Dear Suburbia,
I wanted to make sure I don’t leave you out. It seems like most people are forgetting about you these days. I realize you’re not the coolest place to talk about when people compare you to cities. You might not get picked first for the kickball team, but I still love you. So do a lot of people.
I grew up as one of your own. I get you. You get me. In fact, I currently live in what used to be the gut of the new suburban dream when you had just been born 50 years ago. Creative young marrieds and millennials aren’t exactly rushing to move into my hood. I realize many people have left you and headed to the middle of the city. I’m not sure hipsters (and the next generation of baby-hipsters) can afford to live there longterm. I bet you’ll see a lot of those hipsters come back to you in a few years when they have kids and want to buy a home.
Don’t worry, Suburbia, you haven’t lost your edge. I don’t care if you’re cool or not. I believe you have great potential for influence and people will continue to enjoy living in your friendly confines. I hope people can become content in your space.
Keep being you, Suburbia. Don’t get down on yourself.
Alan
I write this letter to make an important point; I’m not giving up on suburban life and you shouldn’t either. So much of North America is organized into suburbs sprawling out from large cities and small ones. I still believe there is great potential for influence in them. In my book, Staying is the new Going; Choosing to love where God places you, I talk a fair bit about the city and the things changing in our cities. I want to be clear what I’m talking about and why.
I talk about this big thing called “the city” because it obviously matters. Urbanization is shaping the whole globe and many spaces in our urban cores are teeming with life again. People are downsizing, riding bikes again and urban gardens are popping up. This is exciting and significant. I talk about issues related to gentrification and revitalization in the book. Please know that I am actually including suburbia in my definition of the city. I realize many people separate the urban core, university areas and suburbs within a city, but for the sake of the book I’m lumping them all together. I’m not a sociologist; I’m a storyteller and a thought-provoker. Suburbs are part of the city like my uncles are part of my family. Suburbs often bear the city name at the end of their address and their people often work downtown, frequent downtown restaurants on Saturday night and identify themselves with their city as a whole.
When I say “city” I am really referring to your place. Today people have the choice to pack up the suburban dream and translate it into the new urban dream. I’m not sure many of them will find a permanent home there. If discontentment is the root of moving to the urban core it will follow you like that tick you picked up on your weekend away. The basic premise of the book is contentment wherever you are. A big piece of that contentment is about who we are, but much of our identity also revolves around where we are. No matter where you live contentment in your place is an unlikely weapon in your battle to be grounded and rooted.
Here are a few paragraphs from the book about the contentment of place.
People everywhere are feeling this gravitational staying force. People seeking to live a Jesus life and those who don’t know Him alike are feeling the tug to put down roots in places and spaces again. I happen to think Christians need to hear this message the most, however, because cities are quickly becoming the lifeblood of mission. (Remember I included suburbia in this). Our current places are becoming the next frontier, and neighborhoods are becoming parishes again, where churches anchor their communities and every Christian can live out our first vocation as a follower of Jesus eyeball to eyeball.
This is a return to something people understood before the global and digital age distracted us. Something in all of us wants to be connected to a place and the people who live in it. Those in our neighborhood and city are longing for it. Those I have long conversations with in the cafe spend much of their week chasing it. Those fully entrenched in civic clubs have invested in it. There’s a collision of something beautiful happening in our world that we, as followers of Jesus, cannot afford to miss.
So, let’s not miss contentment and activism in our places in favor of living “over there”. I am not trying to convince you to move from the fences, parks and back yards of Suburbia to the often alluring city centers. I am asking you to consider your place and your season of life as a gift from God. It’s a gift that can create contentment if you settle down long enough to enjoy your place and the others who inhabit it.