Mendolonium

There’s a Tim McGraw Song, Where the Green Grass Grows, I like to listen to from time to time.  It speaks to a theme familiar in American life since the industrial revolution:

Rural vs. Urban

Homogeneous vs. Diverse

Conservative vs. Liberal

Slow vs. Fast

Safe vs. Dangerous

Grass vs. Concrete

Dull vs. Exciting

Backward vs. Cultured

Open Space vs. Crowded

Country vs. City

Tim wants to live where the green grass grows, watch his corn pop up in rows, and plant his dreams where the peaceful river flows.  Hell, I want that too.  Sounds good.  Sign me up.  But Tim goes on to tell us that he’s from “a map dot, a stop sign on the black top”.  He laments that “there’s concrete growin’ in the city park”, that he doesn’t know who his neighbors are, and that there’s “bars on the corner”.  Well, actually our neighborhood park is pretty spectacular.  I know my neighbors and count them among my closest friends.  And  there aren’t any bars on the corner of our neighborhood, but there is a nice little Italian grocery.  Tim’s song speaks to me on the days I have to take to the freeway and I become a speck on the concrete beast winding its way throughout Los Angeles.   Even after 13 years in Pasadena, I still feel a bit claustrophobic by the relatively close spacing of the houses   When I go outside to  garden I  dream being greeted with silence rather than the sound of leaf blowers, wind chimes, and the dull roar of the nearest freeway.

And then there are the days when the city seems to me to encompass everything wonderful in the world.    Our neighborhood here has shown me just how much I value a home where I can walk to the library, post office, shopping,  farmer’s market, and parks.  I am less than a one mile walk to train station from which I can, quite literally, use as my jumping off point to the entire world.  And it is almost-sitcom perfect, how our tiny street is now home to six boys age four and under.  I smile every time I hear our neighbor’s four year old son shout from his open window across the street, “Thomas!!!” and the top of his lungs.

Dammit, I want both…the city and the country.  Why do we have to choose?

As I drove over the Los Angeles river this week and noticed the trees growing up in a soft-bottomed stretch, I realized that the choice between urban and rural is a false choice.  The answer to this “choice” has been given to us as the monstrosity that is suburbia, but this is not the way things have to be.  Why can’t rivers and creeks flow though the city?   Why can’t Pasadena be a city of roses and of mini-farms?  Why the hell can’t city gardeners put down their leaf blowers and pick up a rake? I want the best of both worlds and if modern society doesn’t offer it to me than I suppose we shall just have to go about creating it ourselves?  Want to join me?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 11:03 pm and is filed under A Life Sustainable, A Piece of My Mind, The Place Where We Live. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.