I don’t live in New York, because I am not from New York.
Actually, I think this idea is universal…
It’s just hard – past a certain age – to live in a place that you are not from, a place you find lacking in roots and context.
New York, Sao Paulo, London, Paris, Moscow, Dubai, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo – are probably exaggerated examples.
I mean, sure. You can live in these places just fine. But you will always feel like a bit of sojourner.
Thanks goodness summers here, I have always felt I was “from” Texas.
I want to explain to you, and in the process perhaps to myself, why I no longer live in New York. It is often said that New York is a city for only the very rich and the very poor. It is less often said that New York is also, at least for those of us who came there from somewhere else, a city for only the very young.
-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem
