Paradise on Earth

There is a city I’ve been creating for one of my stories yesterday. A city that lies on the border between the human reality and the elfish forest. It’s precarious position influences it’s reality: the basic layout of the land is set, laws of physics, for the most part, are consistent with those of the human world, plants, trees, rocks, can not move around or speak – but they are alive and conscious. Being strongly influenced by their closeness to the elfish world the citizens of the city, though decidedly human, relate differently than humans usually do. They can feel and communicate with feelings. They can relate to trees, animals, plants, as they would to any being equally intelligent and conscious as themselves. They can communicate with each other without words, without thoughts, through feelings and sensations, without language. Their language, when used, tends to be somewhat strange, they don’t pay as much attention to rules of grammar and such, focusing instead on the melody, the feeling and energy that certain words and sentences carry. Being very closely aware, conscious of and connected to the flow of reality people of this city don’t have much tendency to gathering or hoarding stuff. They feel it as a disturbance, as a separation and exclusion from their surroundings. Being uninterested in profit they work for pleasure. They tend to focus on developing their interests and passions throughout their lives. Their openness and strong awareness of each other makes hurting one another a very unpleasant experience for the one inflicting hurt as well as for the one receiving it, therefore they seldom do it. Though they do get angry and deal with conflicts, generally they don’t hurt anyone intentionally, there is hardly any crime. There is a governing body in the city, although it plays a different role than it does in human cities. Since there is no crime, there is no reason to discipline nor to enforce. The governing council plays the role of space holders and facilitators. They make sure that there is always a space for everyone to flourish and develop, they give assistance when needed and, when necessary, mediate and reorganize situations that cause conflicts. The office of councilor is not a paid position, it is a service that everyone in community undertakes at some point or another, always taking care that there is an equal amount of men, women and children on the council for the purpose of having the broader perspective possible. The institutions of marriage and family are not very common. Because of the great sensitivity and connection that everyone has with the rest of the community, individuals are free to pursue their own interest and their own way of being without ever feeling lonely or alienated, therefore often they have no reason to congregate into families. They form partnerships that last for different amount of time, some are short affairs, some are life-long, but very rarely do they enter into a formal union. Children are cared for by everyone, though they have very strong connection with their parents when they are young. I showed this description to my husband last night. “I like it” he said, “I want to move there”. “much like an utophia – perfect reality sort of thing” I said, “this is what our earth could be like, right now” “enlightened people” said my husband “yep” I responded, “because nothing that I’m writing is a fantasy, it’s all truth, it’s all real” “I know” said my husband, ” that’s why I like your idea so much”