Kevin McCall Honors 100 city

The definition of city, in this case, is not a locale. Its locale is anywhere and everywhere that people are, regardless of race, economic status, and populace. It varies and moves with the people; its not constant, its always changing, always adapting, always surviving. All of the givens of a city are taken except for one. A universal mindset. This city is one in which its web of influence is not of any single form. The relationships between the city and its people are so unconscious and symbiotic that few, if any, feel the need to take a look at it at all, much less analyze and decipher. The only people who do this are those who are outside of it. They evaluate based on their city: their citys consistency of everything from location to spare thoughts. The people who criticize come from the outside, quoting efficiency, rules, definitions, theories, laws, proof, facts, evidence, anything they can to justify that this city is not a city at all, but chaos. On the contrary, it is more a city than even its inhabitants would dare say. Why? Its inconsistency is merely the method to the madness. A cover, for what lies truly within. Those who live within these citys walls have not found themselves observing the phenomena of what is within, but a part of what it is. Those from the outside look in, confused, bewildered at the sight of what the outsiders call chaos. Those who step in, however, never return. They may back away, shocked in the horror of the way things are, but no matter how far they run, no matter what they do physically, their brains are changed forever, and will unconsciously incorporate that which they experienced into each new locale they inhabit. And this is how it spreads. The city is moving; a spore cluster, waiting for an outsider to take up those spores and spread them throughout the world. It occupies, it links, it associates, it becomes. It is getting bigger, working harder, doing better than ever before, as each outsider who identifies the need to enter the system to bring it down becomes its host, spreading its infection throughout the world; throughout humanity. Racing throughout the globe, its tendencies, its needs, its desires, its takeover is beautiful. Stunning the world with its contagiousness, it transcends all forms of technological advancement, and leaps in human thought. Like the portrayal of the zombie apocalypse, instead of spreading horror, rage, and violence, Spreading life and love. This city is not defined by physical bounds; no location, or way of connecting them, will stop the spread of it. The only thing that defines it is people, because that is the city. The web, connecting all individuals together in ways of understanding, knowledge, and creativity, is the city. Its borders are the bonds shared between its members. Its method is that of the human

condition, its madness the bonding of the fragments that make mankind human. Most importantly, its rallying point lies not in a name. No sign or symbol represents it. It has no name; it has no accepted stereotype as to what it is. Its rallying point, is the people within it. And thus the beauty has spread, and will.