We are buying an apartment and leaving the city.

January 11th, 2014, 9pm

I can’t say that it’s the order of operations one usually imagines. I certainly didn’t. After all, apartments are the essence of city living. I always hoped it would be a house we’d leave for. But regardless of it’s form, being someone who never had any ambition to live in this city, leaving it is monumental.

As my wife and I scrimp and scrounge to prepare for the purchase, I find myself terrified and liberated. Liberated from the daily preoccupation with what I might purchase next, terrified that I’ll go a bit crazy without that next object to focus on.

This is the stuff of commitments. As with all things worth having, we trade away certain freedoms (often luxuries) to acquire something more meaningful. And interestingly enough, that meaning is often born of, and cultivated by, the very commitment we fear and freedoms we surrender.


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Kenneth Cooke

Doing well so far.

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