Urban Freedom

When we talked about Banks' short story "Snowbirds" today, we touched very briefly on the idea of finding freedom in urban and rural environments. In the story, Jane is intrigued by what Miami begins to represent: escape from a small town, escape from the cold, and escape from a somewhat confined life with her husband. Miami is warm, vibrant, and full of people who could represent a new start--it is easy to connect this image of the city with a kind of freedom. When I think of big cities like NYC or San Francisco, I have an image of walking down a busy sidewalk of faceless people. Everyone has places to go, people to see, and the hundreds and thousands of people surrounding me really don't care about me. Although in some ways that is a very lonely image, the anonymity made possible by urban life does allow a person to invent and reinvent themself as whoever they choose to be. Small, rural communities in the Adirondacks (or anywhere, really) bring a sort of forced openness, without much room for social exploration. In a town where everyone knows everyone else, there is less wiggle room for meeting new people and trying new things. In that sense, small towns can be restrictive as opposed to the freedom of anonymity in urban settings. "Freedom" in the Adirondacks is in a whole different category: it is freedom from overstimulating lights and sounds, freedom from constant human interaction, and freedom to travel the land without direction. Maybe these two types of freedom are desired by two different types of people, in which case everyone can live in a place that does not feel restrictive. More likely, I think, is that everyone needs an outlet: a place to reinvent oneself and meet different people, and a place to explore without the endless stimulation of media and technology. Is there a way to bring these two things together?