Professional Documents
Culture Documents
While there are certainly some people whose primary reason for living
in cities is to reduce commute time to the office or to maximize the
amount of “face time” with their managers or executives to increase
their likelihood of career progression, this represents a very narrow
understanding of why people from a diverse set of backgrounds live in
cities. Also, it’s easy to focus on simplistic differences in amenities or
lifestyle when attempting to differentiate living in cities compared to
suburban or rural settings.
A lively street in Montreal, Canada
I’ve thought about writing on this topic for a while. I wrote a post along
these lines about public education a few years ago. I thought about
writing this from the perspective of a Christian moral obligation to
engage with society, but I think there’s clearly a compelling motivation
to fully engage in city life and feel a sense of purpose or mission,
regardless of whether that’s tied to religion. I hope I can write these
posts in a way that doesn’t come across as judgmental but as sincere
invitations to fully experience what living in the city could be. I also
admit I am far from the perfect example of what it means to fully
engage with life in the city, but as someone who was born and raised in
a large city and lived in a number of different cities through my 20s as
a single adult and in my 30s and 40s as a parent to two children, I’d
like to think I have thoughts worth sharing. Thanks for reading so far
and I hope it won’t be long before I find time to write again.