City Life

"I never liked this apple much
It always seemed too big to touch"

- John Mayer


A few days ago, I read an article in Real Estate section of the New York Times featuring houses that could be bought for about $600,000. I do not have $600,000, but I was curious what sort of houses could be bought for that amount in today's economy. The first house featured in the article was a huge four-bedroom three-bath house on Great Diamond Island near Portland, Maine. The house is spacious and comfortable-looking, and life on Great Diamond Island is a lot different than the life I'm used to. According to the article, Great Diamond Island's general store is open only seasonally; most people take a ferry to Portland to shop for groceries. One thing that seems especially appealing to me was that there are no cars on the island; people ride bikes or golf carts.

As intriguing as life on a carless island seems, it also seems so different and isolated, I couldn't really picture myself living somewhere like Great Diamond Island. I repeated to myself my supposed need to be in a densely populated city. I needed to be around a lot of people.

But last night, I lay awake thinking about my life in this city. Sure enough, on my way to work, at work, on my way home, at the grocery store, etc., I encounter plenty of people. But how much of that encounter involves really talking? What is the point, I thought, of being around other people if we are all mostly strangers who put on iPods and avoid eye contact whenever possible? What is the point of living in a city close to your neighbors when you don't know who your neighbors are and can't count on them to notice if something's wrong? What is the point of encountering a lot of people every day, if most of the time we all view each other as nuisances who walk too slowly in front of us on the sidewalk or who talk too loudly on our cellphones?

This city lifestyle is really starting to bother me.