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04/23/2005: "So There We Were"

I'd promised the college kid at the office I'd help him with his English assignment, so we met at the internet café on the corner after work.

After we'd been working awhile, I looked around at the polyglot hubbub of the coffeehouse and started to laugh. The kid looked puzzled, so I explained:

"So here we are--a young Iraqi-Armenian and a middle-aged Argentine Jew, sitting in a Mexican coffeehouse in Los Angeles, discussing Shakespeare!"

And he laughed too. Because we hadn't given it a second thought till then.

And isn't this, in our heart of hearts, after the bills have been paid and the shows have been seen, really what cities are about, isn't it? Moments like this one, or the one earlier that morning at the same coffeehouse, where I butted into a conversation another customer was having about New York, and all three of us ended up sitting together outside to finish our lattes, and a biker from the next table joined in the talk, and we all had good laughs and fine fellowship till it was finally time to head our separate ways to work.

This is where not just ideas and information but our very feelings hybridize and grow to fit the universe. For social animals like us, the city is the true home of the soul.

Richard Risemberg, on 04.23.05 @ 09:35PST