It's a valuable lesson, though not often learned. An addiction, an aspiration towards a way of life or the hope for a better one. The lesson begins, in some form, like this: acquire a ladder. Set it up in the middle of your room and climb as high as you are able. You'll notice a hint of two important things.

1. The inevitable limits of one's action in the world.

2. A satisfying lightness of Being.

Things look askew. Objects bear foreign expressions, colors shift scales, the embodiment of space transforms into horizons... But it's only a hint. A hint that compelled us to construct the Tower of Babel (hence the creation of Architecture), a hint that pushed great nations and small to war, a hint that made us betray our loves, friends and neighbors just for a glimpse.

It caused Lucifer his place among the elite of Heaven, for surely Heaven was not the highest form of expression. His Fall caused a rupture in the fabric of Creation. Now we have Gravity, Time and Death!

But we are all children of Icarus. Here, in the belly of the City, I scale stairways and ladders, bridges and tunnels and rooftops. The sensation is invigorating. It's a sad lesson but I will bear it gladly.

I want to escape from the city. Do I need wings? I am the Urban Icarus. I do not really want to fly. I just need a different point of view. I want to experience the city. From above. No wings, just a stairwell. I see. I perceive. Movements. People are ants from up here. The neighborhood looks like a moving painting. The window its frame. I want to escape from the city. Just for a moment. And see it from above. I am the Urban Icarus. I do not need wings. Just a stairwell. And a window.

I wonder about these skinny delicate branches, these brittle swaying lines.