From Rowan's diary, a few months after the last entry
It's been quite a while since when we moved here to Sim City, and I don't have many changes to report in these last few months. We are trying to move on, focusing on our jobs, the city life, and sometimes also joining the few manifestations organised by the rare local environmentalists.
However, today definitively drifted away from our usual routine, because it is again that period of the year when Juno starts to receive letters over letters from the Sim City town hall and the New Sixam consulate about the expiration of her work visa.
Every time this requires a ton of paperwork to be filled, and clearly it causes her a lot of stress too. Not the best situation, so to speak.
Juno: (annoyed) It will take me ages to fill out all that stuff, again, and then I will need to take a few days off to deliver them to the offices they want, and anyway I already know that I'll have to go back and forth at least three times because this or that document will surely be missing, bah...
Rowan: …
I listened to her without being able to say much, I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. After all, I have Sim City citizenship, if just we...
Well, I saw this occurring way too many times already. I kept telling myself it was still way too soon to address that option, but this consideration sounds less and less convincing as time passes. Actually, it may be about time to talk about it.
Rowan: (a little hesitant) Juno, have you ever considered that, well…
Juno: Considered what?
I think she understood what I meant by looking at my face, I felt embarrassed like I hadn't felt in a while.
Juno: W-wait a second, don't you mean to say that you think we should get married?
Rowan: I'm honestly not sure… But I think it's at least an option it's worth considering.
The idea seemed to make her nervous too, we had never seriously talked about it before. But, all in all, she seemed to agree with what I had just said, because she nodded before answering:
Juno: … Yes, you're probably right. Let's talk about it.
And so we did, all evening. There were so many aspects to take into consideration.
In some ways we didn't expect that such a step could cause a dramatic change in our lives, we had been living together for some time now and neither of us imagined that this could change anytime soon. The main advantage would have been for Juno, who would have been able to gain a local passport and forget about the visa paperwork. On the other hand, however, getting married is a social affair of a certain importance: are we considering a large ceremony with reception, guests and everything, or just a document signed in the town hall certifying the union would be enough?
Juno: (nostalgic) I always dreamt about it as a child, I imagined myself in a beautiful dress like one of those cartoons princesses and a handsome prince at my side... I suspect you didn't think about it at all instead, or am I wrong?
Rowan: No, it never crossed my mind.
Juno: I see...
Rowan: (pragmatic) So would you prefer to organise a big wedding?
Juno: Ahm, I'm not that sure, actually. As a child I wouldn't have hesitated to answer you, but now... Maybe I've become a little more realistic, and I realize that life isn't like the cartoons I watched as a child. I mean, to have a memorable wedding you need a lot of money, which we don't, and then I would have to involve my parents, honestly I think they would just ruin the day...
Rowan: ...
Juno: Not to mention the fact that those ceremonies are always full of plastic balloons, very expensive clothes that people only wear once, and very elaborate dishes with a scarily bad ecological footprint... No, I don't think I could ignore any of those things.
We talked about it for a while, with sincerity and rationality. Maybe people would expect such choices to be dictated by romance and feelings, but I don't think I could have addressed it in any other way.
By the time we reached the end of the dinner, every possible perspective had been taken into consideration, and we both seemed convinced in saying:
Juno: Let's get married, then. But at the town hall!
So we booked a date at the town hall and got married a couple of weeks later, without many frills or celebrations.
To share the event at least with those close to us, we decided to offer a dinner to my family in New Sixam. For a moment we also thought about inviting Juno's parents, but then we thought it wiser to only notify them via email instead. Juno's plan is to avoid them as much as possible, and I definitely agree with herchoice.
Helios: So, is there any particular reason why you decided to invite all the family to this nice dinner?
Rowan: (in one breath) Juno and I decided to get married, we signed the papers this afternoon in Sim City.
Iris: (shocked) You what!? Are you serious?
Iris had said it while staring at me with a stunned expression, as if to say: "What have you done with my cousin, this is not the Rowan I know!" In response, Juno, who was sitting right next to her, responded by simply pointing to the ring on her finger, cheerfully.
Iris: Okay, I admit that I wasn't expecting this at all…
River: Wow! Congratulations then!
It was a beautiful evening, everyone said to have enjoyed it a lot. Above all, Iris and Juno spoke really a lot. I never would have guessed it, Iris is quite unpredictable sometimes, but apparently they get along pretty well.
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A few weeks later, Rowan's office
Boss: Miller, the police just brought in the papers for a complaint against unknown, apparently it's about a case of money laundering or some other instance of fraud. Can you study those papers, and see what we could make out of them?
Rowan: Sure.
However, I can't really understand what the police expect from us. From what I read, they haven't really located the subjects involved, nor the methods they employed to conceal that money. How are we supposed to proceed, under these circumstances?
I guess that this case will take a long time, at least until the police manage to individuate some possible culprits and more evidence we can use to proceed.
This said, I had to put that pile of papers aside and return back to my other cases. Even if those are way more boring than this case, at least there is some actual work to be done in there.
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End of the autumn, Sim City
Juno: The view here at the port is so beautiful! Of course, the sea is not like that of Sulani and there still is way too much smog, but it has its charm!
Rowan: Yes, it certainly stands out from the rest of the city.
Juno: Do you think that's a house? I mean, does anyone live there?
Rowan: It actually seems empty to me, maybe it's for sale.
Juno: Then it will surely be crazily expensive, what a shame... But with a couple of small renovations, I'm sure it would completely change the panorama of the entire port!
Rowan: (nods)
It's a quite strange building, I think it originally was one of the warehouses of the old port. It has a nice view over the sea, though, and it doesn't overlook a large busy road like our current apartment. If I were to buy a house here in Sim City, I would certainly take it into consideration.
Rowan: Rather, do you still plan to go see that festival downtown? What was it called again...
Juno: “GeekCon”, or something like that, they say it's full of nerdy things. I don't know what it's like, but everyone at work speaks highly of it.
Rowan: I see. Well, it's ten minutes away by bike, it would be easy to take a look, I guess.
For better or for worse, the city was like this, people could always participate in various events like that. Personally, I've only ever thought of computers as work tools, but it may be fun to see something different for once.
Juno: For all the orbits, this place is so bright it looks like day!
Rowan: Is that a rocket?
Juno: It resembles the ones we had back in high school in New Sixam, haven't you ever seen one?
Rowan: No, in Sulani we were taught how to spot sharks in the sea quickly though.
Juno: I see. It makes sense!
Juno: For sure all this uses so much electricity… But is it really necessary?
Rowan: No, I don't think so.
Juno: Seeing these things sometimes you almost think that the robots weren't entirely wrong with their narrative.
Rowan: Yup, definitively...
Juno: Honestly, lately I'm often wondering whether I'm really doing everything I can to make my contribution... Even at work, in theory, my company aims to help our clients invest their money wisely and become more eco-friendly, but I'm still just working on the fundraising section… What about you, instead?
Rowan: Bah, I'd rather don't think too much about it either.
In short, even if I'm very slowly starting to build some fame in my sector, my job still remains a major source of frustration. A very different situation from the one I dreamed of when I was younger, when I wanted to make a difference by condemning those who polluted. And it's not like we are managing to be any more incisive in our free time, the rare environmentalist associations in this city are a joke, and we can't really do much on our own.
Juno: Rather... Did you have any idea about dinner?
Rowan: Not really. What's still in the freezer, again?
By the end of the day, we always try to remain true to our ideals, but we are so small in comparison with this big cities, and there are so many changes that need to be made to make it difficult to know where to start from. And that's usually when our routine takes over, and we just move on to the next day.
Sometimes I feel like I'm going in circles and losing sight of the things that matter, that's what. But, in the moments when I actually reflect on the matter, I can't help but ask myself: what direction is my life taking? Was moving to this big city the right choice for us?
The many joys of tick-boxy paperwork ... But they are getting married! < 3
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rowan on the topic of climate change, most of the major climate change issues are caused by the mega-rich as well as by big cities, factories etc. but the blame it always on the little guy for using plastic straws and whatever. And I think in a lot of cases of social issues, it's the people who have anxiety over 'doing enough' that are usually doing more than enough for the cause.
I always feel like the city isn't the place for Rowan, and that he's happiest back in Sulani. I think it helps that I imagine over there people care more about the environment than they do in the city, and as much as I want to say he can keep fighting for change, it's a lot harder to do in a place like that.
Thanks a lot for commenting, as always!
DeleteIn my experience, I can say that paperworks in a foreign country can be even worse sometimes... But yeah, they seem quite happy about being married now!
As for the macro-topic of climate change, it's indeed very complicated. I work in academia on a research topic somehow related to the green transition, and we tend to put the blame mostly on the national and international institutions (who are basically the only ones who could really impose a systematic change). But yes, in absolute numbers companies tend to be more impactful than most people, that's quite clear.
Anyway, the topic for sure will come up again in the next (many) chapters, but I can still contextualise it a bit on the light of this chapter. What I had in mind when writing about Rowan's frustration about "not have done enough" is probably largely related to his early ambitious (i.e. "condemning those who pollute"). So, I would say that he would love to bother some of those large and polluting companies, and a big part of his frustration is about being stuck on small lawcases instead.
Also the comparison with Sulani is very on spot, both the lifestyle and the people's attitude to the environmental topics Rowan cares about so much are definitively more in line with his worldview. There isn't much left to do in there though, while the emissions from the rest of the planet will keep worsen the climatic conditions and destroy the local habitats, and Rowan knows that very well. He chose the big city because that's a place where a lot of work will still be required instead, but up to now he clearly isn't very satisfied by the results. He didn't give up yet though, nor did Juno.
(PS sorry for the super-long response, on this topic I could write a whole chapter :P )