I love living in the city. I think it is because of the humanly constructed environment. Everywhere I look is a work of art. Even cardboard piled on the footpath, awaiting collection has artistic merit. The city is like an enormous house made up of many rooms: unique and distinct spaces. I notice the trend in cafes to create different spaces within the one space - the communal table, the comfy lounge chairs, the intimate table for two in the corner near the window, bar stools facing out to the footpath where you can sit alone and watch the "world go by". And all these spaces are brought together to convey an ambience, a mood. I favour the '70's style mismatched chairs with jazz music. They come from an era when life was simpler. I like to imagine that the trend for retro has to do with recycling and reusing some of the abundance of stuff that already exists.
All this constant created environment, is it humans just trying to convince themselves that they are in control? Or is it that humans are innately creative and cant help but shape, colour, design our surrounds? Does the focus on the outward save us from having to go inward? Does insulating ourselves with the material protect us from facing the spiritual? I think not. If anything, it creates a yearning for meaning, for mystery.
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