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I choose the city…

Not simply to live in it,

to see it,

to hear it;

But to touch it;

yes, to embrace it,

to hold it,

To feel the wild glory of its

pulsating soul,

To move over its wide,

hurried broadways,

To stand stilled and sobered

at the nowhere of its dead-end streets,

To be trapped with it in its

pain and problems,

To be at once chilled by its ill

and covered with its confetti.

I choose the city because I choose God,

Because I choose humanity,

Because I choose the divine-human

struggle–

The struggle which will be won

Not in the serene path through

meadow and wood,

among the bees and birds, and flowers,

But in the city street

Made by the hand of man

Through the gift of God–

Main Street: the final battle field,

The scene of the ultimate struggle,

Where man chooses right

Because he is free to choose wrong.

Babylon, dirty and daring–

Babylon, yes–

Babylon today–

Tomorrow…

The New Jerusalem!

(Francis DuBose, Mystic on Main Street, Chapel Hill, NC: Professional Press, 1993, pp. 78, 79.)