The Overt Hostility of the Parking Lot

The hostile geography Americans interact with every day

The Geography of Everyday Life that we discussed yesterday doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a fluke.

People walk or drive by things every single day and probably never think twice about how what they’re seeing profoundly impacts their life.

It’s so easy for people to dream about living the rest of their life by the beach, opening a bed and breakfast in the countryside, or escaping Trump via Europe.

But that’s all head-in-the-clouds nonsense—until you have a solid understanding of exactly what you’re leaving behind and why it makes logical and psychological sense to leave it behind.

And by solid understanding, I don’t only mean that you sat with yourself, then manifested your desires. I mean that you’ve looked at the concrete elements of where you live that directly influence how you live. Then you sat with them long enough to understand why they matter as much as—if not more than—anything else on your mind.

This is the real value of all this—learning how to make sense of where you live, why it feels the way it does, and whether it’s working for you. That’s what April has been about—and what May will continue to explore—by dissecting the seemingly mundane elements of cities that dictate how life actually feels and functions.