Mega City Blues

Two years ago, I spent my 42nd birthday buzzing around DFW while my wife worked a day shift at a local hospital. As I sat in the newly opened Riverfront Cafe (an overpriced and pretentious little restaurant where the food was merely okay) It occurred to me how many men and women must don safety gear each day and dig holes, small and great, in order to keep 'civilization' civilized. 

I have no idea what these two men were digging toward, replacement, repair or removal, but it was something needed. That's always going to be the truth of huge cities. For more than a century, the human population has been streaming from our agricultural roots to settle, work and die while crammed in next to our neighbors at home, work, recreation... even our commutes are challenges of crowding. There really doesn't seem to be any benefit to existing this way except convenience and money. Everything is close and we can make a lot of money. The irony is that neither of these is necessary. The idea of more more more isn't beneficial for the human condition. We are designed to work enough to provide for ourselves and enjoy creation and the creator with the rest of our existence. How odd that life today seems so normal. For thousands of years, the minority lived in metropolises while everyone else did just fine. Maybe we would still be fine if we got away from the hustle and bustle of the machine that swallows us all, but only benefits a few.