Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Folks who talk about leaving Richmond.....

For a while now I have been hearing folks talk about how leaving Richmond for various reasons. "Richmond is so boring", "Richmond is so backwards" and etc. are some of the complaints out there. It's funny because many of these complaints I hear from folks who moved here from up North.

As a jazz musician, I used to think like "Oh, Richmond's jazz scene is so terrible that I'm gonna move far way" (the jazz scene is actually not anything to do backflips about, but that's another subject.) The first time I traveled up North was sometime in 2006 when I went with a friend to Michigan. It was also my first time in a plane and the flight was cool. But what was interesting was that the general mentality among the folks I ran into in Michigan was basically apathetic. I discovered a phrase during my trip, known as "cold Northern hospitality."

But

in hindsight I realized that me ridiculing Northerners of being a certain way that I wasn't accustomed to was no different than folks who put Richmonders down as being what Northerners are not. Yes I'm aware that Richmond is the capital of the Confederacy and has been less than kind to the ancestors of those of us of a certain hue. And that Richmond is usually up there with larger cities when it comes to high crime rates. But every city has its issues, and the North was the first to have housing projects...

I still think Richmond is slow when it comes to many things, but I learned to use the negative aspects of this city as something to learn from. It's like a mirror; you don't have all this hustling and rat-racing like New York or Detroit to distract you from seeing your own flaws. Maybe all the complaining is from folks who seek external stimulation instead of focusing on the self. It's as if The Nile (Denial) has replaced The James in Richmond (that sounds corny, but the point should be clear......)

0 comments: