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Anyone who knows me knows that I'm very sensitive to "place," and all that entails. Whether that comes from having a family that's been in one general area since the 1770's (possibly longer, but the dates on the tombstones older than that have worn off and we can't be sure), or what I don't know, but I do know that I belong to my city.
Anyone who knows that city also knows that it has a very well-developed "genius loci" -- a spirit of place. Well-developed to the point that if it wished, it could walk up and have a chat with you, although which face it might wear is a mystery. There's a statue in the middle of town of a little girl drinking from a water fountain, and when most people try to picture the genius loci of Asheville, that's what they picture. A little girl.
That all changed the moment July clicked over into August. I remember it because I'd been feeling a strange sensation that something big was coming for the last couple of weeks of July. I felt that something big would change in my private, personal life, and something big would change in my community. I was right about the personal life in that I gained a boyfriend and that my parents both ended up in the hospital.
But what about the community? How is it supposed to change? I had wondered, but as time is passing, I get a stronger and stronger feeling that something is going to happen here that will cause it to grow explosively. The feeling I get is that in the immediate aftermath of whatever it is, Asheville will swell to four times its current size of about 80,000 people. In the longer term it will settle at about eight times that amount. I can see nations from around the world clamoring to establish consulates -- for some reason Thailand and France seem give me the strongest impression. I can see some of the roads -- particularly the ones that are currently given over to low-rise suburban commercial development -- becoming urban spines lined with skyscrapers. I can basically see us here getting much, much larger and much, much more diverse, and a city on the lips of everyone around the world.
Why though? And what is this feeling? Why won't it go away? It's only getting stronger, in fact, and what's more -- I can't see that little girl anymore. No one can. Everyone I've asked, and everyone agrees that little girl was how they saw this city personified, now says they see what I see -- a warrior in red robes standing on a flaming wheel, a sword in each hand.
I try not to think about it, because it freaks me out in the extreme. However, I've read some of the recent threads on here about ghosts in the workplace and whatnot, and I've known for a long time that this is an accepting community of people who have a lot of experience with the weird. Hell, I've got a lot of experience with the weird, but this is new.
Any thoughts?
Anyone who knows that city also knows that it has a very well-developed "genius loci" -- a spirit of place. Well-developed to the point that if it wished, it could walk up and have a chat with you, although which face it might wear is a mystery. There's a statue in the middle of town of a little girl drinking from a water fountain, and when most people try to picture the genius loci of Asheville, that's what they picture. A little girl.
That all changed the moment July clicked over into August. I remember it because I'd been feeling a strange sensation that something big was coming for the last couple of weeks of July. I felt that something big would change in my private, personal life, and something big would change in my community. I was right about the personal life in that I gained a boyfriend and that my parents both ended up in the hospital.
But what about the community? How is it supposed to change? I had wondered, but as time is passing, I get a stronger and stronger feeling that something is going to happen here that will cause it to grow explosively. The feeling I get is that in the immediate aftermath of whatever it is, Asheville will swell to four times its current size of about 80,000 people. In the longer term it will settle at about eight times that amount. I can see nations from around the world clamoring to establish consulates -- for some reason Thailand and France seem give me the strongest impression. I can see some of the roads -- particularly the ones that are currently given over to low-rise suburban commercial development -- becoming urban spines lined with skyscrapers. I can basically see us here getting much, much larger and much, much more diverse, and a city on the lips of everyone around the world.
Why though? And what is this feeling? Why won't it go away? It's only getting stronger, in fact, and what's more -- I can't see that little girl anymore. No one can. Everyone I've asked, and everyone agrees that little girl was how they saw this city personified, now says they see what I see -- a warrior in red robes standing on a flaming wheel, a sword in each hand.
I try not to think about it, because it freaks me out in the extreme. However, I've read some of the recent threads on here about ghosts in the workplace and whatnot, and I've known for a long time that this is an accepting community of people who have a lot of experience with the weird. Hell, I've got a lot of experience with the weird, but this is new.
Any thoughts?
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