"Dude, were the urban planners drunk when they laid this out? Why is there a wall there?!" It was an offhand comment that I made while snuggled up with a friend, but it fits pretty well. We all have some rough idea of how to navigate cities, and what to expect. Sure, there are some quirks that are particular to any given city. And sometimes roads curve around in ways that you don't necessarily expect, or side roads unexpectedly dump you onto the freeway. But on the whole, there are some basic patterns that most of us have come to count on. Even the occasional detour is easy enough to navigate around.
The city of my psyche got laid out a little differently. It can be a little trickier for folks that are new to the city of me to figure out how to navigate it. If one has been so unfortunate as to not pick up the Lonely Planet guide before entering, they may be surprised to find that what they thought was a freeway on-ramp actually routes you to a park. Surprise! No sexy freeway for you! But check out this cool swing set!
And while my own layout makes sense to me, I'm still struggling with where the walls are for others. I often feel like entire parts of others' beings are walled off entirely, save for one toll bridge. The cost? Sex. Can't pay? No visit to the romance district for you!
I'm not quite sure what to do with this metaphor from here. It didn't particularly illuminate anything for me, though I think it may for others. When food metaphors aren't adequate for explaining the way I work, it's at least another option to fall back on.
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