The city of perfect love and trust
by Sandy Ikeda
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 at 12:53 PM
I found this passage in Mark Helprin's "A Soldier of the Great War," about an old man recounting his youth, very moving — and true. It mentions Rome, but it could about be any great city.
Though he knew it was not true, he felt that in Rome someone would be waiting for him. Perhaps it was because the magic of cities is that they provide the illusion of love and family even for those with neither. Lights, the business of the streets, the very buildings close together, the interminable variety and depth, serve to draw lonely people in, and no matter what they know, they still feel in their heart of hearts that someone is waiting to embrace them in perfect love and trust.
The 24-hour dynamism of a vibrant city, the density and diversity of its intricate street life, attract those who, undeterred by its radical uncertainty, seek contact and contacts, but also the privacy of anonymity among countless strangers — perfectible with the perfection of trust.
And having glimpsed the familiar stranger who awaits them there, the one they hope in time to become (though she's never quite what they think she is), they leap to embrace her, which is the perfection of love.
Life is the business of cities.
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