Virginia, I am sorry!

I'll be the first to admit, I am not the biggest fan of Fairfax, Virginia. This is the true location where I have spent the last few weekdays sleeping between work and scampering off to much more vibrant places like Washington D.C. and oh, the beloved, honored, New York City. But it isn't just the suburbia, anywhere USA style of this place, its a bit more than you and I think... I live more or less in HotelLand. HotelLand is every major hotel chain in America, where like most else, the swanky style of travel and staying in fashion and glory away from home has been reduced to its Cheapest Common Denomenator, the chain hotel. Mr. Marriott and Homey Hyatt would be rolling in their graves if they see how the CEOs chasing the boring buck have reduced their once stylish abodes to. A lot of business travelers, I guess I am now lumped into this lot, don't like hotels after a while because they are away and miss their family. I love my family and am just fine with being on this adventure called life, wherever it takes me so I don't agree with that. I see the hotel chain as just about the most drab place in American existence. The cheap mass manufactured feel of these places seems like Walmart designed it. The food is frozen, the pool is a small square inside, nice and safe from the elements, chlorinated too kill anything less than a 5 year old and complete with an extremely bored and extremely unnecessary lifeguard. I've dug some positives out of HotelLand, such as the willingness of the awesome cleaning ladies to feed my chocolate twice a day, the availability of free San Pellegrino (which is a new affinity for me) and the many opportunities to jump on my bed to no avail and the chance to be so isolated that I just have to write more. Yippie! But all in all, I don't spend much time here. Which brings me the purpose of this post, and that's suburbian Virginia. SubVirgin, as we will call it, is completely missing the point. Overpriced houses sit in pretty little lots behind absolutely beautiful trees shedding their leaves and strutting their multicolor warm beauty between tree needle covered runways tucked in between nicely paved roads. They are ignored. Ignored by passing, agrivated motorists that spend more time in their cars than anywhere else. I luckily have my bicycle to give me hope and happiness, but I yell and feel bad for these souls, stuck in the endless circle of driving... everywhere. I have seen traffic to no ends in Los Angeles, in Bangkok and in Houston to name a few, but this place, has it just plain bad. The daily traffic radio report is a loop, played back every day while the traffic seems to increase more and more. "Oh poor humans", I say on my bike or on my own way to work, while I sneak a meditation in, "Oh poor humans, what are you doing to yourself?" I think even the big beautiful trees of all sort look on the side of the highway and say the same. Or maybe they are even laughing, causing them to shake their leaves and nuts to the ground. Either way, the metal box with wheels promises so many so much mobility has caused these poor, poor Virginians minimal 2 hour commutes to work and back, resulting in a silence where only the trees speak and only if you listen. There are malls, bars, restaurants, all very car accessible, but all very unfruitful to real life. Time and space become real barriers and sources of real stress here, where riding the metro or the bicycle can melt Time to an opportunity for a good read pr more deep breaths and Space to a fast paced, joyous blur to be enjoyed, not overcame. So I somewhat pity you suburban Virginians. You have Cheesecake Factory and Macy's, HotelLand and Starbucks, but you have time and space stripped away from you. It is a lifestyle unsustainable in so many ways, but for the meantime, you are more than welcome to join me between your tall, happy trees and their oh so warm colors in your cool, calm evenings, while I ride my bicycle on excellent pathways to everywhere and forget your traffic, time and space are even there. (gobicyclego!) teepee