Friday, October 23, 2009

Still here

Since moving to the City, I have become prone to making all kinds of strange and random generalizations about living here. And observations about what I am learning from my time here. JY has on occasion suggested that I unfairly attribute things to this place. His experience here is wildly different from mine.

Perhaps it's not NYC, it's me. Entirely likely.

Some days I find this City heartbreaking and utterly disappointing, at other times unspeakably beautiful and captivating.

The balance between so many attractive and repellent forces continues to hold me in orbit here.

I thought I would leave after 6 months. But I am still here.

3 comments:

JY said...

I guess I would say that New York is an odd and unusual place, and certainly it shapes the lives of those who live here. Maybe I just feel like sometimes you give the idea of New York too much power over you. Does that make any sense?

ergo said...

And I would argue that in New York I, as do we all, make a conscious effort to make specific choices. But here, that takes great effort and struggle. In New York, even the path of least resistance takes effort.

C-Belle said...

1. Cities have distinct personalities.
2. Some people open themselves to hearing a city's particular voice, others do not.
3. Ergo is in the former category. And she chooses to articulate the impact of the voice she hears in a particular way... a choice that I believe is affected as much by artistic considerations as by adherence to her actual world view.
4. I, for one, do not believe that this constitutes giving "too much power" to the city.