I love being back in an urban setting and have discovered a very new fresh feeling. (Quite the opposite of that "not-so-fresh feeling"... call it the "City Douche Effect" maybe.) In the same way that I felt intrigue and excitement about the wild, rugged, organic Vermont lifestyle when we first moved there, a similar thing is happening here. I'm expanding. Or I've grown up. I have a much clearer sense of who I am and where my place is in this insane world, and a lot of that has to do with surrounding myself with the unknown and being able to feel like I'm hiding in my community, even if I occasionally run into people I know when I'm getting groceries.
Graffiti makes me feel comfy. Dumpsters are intriguing. Traffic and sirens remind me that there are tragedies and realities that continue to plague people, even if my life seems to be running smoothly. While I sit here typing on my couch I can hear the excited, jazzed-up college marching band version of "Call Me Al" echoing from the Brown football stadium... occasional cheers erupt. Then some crickets chirping. Then more drums and horns. Somehow I find it pleasant to feel a crowd nearby.
Sure, there's a ton of the ugly shit too... those crowded strip malls and office plazas. The hideously boring Targets, WalMarts, BedBathBeyond-villes. The crazy masses of overweight Americans mindlessly stuffing their lives with more and more unhealthy shit... and more shit... and more stuff... and more stuff-on-shits. It's the American REALITY that I have chosen to confront everyday, rather than escape. And on days that I'm out walking the street signs are winking at me and they whisper rather convincingly:
"Andre the Giant Has a Posse!"
For real. And if you're lost and totally not with me on this one... DO YOUR RESEARCH.
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