Imagination of a Place
A revisit to my dislike of Toronto
To feel belonging to a place is necessary in order to like it. Perhaps not a personal, direct belonging, but at least some form of it. Not necessarily the feeling of `home’, but something like it. A place here can be a physical place, such as a city, town or any other point on a map. It can be a metaphorical place, such as the concept of home. It can be part of society as a whole. In order to belong you must be able to imagine yourself, your place, in it. Without being able to do so you will not be enjoy a place.
Clearly by the above statement and past writings, I cannot imagine a place for myself within Toronto. I am not alone. I have a place elsewhere for myself. The problem comes when both groups, and both groups are guilty, fail to recognize that not all of us can imagine ourselves in the same way as everyone else, and thus, as we all really know, there is no universal place. No clear ideal which everyone must achieve, where everyone must be. The pleasures of life are not the same for everyone, and we all must respect that.
Tags: colonialism, culture, misunderstanding, Philosophy, Toronto