Paris on the 1880's...Greenwich Village at the turn of the century...London in the 20's...the Lower East Side in the 80's...Seattle around the same time...
Bohemianism...'tis an ideal to aspire towards. The modern man lives a regimented life, he gets up, goes to the commute, works under the thumb of a boss who wants to extract every bit of labor for as little cost as possible. Scrimping and competing, his soul ground down to a nubbin in the never-ending chase for the next dollar, the next paycheck that is never enough, numbing the pain with more material junk that in fact ties you down ever more tightly. That is the bitter bourgeois truth of our lives. Rip away the mask and look at the hollowness...a modicum of material comfort in exchange for all the things that make life worthwhile.
But a life lived for beauty, for art, for the sheer joy of creation...now that is something truly noble. Look upon the artists of old, those bohemians who lived on their own terms...and maybe someday find the courage follow in their path. To live life on hour own terms, even down to the bitter end...
When you get down to it, we create our own reality. All we need is the ability to perceive it and the will to shape it...
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