Dave and I have lived in downtown Memphis for exactly 1 month and 11.5 days. A week of that, we spent exhausted from moving; plus a week each wasted in a really (really!) gross ear/nose/throat illness. So we've had, really, what, 15 days of real downtown living? It's enough!
It's enough for me to know that I love any place where people are authentically themselves. Tourists, gang bangers, panhandlers, shop owners, homeless, rich. I love that people here let us really see them.
It's enough for me to know that I can come to appreciate our downtown cops and all they do for us here. They keep me safe, they give me rides home when I step on glass (yes, I did), they have relationship with the guys I'm afraid of, and when required, they give their lives to make sure that we stay alive. Rest peacefully with Jesus, Officer Warren. Thank you for stopping a potential massacre.
It's enough for me to know that people spout off ignorant opinions without the slightest clue what they're talking about. All those suburbanites ranting online about "no one riding the trolleys" and "how bad the blight in downtown is" and how our apartment building has "hardly anyone living there" and how you're "never safe" downtown. How sad that the beautiful creative spirit that God gave us gets warped into the impetus for the creation of the destructive force of words.
It's enough for me to know that I'll be here for a while.