Urban, Suburban, Rural... Global Reflections

A friend left me the following message in an email:

“I was reading your urban reflections, and realizing I have to learn from people who have experience with the suburbs and the rural areas just as much as you learn about the urban experience.”

An encouraging comment. After all, life is about learning and understanding more today than we did yesterday isn’t it? What better way to do such than to explore what is unfamiliar?

An urban thought:

I was riding the subway home from Washington D.C. one night when a elderly African American lady sat down by me and made some passing comments about her disgust with the military. The lady’s name was Joyce and she was a typical “angry black woman” in many ways: angry about racism, injustice, so on and so forth. What made it more interesting was that she was an angry black Washingtonian woman. Not only was she angry about the typical things an African American experiences, but also about the politics of it all. I didn’t have to say much more than a few sentences before she shot off her opinions on America’s current negative state. She used to work in the White House as a tour guide but now considers the job ‘f**king trash’ like the rest of D.C.’s ‘f**king politicians.’

What is it about the character of an urban center that manages to saturate the character of the people in and around it? D.C. is about political power. As a result, what’s most noticeable and influential is power dynamics between the haves and have-nots. Those who have-not are mean, politically cynical, people. I’d imagine that in L.A. much of the culture stinks of a “Hollywood entertainment” sort. Yet is it just me, or do I notice that cynicism is the one common trait that fills every city regardless of its distinct character?

A suburban thought:

I’ve mentioned before about Silver Spring’s current development. Well, it so happens that the city has just launched a cheesy little website for promotion at SilverSprung.com . It’s a rather humorous little site in my opinion. “Come, shop, eat, and entertain yourselves! Is this not what life is about?”

If cynicism runs thick like a bitter molasses in the city, then the suburbs around it tend to try and add a whole lot of sugar to it. It’s as if they are trying to turn it into honey. Unfortunately, the sugar just piles up on the surface. All one has to do is scratch a little before they find that the character of the closest suburbs often still reflect that of it’s mother city. Here in Silver Spring, North Potomac, Gaithersburg, and so on, many of us are just as cynical as people like Joyce. But wait a second… aren’t those living in the suburbs technically the ‘haves’ and not the ‘have-nots’? Why would one have any reason to be so cynical?

A rural thought:

While I was staying with my Dad in New Concord, Ohio (very much rural) he asked me why I wouldn’t want to live in such a place. My answer was that there was no diversity and hence it was too boring. My Dad seemed to accept the answer as generally true as he thought about the church he attended and the general homogeny of the congregation’s worldviews. Everyone marches to the same drum beat more or less.

Are the people in rural areas cynical? I don’t have a whole lot of experience with such, but I imagine not. This is an area that I have a lot to learn in.

A global thought:

The basic trend seems to be that the farther one is away from the city, the less cynical one seems to be. At the same time, the farther one gets away from the city, the less diverse an area becomes both in ideals and race. Does such a correlation mean anything? What does it imply?

Such questions are deeply rooted in sociology that I do not understand well, so soc majors who read this, feel free to enlighten me. Better yet, if you live in the thick of an urban, suburban, or rural area, let me know if my observations seem on target or not. I could always be wrong.

Current state of spirit: Good. Yea, just good all around without a whole lot to complain about.