I was walking past a laundromat in San Francisco tonight and, glancing through its window, I noticed the paintings on the upper parts of its wall. Different cities were depicted there, as well as certain religious icons like the Buddha. And the pictures, in this laundromat, were vivid, bright, and colorful. And it seemed somehow that there was a blog posting to be derived from that colorosity in an otherwise drab, typical laundromat.
As I was thinking about the entire world, sort of, pictured on the walls in this city laundromat, I thought about the city itself. I considered that something from all over the world, culturally speaking, was assimilated into the city in one form or another. It seemed to me as though the city itself was a city because it strove to adapt itself as a microcosm of the entirety of the world in which is resided. And then I wondered whether the same might be thought of other cities in the world.
Each city has a uniqueness of it’s own due not only to the over-all culture creating it, but the individual circumstances of its creation. While you can find “head shops” in just about any city, at least in the U.S., there’s something a little more rooted in the experience of walking down Haight Street. And other cities have similar peculiarities unique to them. You can find Jazz music in any city more or less, but, you walk through the French Quarter of New Orleans, and you can feel a spirit of Jazz in the streets in a way you simply can’t in any other city on the planet. Each city has it’s own identity, but, each city also stretches beyond its own identity.
Since the monetary prosperity of a city usually revolves heavily on people coming for a short time, leaving their money with the city, and then leaving, it becomes beneficial simply from a maintenance standpoint for a city to be inviting to those from different cultural backgrounds if it is to thrive. That, and, people from different cultural backgrounds, no matter what their background, gravitate to where opportunity is. And thus, the more cultural options are available in any given city, the easier it is to facilitate visitors to the uniqueness of the city. Likewise, if there is a cultural center of being for those not used to a city’s native culture, it is easier to reside in the place of one’s work, which in turn makes it easier to visit for those of that particular culture. The more available a city is made to those of different backgrounds, the easier it is to facilitate workers, the easier it is to increase revenue from travelers.
And so I see a city as centered in its own uniqueness due to the causes of its creation, which, to thrive, naturally incorporates elements of the uniqueness of other such cities. To thrive it naturally incorporates elements from elsewhere in the world, just as to thrive it contributes the good derived from its own uniqueness. Cities thus are naturally reciprocal centers of transmission of thought if they are to flourish.
And as a successful city naturally makes of itself a unique microcosm of the world, so too is it micro-cosmic of some of the more macrocosm aspects of the divine. Which is to say, as above, so below.
The interaction between cities as a representation of the interaction between celestial bodies. The interaction between cities as representative of the interactions within the city. The interaction between cities as representative of the interactions within a person; as representative as the interactions between a person and its environment; as representative as the interactions between the celestial bodies; as representative of the body of the divine. Hence “As above so below” and thus we are created “In the image of the Divine.”
Can anyone say Triamazikamno? Aside from this guy?
And, as always, a pleasure to share food with you!
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