2007-02-20 - 11:52 a.m.

i'm glad i grew up where i did - despite the assholery of most people i grew up around. i don't care what hollywood says about the charm of smalltown life. it's really not charming. it's a lot like desperate housewives, only not nearly as sophisticated. ...i know.

think desperate housewives meets the trailer park boys. yeah. that's more what smalltown life is really like. at least it was for me.

but i digress.

the reason i'm glad i grew up where i did is because i was connected to nature. it feels like i have a better understanding of it. though i've been transplanted into the evil concrete jungle, i still feel connected. and when i've been cooped up in the city, my soul really starts to cry for a bit of greenery and a clear starry sky.

cities are ugly places. i don't care how much "art" we put into designing buildings and parks - into fooling ourselves into believing these beautiful monuments somehow put us above nature - it's still an ugly city. all cities. it's not real beauty. cities make our souls dirty. nature has this wonderful cleansing, humbling effect.

humans have this delusion that we're somehow above nature. that we're not just incredibly clever animals, but something truly special. i blame religion, but i think city life contributes to this too.

most people's experience of nature is limited to cottage country, or nature's more terrifying forces (especially since we insist on building and living in hurricane alley, tornado alley, on flood plains and fault lines).

most people get the wrong idea of nature. they find it novel or terrifying and that's kind of sad. but at the same time, it makes me cheer for the hurricanes and fault lines.

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