July Sunflowers

“I like to think of the future when I walk through the crops, through fields of onions and sunflowers and hops, all alone like today, looking over the hills and imagining radio waves beaming in from real cities like Portland and Seattle and Vancouver pulsing through my body.

One might think these prairie walks would be silent, but no, the wind almost always whistles past with urgent, undecodable messages. While walking in winds like these, I like to imagine that there are young people like me walking through fields like this all around the world—in Japan, in Australia, in Nigeria and Antarctica—and we are all sending each other messages of hope and concern. Being global.

I think of myself being global. I see myself participating in global activities: sitting in jets, talking to machines, eating small geometric foods, and voting over the phone. I like these ideas. I know there are millions of people like me in basements and fashion plazas and schools and street corners and cafes everywhere, all of us thinking alike, and all of us sending each other messages of solidarity and love as we stand in our quiet moments, out in the wind.” — Douglas Coupland