Did we trade third places for the second dimension? The buildings are still intact, but most man-made settings exist as apparitions do. Social experiences are merely cardboard cutouts of their previous iterations. Have you ever been to Centralia? An underground coal fire going on for decades, pushing residents out of the town. The surrounding areas are still busy and roads remain congested. Immense rushing encircling the emptiness from constant invisible destruction. That’s a lot like society. Crowded, lonely liminal beauty hiding something sinister beneath it.
Such spaces mirror our connection to one another, and this is what decorates our depictions of existence. Life is like walking through a closed down mall, like trying to find a park with reasonable seating. It could instead be like having a good laugh with your waitress, or receiving unique book suggestions from a happy bookstore owner. Beauty not derived from frustration, nor conversation from gossip. Instead, both supplied by honest camaraderie.
It’s easy to get lost, and hard to find the true public square in such a hypernormalized world. I’d like to go to the square, or circle, or whatever it is at this point…I have something to say. Maybe people will throw rocks at me, but at least I will know the weight of my words there. You have something to say too. I know there are ears who want to hear it, but they’re preoccupied with trying to get through the hurdles between interactions.
Maybe, instead, we could take many people to a good place. Where time stands still and space widens for meaningful yet painless socialization. A place to ask others “Will you sing the calling to rebuild reality, or will you hear the deafening silence of the Ghost World, where no one speaks because there is nowhere left to listen?”
