THIS LITTLE TOWN

Ricky SOBEY

Part 2

“Where I go to college is in the city. And it’s a completely different landscape. It’s a different culture…It’s so busy there. And then sometimes really hectic. I don’t know…” said Ricky, shaking his head as though dizzy just thinking about the hustle-bustle of city life. “Here it’s very calm and peaceful and sometimes I would miss that. Boston’s just really crazy and outta control. But this place is always—serene.”

I pictured Ricky as a slightly modernized farmer standing star-struck in jean overalls at the foot of a city skyscraper. People would brush by him carelessly, almost unaware that he was even there, more occupied by the next order of business and the ticking city clocks. Finally, some corporate fat cat would crash into Ricky’s thin frame and send him tumbling to the ground, where he would break his fall just in time. Nose two inches from the pavement, he would notice thick white lines running under his palms and suddenly realize he was in the middle of a busy, city crosswalk. Horns would honk, shouts would start, and cursing would commence. And Ricky, the boy from Longview Drive, would close his eyes, hoping it was all a dream. Hoping he would wake up to the serenity of Wilbraham.

Perhaps this was a slight exaggeration of what would actually become of Ricky in a big city like Boston, but the point was that Ricky and cities just didn’t go together. Speaking softly and not carrying a big stick, Ricky complimented the quietude of our town.

Simply put, Wilbraham offered peace of mind. No doubt, Wilbraham families have busy schedules and a struggling economy to worry about, but at least there aren’t city sirens and a civil war outside our doors.

I read somewhere that in our entire recorded human history, there has only been 14 whole days of peace. People have always been occupied by conflict, war, famine and disease, leaving our powers of thought, and intellect, our imagination and spirituality to atrophy. Only during the Renaissance, the relatively war-less period, did people have an opportunity to think about something besides survival.

It was an atmosphere of serenity, bringing paintings full of color and scenic images into focus, and inspiring the inception of new ideas by building upon the exploration and research of Islamic and Classical cultures. The result was religious reform, artistic rejuvenation and scientific enlightenment. It was a leap in human transformation, a resurrection of humanity’s potentiality.

I have come to regard Wilbraham as a valuable pocket of peace within a greater reality of uproar. The quietude Ricky emphasized about Wilbraham, I understand, is priceless because it gives us the opportunity to think, to sit down and reflect, and most importantly to connect our ideas as a community. In reality, Wilbraham is the perfect context for a small-town Renaissance.

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Kimya

HEDAYAT-

ZADEH