Last week, my wife and I spent a few days in Seattle, WA. My first real visit to the city; part business, part vacation. We were able to see the final project of Joe Sparano (now a Master of Design) at the U-Dub. I reconnected with a TEDActive friend to talk design, foundations, and film. We hit up the EMP (Nirvana exhibition!), went to the top of the Space Needle, strolled through Pike Place, wandered around the Central Public Library, and ferried to Bainbridge Island. And, of course, we toured the new KEXP.
Seattle is quite a city. It was unusually sunny and 70+ the whole time, which was lovely. And the pulse was undeniable. We walked all over downtown, jumped on the light rail, and took Uber when needed. We enjoyed some truly amazing restaurants and had plenty of fine drink. We got a sense of the challenges; a city in flux, large crane development seemingly everywhere we looked, the slow rumble of heavy traffic, and a sizable homeless population. Mostly, we felt the creativity, the vibrancy, and the possibility.
There’s a rattle and hum that bigger cities have. It makes them great and it makes them vulnerable, at the same time. All sorts of people colliding into each other trying to make their way, to make their mark, in whatever way they know. The musician, the construction worker, the waitress, the tour guide, the fisherman, the student. All doing what they do. Rattle and hum, struggle and dream, create and evolve. We can’t stay put, and so we don’t, on a large scale, under clouds on top of concrete. What comes next is anybody’s guess.
