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The Urban Cage
Taking the air
I’ve been encouraged to begin my day with a walk. Living on the sea front it made sense to walk the promenade. The view across the bay is different every day, so in every sense the theatre I’m in is being refreshed continuously. The sea breeze maintains fresh air, the sea itself cleanses the beach twice a day and the fells that crowd my horizon refresh the sky by interrupting the flow of water laden air coming in off the Atlantic and Irish Sea, shrouding the mountains and creating masterpieces in cloud formations.
It occurred to me that as multi-faceted as my vistas might be I’d be looking at the same mountains and same railings if I kept to the same walk so why not trek through suburbia? I would encounter more people and be stimulated differently — maybe not as positively but it would be fresh grist for my mind. So I walked past houses and through parks, saw kids walking to school and others going about their business or simply standing and talking.
I didn’t find it as stimulating as I anticipated, neither was it the positive experience it might have been. Some eyesores I was already aware of but walking through streets with a mixture of shops and residential dwelling I was struck by the decay, small but conspicuous piles of rubbish, weeds and a general sense of the area being unloved. I can find decay aesthetically stimulating but this was…
