I think... Portland is the result of "what ifs" becoming true.
You know, all those incredibly awesome ideas you think of when you're daydreaming or driving or delirious or stoned. "Dude... what if we started a restaurant where you could make your pancakes at your own fucking table. Like, I could make bacon and cheese pancakes. We'd use squirt bottles.Yeah... squirt bottles..."
I am, by the way, describing a restaurant named Slappy Cakes, where you can order from a selection of pancake batters served up in squirt bottles, and you cook them at the communal griddle in the middle of your table, with whatever toppings you want."Dude... what if we just sold waffles out a fuckin' window." Waffle Window is another of those brilliant "what ifs" come true.
Portland is famous for its food, and I can see why. But the attitude carries over. What if we just randomly started painting street art at intersections? What if I decide I want to declare my own gender? What if I feel like learning to speak Estonian?
It's all possible in Portland. Not that it is impossible anywhere else- we are all agents in our lives. But the crisp Portland air is giddy with this sense of what ifs within our reach, whether they are served up in food pods or sold in Powell's Books or celebrated by gender-bending dance workshops. Maybe it's the clean northern air, maybe it's the unusually high proportion of hippies in the population, maybe the awesome food is part of a feedback loop perpetually increasing creativity and inspiration.
Who knows, with all the trees up there maybe it's just the extra oxygen stimulating our brains. But the fact that so many things I have dreamed of actually exist in Portland... things that seem too good for real life, like 3-story used bookstores and peanut butter frappes, makes me realize that we can make things happen. We can declare and create what we want in our lives, rather than thinking "oh that is too awesome to actually exist."
And that peanut butter frappe even came with non-dairy whipped cream. My sense of vegan deprivation was shattered. Indeed, the awesome is possible.
I know I talked about food a lot, but this goes for all things in life - for building community, for pursuing equality of human rights, for protecting the environment, for starting a band, for whatever gets you going.
Never rule something out because it seems too good to ever become true.
