A walking tour of a new city is one of the best ways to get to know it.  You start out in the morning, leaving your luxury hotel in Indianapolis, and there’s time, there’s a lot of time to do the things you promised yourself.  When it’s just you alone in the city, there’s no one between you and the experience you’re having.  You get used to traveling with people, so you have to put something between yourself and the moment, so you usually fill it up with all of your contexts.  Getting to know a city is a way to get to know your own contexts.

You might start out by looking at the windows of coffee shops, to see what windows remind you of other places you’ve been.  When you get comfortable, you might start to look in the windows, and eventually this will lead to choosing one.  It might be the one that you love the most from your own city, or from another city you’ve been where you had a nice time and felt like you were able to relax.  You’re in the cafe, then, and you decide to have what you usually do, except a little bit better, perhaps, and perhaps something sweet to eat, just because it’s a special occasion.

Already, by this time, you’ve begun to see faces in the city, and there’s a peculiar thing that happens in the new city.  At first, you see people you think you know, but then after awhile you see people that resemble the people you know.  The resemblances are not as coincidental or random as you might hope, and there’s an uncanny sense that these people are alternative versions of the people you know.  While you’re having your coffee and someone is telling you about another coffee shop down the street that has art, you’re thinking that every city has alternative versions of your own life.  As if you’re telling yourself that this is the life you would have here if you lived here.  It’s making sense in a way that’s uncomfortable, because you suddenly realize that you’re plotting your next move in the world, and it might be here.

Walking in Indianapolis is a post from: LostHawk

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My friend called a few hours ago. She was telling me she was just in a car accident. It was not real bad, she said there was virtually no major damage to either car just some scraped paint. How ever she did say she was shaken up a little physically and emotionally. I suggested she come over and get in my hot tub and soak. She said she didn’t feel like coming over and didn’t really see a point in it. She was going to take aspirin and lay down. I told her that soaking in hottubs is very therapeutic. I told her that the hot water and the actions of the jets relieve muscle stress and strain. I told her that the increased circulation of the blood stream and the massaging action of the water jets aid greatly in the release and elimination of toxins from the body. All this would be beneficial for her right now. I tried to connivance her that soaking now before she got stiff from the accident and her joints became sore she might head it all off at the pass and avoid a major portion of the discomfort she is likely to experience from the accident. She was still resistant but began to think about it I could tell. So she said she was needed to go lay down and she would call latter.

Well now she got up from her nap and called me, she said that after sleeping for an hour and a half that she could feel her neck stiffening up and wondered if the offer to use my hot tub was still on. I said of course it is and come on over as soon as you would like, I get the tub fired up.

Now she is here and soaking in the tub. After only a few minutes in the tub she said she could already feel the tension in her neck releasing and loosening up. I am glad she is using the tub. I know she won’t be sorry.

Convincing my friend to use the hot tub is a post from: LostHawk

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