The art of chaos

I realize it has been a while since I wrote to you last. "A while" being a week. Sorry about that. I have been preoccupied with lavishing my precious Everly with love. Her piercing giggles are quite distracting.

I have always had an ever-present fascination with cities. The ringing honks. The crazy street performers. The fast-paced life of a place that never takes a breather. Also known as CHAOS. Along with rain, this is somewhat of a lullaby for me. This might be because I have grown up in a town where the most noise you will hear in one night is the occasional passing of a F-18 Hornet. ( I don't really know what that is, I had to ask my dad. But I know that it is a jet that rattles the windows every time it chooses to make an appearance.) Or maybe because I grew up in a house where anybody and everybody played some sort of instrument therefore there was always noise. I'm not really sure of the root of my obsession with noise. But it is definitely there. My mom could vouch for this. She is constantly flustered by my need for music at all times. Yes, that includes studying. 

 I have watched hundreds of movies and looked at thousands of pictures in my 17 short years of life. The most appealing of these have been the ones that included epic chase scenes throughout the many mazes of skyscrapers in this world or the complicated portrait of a well-known skyline. Why? Besides the fact that scenes such as these usually involve a muscular, heroic, and always fine specimen, it is the constant movement that draws my attention. 

There is a particular art in all of this. There is an art in chaos. According to www.dictionary.com, art is "the application or expression of human creative skill or imagination". Some of you may be wondering who, what, when, where, why, and how this applies to chaos. But just think about it for a moment. An ambulance passes, you imagine where it is headed and to what kind of accident it is reporting to. You see an eclectic street performer showcasing his/her best talents for all to see, and you imagine where they are from and what their story is. You notice a stranger wearing what looks like shredded fabric that has been dipped in mud crouched beside a newspaper stand holding a tin can, and you attempt to imagine what occurred in their life to put them in such a predicament as that. Notice I used the word "imagine". I did that on purpose.

In this case, MY definition of art would be "the application of human imagination". And all of these things require you to fill in the blanks using your own imagination, then apply it to the current situation. Ta da! You have art! Each street sign, each taxi license plate, each crushed can on the sidewalk, each angry customer yelling at a business owner, each frantic business man running to his next meeting, each screaming baby is a different colored stroke on the broad canvas that makes up the hustle and bustle.  It all contributes to the authentic setting of the city. You will not go anywhere else in the world and experience the same sort of chaos as Manhattan. Boston. Chicago. Bucharest. Brasov. Amsterdam. Seattle. Los Angeles. To each their own. That is what makes these places so wondrous in my blue eyes. 

 

I wish I could say that I have checked every single one of those intriguing destinations off of my bucket list. (Although I have been to Amsterdam, Bucharest, and Brasov. After all, the picture above was taken by yours truly in an alley in Brasov. One of my absolute favorite places on this planet. That is a story for another time.) But let's face it, I am in love with people I have never met and cities I have never been to. And I look forward to being in awe of, enamored with, and infatuated by the many masterpieces this world has to offer.