ethereal city magic
Boston from above, on the day I fell in love. November 14, 2013.
I first experienced the transcendental qualities of cities on my trip to Boston, at the beginning of my sophomore year in high school. Walking through the brick city and taking in the vastness of its existence and the comparative littleness of mine. Upon seeing the way fall existed in Massachusetts, the fallen leaves and their yellows and deep reds and oranges, upon seeing the people upon people upon people going every direction, passing me indifferently while I unconsciously marveled at them and wondered who they were and where they were headed, upon seeing these things I saw the whole world in front of me, vividly, for the first time truly. I could see diversity, obscurity, clarity, creativity, history, community, humanity, immensity. I could see it all. And upon seeing it all I saw my smallness. I saw how small I was, strolling through the city and seeing these things.
I live in a bustling city today, and I stare out of my dorm room window and I see the whole world outside, living together and separately at the same time, every day, without fail. Independent existences joining up to spawn the world. It never ends. I am reminded of this as I lay down to sleep and hear the noises the city makes every night, as the night brightness seeps through the blinds I try to shut tightly and I see the soft glow through my eyes which I try to shut tightly too. Living here makes it impossible to ignore the world and makes it impossible to forget my paradoxical place in it. The paradox exists in that “living together and separately at the same time” thing, as well as the fact that, while I am so tiny when placed beside the giant city, I am not as insignificant as that may seem to imply. I am substantially significant, brilliantly big, massively meaningful. I have special light and one-of-a-kind love to offer to humanity that would cease to exist without me here to supply it.
Cities are a reminder that I am not the only one. I am existing in the middle of everyone else existing next to me, and we all contribute uniquely to our communities. We each bring forth our stories, our thoughts, our talents, and our love. And nobody wears the same dress to this party - we are all cutting from our own individual fabric - which is what makes this existence so exciting and grand. This reminder that cities give is what brings me to love them so much, and why living in the center of one never becomes boring. Big thoughts and big dreams and big realizations are never ending.
The magic lives in these things - in the feeling small and tall simultaneously, in the observation of others observing others observing others observing others and the understanding that these others have so much to offer, and that there are so many things for you to offer, too. It exists in transporting you to an ethereal world within the real world, and realizing that the two are interchangeable, if only you allow them to be.
xoxo
mo