Reflecting on 2019
Updated: Jan 22, 2020
“The other part of me wanted to get out and stay out, but this was the part I never listened to. Because if I ever had I would have stayed in the town where I was born and worked in the hardware store and married the boss's daughter and had five kids and read them the funny paper on Sunday morning and smacked their heads when they got out of line and squabbled with the wife about how much spending money they were to get and what programs they could have on the radio or TV set. I might even get rich - small-town rich, an eight-room house, two cars in the garage, chicken every Sunday and the Reader's Digest on the living room table, the wife with a cast-iron permanent and me with a brain like a sack of Portland cement.
You take it, friend. I'll take the big sordid dirty crooked city.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
One of my goals for 2019 was to read more for pleasure. I read a lot for work and otherwise spend more time than I like on the internet and I found that returning reading merely for fun was a great way to unwind after my day. This year I read all of Raymond Chandler's novels (I'm getting started on his short stories next) and the above quote really resonated with me.
I've always thought of cities as people with distinct personalities and it has been my curiosity and desire to learn their nuances, rather than fear, that has thus far kept far kept me a step ahead of trouble.