Abby and I hold our money in common, by and large. The things we like to do, a few hobbys aside, are in collaboration.

What if we did that with our housemate?
Our children?
Our parents?
Our neighbors?
Our neighbors neighbors?
Would you have a city, then?
A nation?

I guess you would, and you’d still probably have loads of pot holes. Loads and loads of pot holes. Pot holes aren’t so annoying, really. But they are a damned eye-sore. 

I had a friend who lived in Vermont for a few years. He moved here from the south and he loved it for a long time. He loved it until he started noticing people being rude, his neighbors being distant, their politics growing more abstract and inhumane.

So he left. 

He said he thought Vermont had gone to ****, but when he left he realized it was the world that’d gone crazy, and he just happened to be in Vermont when it happened. Is that Burlington, for me? The vibes are off, but does that stop at the city limits?