City/relations
Being in a relationship in a city is… fun. There is something about how much we interact with our environment and people around us. When using public transportation a couple is in their own world (giggling, or talking, or holding hands — whatever it is a couple does) yet they are forced to be in someone else’s presence. Especially in Seattle where many of the marginalized people are more aggressive/loud/less hidden, we are never “by ourselves.”
I’ve always loved how much I titter totter between being in my own little world and interacting with others when I am traveling. Whether I am flying across the country or taking the bus from Belltown to Holly Park, I am this stranger to so many people. Innocuous, silent, smiling, an image of who I might actually be. Maybe I’m thinking about how half an hour ago I was just waking up with someone (and how much I love morning rituals of getting up, sloughing off the night skin, hastily making breakfast, rooms subtly gaining light and warmth, and how warm our bodies are after hours under a comforter). Or maybe I’m coming up with stories. Or perhaps I’m making an internal to-do list. Either way, I love how travel makes me a stranger especially after I just spent time with someone I am getting to know, more and more.
Does everyone feel this way, if they are in a relationship in a city? Playing between the world of strangers on the street, enveloped with in your own world, and feeling like there’s at least one person in this city who you know, and who might know you.
