On cities.

Driving home from work today, I thought about all the reasons that I want my kids to grow up in an urban environment. I didn't really grow up in one, but I spent my most formative years in the city of all cities - New York City, of course, and somehow seem to have permanently fallen in love with the idea of The City. Why the city, one might ask, when you have two small kids? Don't you want bigger spaces, clean strip malls, neatly manicured neighborhoods of houses that all look the same?

I really don't, to be honest. There is something about living in places where everything looks the same that makes me feel really uninterested and uninspired. I love the mix of things that you find in cities - varied architecture, hole-in-the-wall ethnic food, hipster bodegas, people of all different backgrounds and corners of the world. Maybe it's idealistic of me to think that all those things can still go together well while raising a family, but I think it's possible here, and I believe God loves cities and all of the diversity that makes them up. 

After all, Jesus wept for Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) - not for the suburbs. Cities can be broken and sinful, but they need salt and light. That's our highest calling. 

End Day 8.