Don’t Worry. [this city] is awesome

Contemplations on appreciating the places where we are.

Far too often the people who call any given city ‘home’ can get tired of it. They begin to take many elements of their city for granted, become apathetic to everything that’s currently happening (or not happening) and many times they can easily transform into pessimists regarding the future of their city.

While the stupidity of some ‘leaders’ in a city, or the constant reporting of negative news by the mainstream media are sometimes at fault, there truthfully isn’t any single person or source to blame for the changing attitudes about our cities. Over time people get exhausted, feelings change and the lustre of things, including those associated with a given city, can disappear.

Just like an individual working through their own personal problems, sometimes all that’s needed is a reminder from a good friend that things aren’t as bad as they seem. A smile from a stranger, a short note from a friend or a fresh perspective on an age-old problem is sometimes all it takes to change attitudes, perspectives and energy levels.

This isn’t any different when it comes to a city.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that our cities are our homes, for better or worse, and that they have more positives to provide us than negatives, regardless of what some pessimists would have us believe. It needn’t be much, just something to let us know that everything is OK.

What if we took the time to address some of the negative, pessimistic, shameful and exhausting feelings that are far too common among people and places across our cities? What if we reminded our fellow residents of all the great things the places we call home have to offer? What if instead of people only seeing the less-than-stellar parts of our cities we provided them with messages of optimism, reminding them that everything will be ok?

What can we do, as everyday citizens, to re-inspire and re-energize all of the people who make the cities we live in great places to be?

What can we do to reaffirm the idea that the things that currently aren’t great will get better and that our cities, are in fact, awesome?