MayBE 2023: Day fifteen.

Cities.

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.

Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

For most of my life, I have lived in a city. But for almost seven years, I have lived in the jungle, 30 minutes away from a small beach town.

There are different challenges and benefits from both and I think different phases in my life have required me to choose between the two. As a species that craves novelty, and especially during the young adult phase, I understand why my children leave the simplicity of their rustic home in the jungle for the variety that the city offers.

In 2019, I wrote:

As much as I love sitting in nature, listening to the deafening cicadas, connecting to a slower pace, there is something about the city that inspires in a different way, perhaps because it can be both enchanting and revolting simultaneously. Or because it plays its part as cautionary tale and wonder of the world and a reminder of the possibility of what we can build together: illusions of grandeur and castles in the sky.

One of my favorite all-time books is still Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Read back on my previous post here for some excerpts.

TODAY’S PROMPT:

  • Copy the above Italo Calvino quote on cities.
  • Imagine an ideal city. Write it. Draw it.
  • Read some Jane Jacobs.
  • Journal about a city experience.

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