7. Asheville/"hope"

my recent gallops across the internet have landed me on a flicker site belonging to a photographer from Asheville North Carolina. Have you ever been somewhere, or passed through a place and fallen completely in love with everything about it? Troy, Jeremy, and I visited Asheville for one day to see a Smashing Pumpkins concert, and I fell head over heels for the city.

I have several fears about the city:
1. that I am building it up and idolizing it beyond what it could ever have been, and will be disappointed if I ever get to go back
2. that I will never get the chance to go back
3. that, if I get to go back, I will find it changed like so many other places in this country.

anyone who knows me very well (like troy) will think that Asheville is a stupid addition to my 10things list, but the love for the city extends beyond that short visit.

To me, Asheville is proof that this country is not completely lost. there are still places, whole cities where there may be drugs and crime, but people, as a whole, get along, share, love one another, and exist peacefully. The cost of living is low, the scenery is beautiful, people stopped on the streets to say hello, the streets are alive day and night, even the drug addicts and insane people were nice. Its like a whole section of the 60's got trapped in this valley. Its the city of love.

Everything was organic, hand-made, and generally clean and fair-trade. Why cant the rest of the country be so correct and caring? why cant a hamburger in MD have a history? why are hand made clothes in DC or Towson so over-priced? why cant we have organic co-ops instead of massive grocery stores?

Why does the rest of the country have to suck?

I would absolutely love to move there. I am serious. 100% serious. I have never fallen in love with a place. Hell, i've only fallen in love with one person, I didnt think there could be more than that! but Asheville is my second love. Streets full of music, limited walmarts, no fast food downtown, big buildings living peacefully among small cottages and single family homes, all situated cozily between the blue ridge mountains. beautiful.

maybe it would be best to not go back. I can only hope that, regardless of how far the country sinks into despair, Asheville will always be my symbol of how it could be. Hope does exist. so maybe my #7 thing should be labeled "hope". the city is wonderful, but the hope it inspires in me is what i appreciate most.