I just spent a weekend in San Francisco, a city I once lived in and really loved, and realized that urbanity no longer thrills me the way it used to. In fact, some cities seem almost unlivable now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Admittedly, that perception may be related to my (advancing) age. When you\u2019re young, cities feel like lively, high-energy, happening places. You\u2019re around a lot of other young people, and that\u2019s fun and exciting. But as you age and your family expands and your need for peaceful space increases, it gets harder for many people to put up with the costs, compromises, and complexities city living demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RELATED: Why We Need a Spiritual Civilization<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco, in its setting of great natural beauty on a hilly peninsula surrounded by the sea and a massive bay, still has enormous charm and cultural bounty \u2014 but its problems sometimes seem to overwhelm its positive aspects. Despite what the song says, you might not want to leave your heart there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of those entrenched problems aren\u2019t confined to San Francisco, of course \u2014 they\u2019re distinctly American and even global in nature, and they afflict urban areas everywhere. However, within the boundaries of the relatively small geographic area San Francisco occupies, they seem magnified and even more problematic than they might be elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issues there in the city by the bay \u2014 a great gulf between the ultra-rich and the abject poor, the overcrowding inherent in high-density, land-restricted urban areas, the problems of sanitation, crime, drug abuse, homelessness, mental illness, and just the unaffordability and stress of living so closely among so many other people \u2014 can feel insurmountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hardscape dominates everywhere, constantly reminding everyone that, as Joni Mitchell sang, \u201cthey\u2019ve paved paradise and put up a parking lot.\u201d All of that concrete and stone make the city a foreboding, unwelcoming place for so many people, especially those without means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s the Baha\u2019i solution for these urban woes, not only in San Francisco but in urban areas in general? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cities, the Baha\u2019i<\/a> teachings say, need to strive for equity and equality. In a speech he gave at the Brotherhood Church in New Jersey in 1912, Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/a> spelled out<\/a> the Baha\u2019i remedy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the manifestation of God\u2019s great equity the poor of the world will be rewarded and assisted fully, and there will be a readjustment in the economic conditions of mankind so that in the future there will not be the abnormally rich nor the abject poor. The rich will enjoy the privilege of this new economic condition as well as the poor, for owing to certain provisions and restrictions they will not be able to accumulate so much as to be burdened by its management, while the poor will be relieved from the stress of want and misery. The rich will enjoy his palace, and the poor will have his comfortable cottage.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The Baha\u2019i teachings, then, call for a new global order that no longer allows for the accumulation of massive wealth or the continuing existence of dire poverty and homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his Tablet to the Hague<\/em>, written to the Executive Committee of the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, Abdu\u2019l-Baha, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah\u2019s<\/a> son and successor, wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Material civilization is like a lamp-glass. Divine civilization is the lamp itself and the glass without the light is dark. Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and beautiful it may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like the spirit, and the body gets its life from the spirit, otherwise it becomes a corpse.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Our civilizations, the Baha\u2019i teachings point out, aren\u2019t just made up of buildings, streets, and business enterprises \u2014 instead, they\u2019re animated by ineffable spiritual bonds of cooperation, connection, unified purpose, care for one another, and ultimately, love. That may sound a bit ephemeral, but it\u2019s not. Instead, those qualities, which the Baha\u2019i writings compare to light itself, illuminate the dark corners of our cities and towns and villages with good intentions, with a desire for unity, with a sense of shared humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the world\u2019s greatest villages, towns, and cities, you can see the results of that sense of shared humanity. Those places treat people fairly and compassionately. Dire poverty, homelessness, and afflictions like addiction and mental illness are attended to in humane ways rather than left to fester in public. Cities that prioritize equity are usually clean, safe, and inviting. In places where the spiritual values prevail, where we take care of one another and respect the rights of each person regardless of their societal status, everyone can truly feel like they\u2019re part of one human family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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