Monthly Archives: April 2008

City Living

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Since living in the city, I’ve chosen my favorite elevators, which makes me think I think too much about things like my favorite elevators.  Our bathroom self-cleans and I no longer need to polish my jewelry – something in the water does it for me.  I don’t need a light-light; I just open the shades a little.

What I really love about the city are the relentless botanical and animal species; plant-life splintering concrete; tree roots curling asphalt along Providence; kamikaze inchworms dive-bombing tourists in the park.  Nature doing what nature does best: Filling a niche; a gap in our ecosystem fueled by arrogance and perpetuated by ignorance.  

Ayn Rand glorified man and his hunger for dominance in this world; his ability to hold fire in his fingertips. We see empty fountains in downtown Charlotte because we’re in the midst of a water shortage and one man says to me, What does it matter if a couple of fountains are turned on?  It matters because we’ve taken for-granted the value of water, the value of our resources.  We spill blood, oil, water; we order too much and leave our plates half-full and pass men on the street half-starved, but worry only that our fountains have been drained. 

Ah, the city ignites within us a sense of invulnerability.  It leads us all to believe the thin membrane of glass separating them from us is thicker than it really is. 

Do Not Dump – Drains into Creek

First Time

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It’s no surprise I’ve been homesick of late, but today, while talking with a friend, I remembered an experience last summer in which I brought someone with me to the farm and watched as they picked their produce directly off the bush and out of the ground; a first time for the person.  She had never before visited a farm.  Living in Northern Michigan, it was hard to imagine never seeing a farm – and to witness someone connecting the product with the source; seeing their eyes open in amazement and watching as they tasted what fruit is really supposed to taste like – it’s a feeling that’s hard to encapsulate into one word.  

Today as I explained this moment to a friend, my eyes brimmed with tears.  I felt that moment of elation come to life and realized that though I’m far from home, I now have an opportunity to share this same insight with others.  The prospect of starting a farm here is daunting, but even if it’s a farm on under an acre, it can be done.  And maybe what I crave most right now is that single raspberry plucked directly from the branch, but instead of allowing that craving to drive me mad, I’ll let it inspire me as it inspired that young woman.  I’ll carry that memory in a seed of hope.