Beauty match of the leading U.S. cities
Since I've arrived on this blustery peninsula, I feel I have heard more about references to Boston than while living in Massachusetts. In fact this sister city commands a solid esteem in the minds of Bay Area residents. A lot has been written about the similarities. For instance...
NEW YORK CITY - FIRE
Whenever you find big personalities, bright lights, passion, aggression, theater and unexpected warmth you'll know you've entered a place of fire. New York is SF's favorite "other" U.S. city with Boston a close second and Seattle nabbing the bronze. For international cities, Amsterdam is the capital of hedonism to which San Francisco finds kinship. This is especially true in "420" circles.
But New York, where do you begin? It's the only major U.S. city that has a higher population density than SF (27,243 and 17,179 per square mile, respectively). Its theatre scene and brassiness are unrivaled and the lights of Times Square emit a ton of light and heat. Oftentimes, places of fire are aligned with the sun in the south. Miami and L.A. are also places of fire and are also known to have the country's most aggressive drivers. Fire places can have major breakdowns with the social contract (think the Watts riots, NYC during the blackout of 1977 and the continuing level of violence in Miami).
SEATTLE - WATER
No matter how often they want to shake off the reputation, Seattle will always be known as a place of water-logged emotion best expressed through music. Having lived in Olympia in the late 90's, I feel I have a lot of authority in naming the watery ways of Western Washington. Kurt Cobain is arguably the most famous Seattlite in the world. He grew up as a lonely kid in the depressed logging town of Aberdeen before his music started to flourish in Oly and Seattle. Cobain was an astonishing quadruple Pisces with an additional four planets spread over the other water signs. Grunge or Alternative Rock blew the emotions "out of the water" and Nirvana's freshman album, Nevermind, essentially ended the reign of new wave and the go-go pop and r'n'b of the early 90's. Any place of water is bound to be a bit shy, sensitive, artsy and beautiful. Provincetown, even with its boisterous summers, is still a place of water (and I actually suspect Minneapolis belongs in this club). The physical beauty of Seattle is unparalleled and is a prime example of the physical elements matching the elemental ones.
SAN FRANCISCO - AIR
See previous posts.
BOSTON - EARTH
This is the city that Edward Glaeser in "Triumph of the City" proves has reinvented itself *several* times for its own survival, from a center of trade for the West Indies, to shipbuilding, to a nexus of industrial factories in textiles to a nucleus of health care, science and technology. Whereas San Francisco encourages reinvention for individual enjoyment (a new friend recently said "In San Francisco, you can reinvent yourself every three weeks and nobody will care"), Boston focuses on reinvention for the purpose of business and prosperity and, once again, for survival. The best thing about the city, the thing I miss the most is the wonderful sense of humor of nearly *all* who are from there or have lived there for a while. I like that it can be mocking, animated, self-deprecating, warm. Humor is the relief valve for the seriousness that places of Earth carry the other 90% of the time. Places of earth emphasize function and class and in many ways Boston is a shining example of a city that works very well on many fronts (i.e. health care, transportation, civil rights, economic equality, etc.).
Not all places are pure in terms of their elements. SF has a bit of fire itself and Boston definitely has a touch of air with its emphasis on ideas and higher education.
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As for my life, things continue at a quick pace. Working during the day has done wonders for my mental health and my boss feels I'm right on the cusp of high-function. She asked that I be more inquisitive and truthfully, it's much easier for me to view and understand things from 1,000 to 30,000 feet up. It's the only way I can grasp context.
For fun, I've done a bit of hiking and dancing and met some wonderful guys and made some new friends. I'm actually hoping to hang with more women. As for earth activities, I recently joined a gym and signed up for a CSA share. CSA stands for community-supported-agriculture. One of the oldest, organic farms is going to ship me a 10 lb. box of fruits and vegetables every Thursday for $31.00 per week. My gym membership to 24-Hour Fitness costs $30 per month. There's so much I still want to do here and my motivation far exceeds my energy level. Allergies here are kicking my ass but have let up in the last 24 hours. I'm still resisting certain corners of spiritual development here and my sense of control has me over a barrel. So I'm really praying for willingness. I just don't want to find myself in a position again of people trying to tell me how to live my life like what happened in December of 2011. Perhaps I'm just a person of fire living in a place of air. My blood sometimes flows with rebellion. Let me have access to whichever element the situation warrants.
- Both are the brainier, smaller siblings to their fiery coastal counterparts (i.e. NYC and LA),
- Both utilize light rail or trams (i.e. the four green lines in Boston and the six streetcar lines of SF)
- The Bay Area has Stanford, Berkeley and UCSF and the Bay State has Harvard, MIT, Amherst and like 100 different colleges.
- Both have spearheaded various movements of a similar vein. Think about everything from the Transcendentalists/Fireside poets or what Poe disparaged as Frogpondia to the Beat Movement in San Francisco's North Beach and Chinatown. For psychedelia, you can thank Timothy Leary's research at Harvard and the early Grateful Dead parties. Sexual liberation is another huge area of crossover.
- Both are by-the-water and feature wonderful seafood.
NEW YORK CITY - FIRE
Whenever you find big personalities, bright lights, passion, aggression, theater and unexpected warmth you'll know you've entered a place of fire. New York is SF's favorite "other" U.S. city with Boston a close second and Seattle nabbing the bronze. For international cities, Amsterdam is the capital of hedonism to which San Francisco finds kinship. This is especially true in "420" circles.
But New York, where do you begin? It's the only major U.S. city that has a higher population density than SF (27,243 and 17,179 per square mile, respectively). Its theatre scene and brassiness are unrivaled and the lights of Times Square emit a ton of light and heat. Oftentimes, places of fire are aligned with the sun in the south. Miami and L.A. are also places of fire and are also known to have the country's most aggressive drivers. Fire places can have major breakdowns with the social contract (think the Watts riots, NYC during the blackout of 1977 and the continuing level of violence in Miami).
SEATTLE - WATER
No matter how often they want to shake off the reputation, Seattle will always be known as a place of water-logged emotion best expressed through music. Having lived in Olympia in the late 90's, I feel I have a lot of authority in naming the watery ways of Western Washington. Kurt Cobain is arguably the most famous Seattlite in the world. He grew up as a lonely kid in the depressed logging town of Aberdeen before his music started to flourish in Oly and Seattle. Cobain was an astonishing quadruple Pisces with an additional four planets spread over the other water signs. Grunge or Alternative Rock blew the emotions "out of the water" and Nirvana's freshman album, Nevermind, essentially ended the reign of new wave and the go-go pop and r'n'b of the early 90's. Any place of water is bound to be a bit shy, sensitive, artsy and beautiful. Provincetown, even with its boisterous summers, is still a place of water (and I actually suspect Minneapolis belongs in this club). The physical beauty of Seattle is unparalleled and is a prime example of the physical elements matching the elemental ones.
SAN FRANCISCO - AIR
See previous posts.
BOSTON - EARTH
This is the city that Edward Glaeser in "Triumph of the City" proves has reinvented itself *several* times for its own survival, from a center of trade for the West Indies, to shipbuilding, to a nexus of industrial factories in textiles to a nucleus of health care, science and technology. Whereas San Francisco encourages reinvention for individual enjoyment (a new friend recently said "In San Francisco, you can reinvent yourself every three weeks and nobody will care"), Boston focuses on reinvention for the purpose of business and prosperity and, once again, for survival. The best thing about the city, the thing I miss the most is the wonderful sense of humor of nearly *all* who are from there or have lived there for a while. I like that it can be mocking, animated, self-deprecating, warm. Humor is the relief valve for the seriousness that places of Earth carry the other 90% of the time. Places of earth emphasize function and class and in many ways Boston is a shining example of a city that works very well on many fronts (i.e. health care, transportation, civil rights, economic equality, etc.).
Not all places are pure in terms of their elements. SF has a bit of fire itself and Boston definitely has a touch of air with its emphasis on ideas and higher education.
------------
As for my life, things continue at a quick pace. Working during the day has done wonders for my mental health and my boss feels I'm right on the cusp of high-function. She asked that I be more inquisitive and truthfully, it's much easier for me to view and understand things from 1,000 to 30,000 feet up. It's the only way I can grasp context.
For fun, I've done a bit of hiking and dancing and met some wonderful guys and made some new friends. I'm actually hoping to hang with more women. As for earth activities, I recently joined a gym and signed up for a CSA share. CSA stands for community-supported-agriculture. One of the oldest, organic farms is going to ship me a 10 lb. box of fruits and vegetables every Thursday for $31.00 per week. My gym membership to 24-Hour Fitness costs $30 per month. There's so much I still want to do here and my motivation far exceeds my energy level. Allergies here are kicking my ass but have let up in the last 24 hours. I'm still resisting certain corners of spiritual development here and my sense of control has me over a barrel. So I'm really praying for willingness. I just don't want to find myself in a position again of people trying to tell me how to live my life like what happened in December of 2011. Perhaps I'm just a person of fire living in a place of air. My blood sometimes flows with rebellion. Let me have access to whichever element the situation warrants.
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