“Her eyes were the color of…”

That is all.

Not really all, just all about that.

So this is called the City that Never Sleeps. The reason for this is because a large swath of the population are students, underemployed, or those who constantly fear “missing out”. The “never sleeping” part is a result of a combination of social pressure, drug use, and a phenomenon I refer to as “urban bordom.”

Urban bordom has to do with mankind’s yearning for excitement, purpose and satisfaction, and also possibly an interest in the mystical. We used to get our fill of all of these things from nature. Even in the early days of industrialized cities, people still took off into the wilderness for literally wild times, a desire for and recognition of the excitement and wonder that accompanies time spent the actual world from which we used to dwell, rather than the artificial one we have so recently made.

Because of urban boredom, people go crazy. They take chemicals that recreate a sense of intensity, and provide temporary elation. They blast themselves with extreme stimulus, whether it be huge crowds or loud music, because it drowns all other senses away and hints of the mystical can be attained. They flirt with each other for the same reason. They make risky decisions for the same. It’s all the same, and it’s all filler for what used to be as satisfying and intense as it was terrifying: sleeping out with the wolves and bears, protecting yourself and your family with fire and projectiles and your body, thinking strategically about surviving the next day, not a single unused brain cycle to waste.

These days, so many of us have to clamor for things to use our brains for, to feel things.  It’s no wonder that here in the city people clamor for so much stuff all the time. They try to create a sense of achievement in order to feel fulfilled. The stuff around us–and the entities selling it–what they’re really selling is a feeling, and they’re not secretive about it. Interesting to consider that the feeling of fulfillment and actual fulfillment are two different things, just as the feeling of happiness and actual happiness are different as well. (Otherwise the purpose of life might be to acquire the deepest supply of “happy pills”, in whatever form they take– diamonds, tits, Ferraris, pools, Ecstasy, planes, pot, castles, etc.)

What the urban bored know, however, is that for them it’s a game, and it’s rigged in their favor. That’s why they’re not satisfied. Things have been in their favor from the beginning, so the sense of achievement is false. They’re supposed to win. They’ve never once worried about starving to death. They’ve never fought for their lives. But they know something’s missing. That’s why they keep trying to fill the space, and turning themselves into large bags of crap.

Going to war is another way in which people create the sense of urgency to survive that can feel so good. Being in a battle, guns are firing all around and the sound of bullets whirring within inches of your ears, that can do it, too. I’m sure it was the same with swords and axes. I’d take that over a drug. But I’d take the wilderness over another war. I’d take the stars over almost anything.

But of course, the stars never love you back. So you have to think about that pretty carefully.