Reel It In

Cities of the future are hard to imagine. Actually, not really. We had the Jetsons and Back to the Future Part 2 to help us think of what cities might be like years from now. It’s interesting to see some of the similarities between what was envisioned then and what we have now. I don’t know. I’m guessing there’s going to be more features enhanced by technology. But I don’t know what those features will be.

However, I do know that cities are made up of people. If they weren’t, they would simply be called ghost towns instead. Given that, my design for a futuristic city is less of a design and more of a wish. As citizens of whatever city we live in or near, can we please just be nicer to each other? If being nice is too difficult, how about respect? Can we just respect people enough to stay out of their way if we’re not feeling the niceness flowing through us? Seriously. I see so much on the news related to my city and a lot of it involves road rage incidents, altercations at the mall, and shootings in public gatherings. I feel like all of that could be avoided if we’re either nice or respectful of others.

I’m not saying we need to turn back the clock and live all “Leave it to Beaver” style. We’re not all going to get along. We will disagree with one another. It’s inevitable. But let’s work on keeping our impatience in check so things don’t get out of hand.

That’s it. In the future, let’s just reel in our emotions a little bit when it comes to interacting with others with whom we disagree. Also, if you could stop running red lights, that’d be great too. One of the pastors at my old church, when he first moved to my city, he observed that yellow lights mean go faster, and red lights mean three more cars. He wasn’t wrong.