askchapo

i grew up in a crappily planned city and don't like cities in general, though it took a while to realize that's what was going on. i've been to well planned and well designed cities with all those lovely features of civic life and those things are cool, but i still don't like the city. for me its the noise first and the busy visual/olfactory field second. in my late 20s, i "swam upstream" so to speak and lived in some very remote places for many years. it had its own challenges which grow remarkably the further you get away from civilization, but for sitting on a porch or ambling around game trails, it was aces. it also brought the noise of the city in sharp relief when i would be visiting my urban friends.

eventually the experience of the noise goes away as the mind filters much of it out, but then it's like living with my head in a bowl of cotton.

there are absolutely people like us for whom the aesthetics of the city do not recharge us the way they seem to do for others. i have many friends i've made during my rural adventures that are now scattered in hard-to-reach places. visiting them is a rare treat that invariably involves my favorite sort of unique adventure just to get to them, but one of my favorite things is to find a quiet, cozy hospitality in a little tucked away place with incredible views.

right now i'm nearing the end of a multi-year stretch in a smaller city to save up for my Third Act to move to something more quiet, but along a passenger rail line so i can take day trips to the city for the occasional spectacle, but otherwise live more quietly.