fill this place. But they don’t come. Pitiful. A few children play on a mat called “the woodland”. It has a few sculptured stumps and logs to play around. Is playing outside so foreign now that they recreate a semblance of it for children?

Most prefer to live in the beautiful side of the city. Wouldn’t you? Hence it is more expensive. I would suggest that it’s worth it. Worth it to focus on people and company instead of cars and things. Worth it to make your home in a place that breeds peace instead of depression. At the very least, make your home a tiny lagoon in the midst of caves. But beware; only the very strongest of spirit can succeed in that. Whatever surrounds you will affect you.