The usual dilemma

Long story short, how do you survive in a city?

I came to the city armed with a new kind of jnana yoga and a rescued kitten. My domestication seemed inevitable.

Seeing which way the wind was blowing, I resolved to join the [strike]Borg[/strike] bourgeois collective wholeheartedly.

All the convenience, entertainment and security has been nice but, unfortunately, I am once again forced to admit that, however efficient civilisation may be, it does not agree with me.

So, having spent some weeks daydreaming about fresh breezes, green expanses and open horizons, I am compelled to relocate again.

Now, my instinct is to throw out everything except a suitcase, load up the car and aim at a compass direction, but I suspect there may be some more moderate responses available.

What's the usual approach? Vacation? Move house? Alcoholism? Medication?

I would appreciate any other perspectives here, as I freely admit that my instincts are extreme.

 

Conform.

 

Hmm, yeah, no.

As ordinary as concrete labyrinths and cubical containment facilities may seem to my civilised mind, it is poison to my nerves.

Besides which, this minimalist smartass answer, as usual, begs the question. I.e., how do you conform?

 

I think you should try to embrace the positive things about urban life. Rather than see the crowds of people as a negative, look at the higher volume of social opportunities, and take up activities that involve meeting people. Volunteer work, for instance. Rather than seeing the urban sprawl as confining, look at it as an exploration opportunity. Seek out eateries, coffee shops, book stores, hookah lounges, etc, that you like, and that you can share with your expanding social circle.

If I lived close to a skyscraper, I would try to befriend a janitor or security guard who could get me roof access, but that's just me.

 

I can't really answer this, since I find it easy to survive in a city. So much so that I prefer it over the wilderness. However, I was also going to suggest that getting an apartment at the top of a building might afford you a view that is an approximation to a wide open expanse. So make that two votes for that.

 

An apartment at the top of a tall building will afford the illusion of wide open spaces. This is golden, thankyou.

I'm not clinically autistic, despite continuously claiming to be, and when I hear stuff like this I think my problem must be that I'm not nearly autistic enough.

I suppose a million strangers is an exciting frontier to explore. I do enjoy the anonymity and the potential for socialising.

I tend to prefer socialised and educated people too, as opposed to country folk. However, I expect I will go with my instincts and launch over the horizon someday in the next couple of months.

Perhaps I wasn't confined to uniform cubes enough as a baby, because I can't survive on architecture and humans, I need some actual fucking nature in order to feel right. It's funny because it's a million years of evolution and yet it is actively selected against.

P.S. I would marry you for your temperate forest village, you lucky bastard.

 

I doubt it's at all temperate at this time of year.

 

I would dig in and settle for a few months before moving on, at least then you could say you have given a fair shot rather than drifting which it seems like you're inclined to from what you said. To echo Japes and DE, I'd recommend trying to make roots and socialise; with your intellectual bent look for book groups or RPG troupes in the area.

In terms of nature, see where it can be eked out in your city. My city has allotments which might sound good for you, but personally I think it's just a case of the middle class wanting a flagrant respectable interest because where I live is a dive.

Currently the only places I've lived is boring countryside and boring (yet stabby) cities, I'd take an interesting city any day of the week so in some ways you should consider yourself lucky.

 

Makes friends, get a job, pay taxes. That is the conformist dream.

Remember your taxes keep me in a job.

 

I've been dug in here for about fifteen months now, that's a fair shot.

The most interesting thing about this city is how stabby it is, but it does have many parks and such.

I've made friends and paid taxes, and achieved all the goals I set for myself.

I don't intend to drift per se, but I want to explore. Perhaps this is a part of living in a nearly empty continent, not to mention having more survival skills than social.

I am confident that there are a million beautiful places just laying around, empty, and I'd rather feed my natural, inborn desire for novelty and adventure than the traditional, conditioned desire for routine and security.

 

Well in that case, maybe still wait a few months?

I think it would be important to delineate between the general desire for a change of circumstance - which I'm sure everyone feels from time to time - or whether you truly find city living unbearable. If it is just the former, there's no need to make a hasty decision as I'd imagine once you go it would be harder to return - also those feelings pass.

There's also a difference to living somewhere and just existing somewhere; if in 15 months you've never really committed to settling then you're obviously going to want to move on sooner or later. I'm not saying that that's the case - maybe you have really tried to sink your teeth into city living, but if it was then I know from experience if you don't commit to something then you're going to get minimal returns and satisfaction from whatever that thing is.

 

Become an artist, the best escape from urban madness is to be the odd one, seeing their reality from outside, however always inside!
Plus, the worst thing that can happen to you is sweet madness, and society loves hating madmen.

Now, for serious, art can be a way to try and shake off everyday stress, either by writing, painting, etc, you'll discover that the more it affects you, the more the city makes you a neurotic person, will get you more inspiration, more ways to develop your talents.

After all, life is about what we do between we're born and we die, so it's nice to entertain yourself while it happens, of course, if and when you can, GTFO of town, live many a man's dream of wandering this earth true.

 

Its not uncommon for people to tough the city life so they can appreciate and afford the getaways into the country or overseas vacations.

 

As I was leaving the Irishman's roof after the rain, bending my steps again to the pond, my haste to catch pickerel, wading in retired meadows, in sloughs and bog-holes, in forlorn and savage places, appeared for an instant trivial to me who had been sent to school and college; but as I ran down the hill toward the reddening west, with the rainbow over my shoulder, and some faint tinkling sounds borne to my ear through the cleansed air, from I know not what quarter, my Good Genius seemed to say--Go fish and hunt far and wide day by day--farther and wider--and rest thee by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played. Grow wild according to thy nature, like these sedges and brakes, which will never become English hay. Let the thunder rumble; what if it threaten ruin to farmers' crops? That is not its errand to thee. Take shelter under the cloud, while they flee to carts and sheds. Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the land, but own it not. Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling, and spending their lives like serfs.