“It is our physical environment, not ourselves, that determines who we really are”
Sitting in the loft, she saw the city as it truly was- a bleak, urban melting pot of the coffee and shopping culture. There was no sense of freedom in this town of caffeine junkies and “professional shoppers,” instead it was replaced with the promise of freedom, sold in compact packages which instead of delivering release, trapped the consumer in a series of empty dreams.
This city couldn’t be more different from her home. The world where she matured, grew up, was her safe place, her sanctuary. She knew what true freedom was through that world, the world with no boundaries, where the muddy blues of the swampland and the vibrant reds of the birds, mixed together to create a landscape that was forever moving, whispering secrets constantly, always changing. This was freedom- to sit on the balcony in the early evening and hear the bird songs, to see the orange sun setting in the background and to feel the cool touch of mist on her warm body. She had known this her entire life, growing up where she did, how could she not know what freedom was?
Not like the sheep that she watched from the loft. Freedom was an alien concept to them- their lifestyle commanded a rigid schedule, constant scrambling from the office to the gym to Starbucks to the office again and then back to the apartment for a calorie conscious meal and exactly 8 hours of sleep. This landscape too was constantly moving, but she noticed that the movement was different. It was mechanic. There was no artistic merging of the colours. It was grey, constantly. The business suits matched the buildings which matched the roads, which matched the skin of the men who never saw the sun which was hidden behind thick, grey clouds of smog. The greyness consumed the consumer, never changing.
But what was she expecting? The sheep grew up in this world of grey- how could they know the true freedom that she knew? They were indoctrinated to believe the lies of the shrink-wrapped escapism that was offered as just another product, how could they not buy into it? This landscape, if she could even call it that, had so shaped these pitiful sheep into what they were now. While she had spent her childhood imagining adventures and exploring the wetlands these sheep had watched adventures on the TV, and explored the fashion magazines of their mothers. While she had developed a sophisticated connection with the land they had developed a superficial knowledge that ‘blue and green should never be seen.’ This was captivity- sitting on the loft, hearing the abusive car horns, seeing the traffic crawl slowly, feeling the heat of the day captive under the oppressive layer of smog.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Lucky” she murmured. From now on, she would always move on these two levels. Aware of both the pitiful landscape which had shaped these people into the sheep she saw before her and of the sanctuary which had taught her of freedom and shaped her into what she was. “Lucky” she murmured again, falling asleep and revisiting the world of her past as the bleak sunlight filtered through the smog unrecognized by those below.
~
I'm well aware that it's too short but generally that isn't a problem. Today I just ran out of time, I had to go to a study session before my 50 mins was up.
Home
Help
Search
Login
