urban texture

no poem for this one. any more angst and i might have to dye my hair black and get a few more piercings..

there are many levels of texture. brick, light, metal.. these things are superficial textures. sure, they are important to urban life; they make up the buildings, roads, and various other things we use on the day to day basis. but texture means more than a worn-down building or a rough pipe.

in urban life, the greatest texture is the texture of human variety.

backgrounds and cultures play a big role in the culture of cities. as students of a predominantly white school in a predominantly black city, my fellow classmates and i unfortunately encounter many of the worse aspects of this diversity - the tensions in race relations and the underlying unequal distribution of wealth that is unfortunately particularly prominent in urban societies (particularly in the "western" developed nations).

however, we also experience the good. we make friends with people from all areas of the world, learn about the variety of heritages and cultures, become comfortable with other forms of living, and altogether have good times (the most important thing of all).

this photo is a small collection of some of my friends, during the commercials of an episode of the office (best show ever). we watch the same tv shows, take the same classes, and share many of the same goals, but we don't all look the same, and we don't all come from the same background or view. our ability to share and yet be different is the beauty of human relations. simultaneous commonality and variety together are the pinnacle of urban texture.