I was. The whole logical schema here is vanity - or, more literally from the Hebrew - a pursuit after wind, a momentary breath, a flicker of wind on the cheek.

I was. The whole logical schema here is vanity - or, more literally from the Hebrew - a pursuit after wind, a momentary breath, a flicker of wind on the cheek... The author's experience is that "same structure, new shapes" is the quality of the urban life. But that is also the quality of rural life, although the specific details differ; this is simply another shape in the same structure of life. Whether you're in the city, or the suburbs, or the emptiness of the mountain, you are who you are, people are who they are, there's no innate difference in the matter. The environment is strictly the environment. This, too, is vanity. To further quote the unnamed author - > Only this, I have found, is a real good: that one should eat and drink and get pleasure with all the gains he makes under the sun, during the numbered days of life that God has given him; for that is his portion. To be able to dwell in contentment where one is, is a real blessing.