I enjoyed your write-up and learned a little while reading it. I have one pointer: please don't condescend to "urbanites". > You think you're holier than thou

I enjoyed your write-up and learned a little while reading it. I have one pointer: please don't condescend to "urbanites". > You think you're holier than thou because you're not from rural Louisiana, how nice, but sorry we don't care at all. You've internalized how some people have spoken to your relatives or you. The vast majority of non-rural people you have spoken to don't do this. Don't lump them in with that behavior. This anecdote is only meaningful to the most bigoted anti-country-folk person. > Unlike urbanites this leads to rural youth learning much younger that old people have wisdom, or at least respectably interesting stories. Again, there's no reason to believe that kids in Brooklyn or Staten Island that spent time with their grandma or uncle while their mom was at work don't appreciate the elderly. I think you have an idea of city folk that is shaped by young, unattached 20-somethings or upper-income transplant families without extended family. I don't think that's representative of cities made of mostly different people. You may have surrounded yourself in a bubble during your time in the city. > Urbanites don't understand because they live without beauty, somehow. No one ever daydreamed about seeing the grease trap at McDonalds back by the overflowing dumpster on a crisp winter morning. Or watching the daily migration of the homeless as the wind blows trash past them down the street. Or inhaling diesel bus fumes on a hot summer afternoon. This is where you go for crass insults. Sure, it's easy to find ugly places in a city. It's harder to find them in the country. But to claim that city folk just love Soviet architecture and don't appreciate green plants is just absurd. You can't deny that looking at a skyline from a distance is beautiful. You can't deny that most cities do incorporate greenery in their planning, that almost all have a picturesque river/lake/ocean view. I would rather live in a rural area with space to breathe and unspoiled beauty. I think the rest of your post illustrated your point pretty well.