Maybe my Darwinian compass is broken, but I've never understood suburbs. As much as I can reckon, the point is that suburbs are safe. You have privacy fences and big houses set back on lots far away from the noise and crowds of the city, but still close enough to work there or go see a movie. While this protects you from some crime it seems to me that buying a big house is like putting this big "steal from me I'm rich" sign on, or "in case of communist uprising, burn here first." So, then the rich people have to pay for security guards, and then when their workers strike, call in the police or military to protect their money. All that work just so people will hate you.
The second thing I can figure about middle and upper-class suburbs is that they are generally clean. But are they really? All those housing chemicals? All those lawn fertilizers and weed killers? *shudder* Everybody in America is allergic to everything these days because they're growing up with fake foods and fake environments where they aren't exposed to enough dirt. That's my theory anyway. Maybe life isn't supposed to look like Disneyland?
Last night I watched City of God. It was a gritty, disturbing, and sometimes disgusting film about some drug gangs in the flavelas of Rio de Janeiro; it was also very well put together and won many awards. To save your sensitivities, I'll give you the sum-up: Gangs formed by teens and pre-teens grow up to terrorize neighborhoods and start intergang wars that bleed the community. Eight-year olds with pistols shoot up brothels and gangsters. Some people would watch this film and get excited by the lawlessness and crazyness. Some people will feel pity. My thought is, man, there are places where there are boys like that need role models. (Also, don't underestimate who might be packing heat) There are schools in those places that need good teachers. There are places that need cops that aren't corrupt, judges that can't be bought or intimidated. There are battles still worth fighting in this world (and I'm not talking about, 99% of the time, with guns).
This morning, I was reading Through Painted Deserts and Don Miller was talking about living in the woods and mentioned Welches, Oregon. I try to appreciate the beauty in every place I go, but it's really difficult after you've been to NW Oregon, because the rivers flow from majestic ridges and these towering mountains through damp pine woods full of ferns and berries and sorrel before they cascade over waterfalls into the Columbia before finally reaching the rocky coast that comes alive at sunset. Anyways, I've always wondered about how working in an office just probably isn't good for you, especially if you drive there and breathe in exhaust for an hour or two on the way. Like you need sun and fresh air and exercise. Why people would work in an office when they could save for a couple years, buy a little something somewhere and plant things and get your hands in the dirt? Dirt is good. I know a money-based economy is safer. I know you'd have to find a state with low property taxes. But why would you live in Los Angeles if you could live where you could see the stars instead?
I suppose the only reason would be because there is so much going on. So many people, so many dreams, so many beautiful artists and craftsman and exciting events! "Didn't have to look up to the stars burning in the night sky, they were burning bright in the eyes of people passing by." (Bradley Hathaway "Look Up") People are moving to the cities like never before, and I love cities (although it's hard to breathe in Moscow or LA or Mexico City). I am overwhelmed by the possibilities of cities. You mean I could go to a concert EVERY night, not just three on Friday nights? There are more museums than you could explore in a month in these big cities, and there's always a million things happening. They probably even have Creative Writing Societies. (Bloody Americans--I hope I can find a good Creative Writing Club in Central Asia)
Switchfoot has this song "throwing chairs," it was never released, it goes like this "I want to wake up low, in the world below, I want to love life low, where we need it most." Perhaps I'm a hippie of sorts, but I believe in living close to the earth, close to others. The suburbs, and the mentality that goes along with them, protects us from crime. It also protects us from trying to help fix our cities. Privacy fences keep our secrets, but they also help our sins from being exposed. Big houses give us sanctuary, protecting us from other people, and from the elements. They protect us from feeling the rain on our skin, and from engaging others in community so that we can be healed and grow and learn. In insulating us from people who aren't like us, the suburbs destroy a piece of our common human community. This isn't just not ideal, it's dangerous.
I think that, when it comes down to it, the suburbs are based on fear. Fear is what makes ghettos and slums lawless, it's what allows things like racism, dictators, and thuggery to persist. Fear does not lead to us loving our neighbors as ourselves, or to seeing that we are all neighbors. Fear runs opposite to love. Love breaks down fences, knocks on doors, pays one another's medical bills, attends one another's funerals, shares meals, and shares life.
