He was hanging out in New York City, and I was hanging out on Lopez Island. The cows were bellowing, ready for the evening routine, and, well, it all got mixed together. The rural and the urban are more interlinked than we ordinarily credit.
I read science fiction, and the cavalier way that many authors dismiss rusticity is quite remarkable and, to me, disturbing. We are creatures with bodies which have rhythms, mucus, moods, and vulnerabilities. Our metabolisms need some combination of known and unknown nutrients, so we are still inextricably chained to food that comes out of the actual dirt. (Though, Fanta is nice on occasion.) As a tribal creature who has come to love much of what civilization has to offer, I have no objection to skyscrapers and the heady mix of urban intensity, steel, mirrors, and escalators; far from it! But I also get both metabolistic and spiritual strength from forests, bugs, and algae.
I read science fiction, and the cavalier way that many authors dismiss rusticity is quite remarkable and, to me, disturbing. We are creatures with bodies which have rhythms, mucus, moods, and vulnerabilities. Our metabolisms need some combination of known and unknown nutrients, so we are still inextricably chained to food that comes out of the actual dirt. (Though, Fanta is nice on occasion.) As a tribal creature who has come to love much of what civilization has to offer, I have no objection to skyscrapers and the heady mix of urban intensity, steel, mirrors, and escalators; far from it! But I also get both metabolistic and spiritual strength from forests, bugs, and algae.
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