Recently I went to the place where my junior high school was. The city looks different. The house that my parents rented is now a Bank. On the street where we lived there are many restaurants, stores, etc (there were none back then). The city has a new big shiny malls. However this new mall sucks out the life out of the stores in downtown area. The downtown is now look like ghost town. Old and rusty. The streets are cleanly sweep daily but it has lost its vigor. As if the city has one soul only. That soul now resides on this new mall at the (then) edge of the city.
Looks like this shifting 'soul' is not unique to this city. In the city that I am living now, the capital of province, the old downtown is also relegated to dusty old place, not even able to shadow its long gone glory. Newer generations or new comers wouldn't be able to guess that this place used to be the main magnet of the city.
Not sure if the 'soul' of the city would remain in this new centrum, only time could tell if a new centrum would emerge. I might not be around to see that, but at least I have seen in my life time the old magnet dimmed to be replaced by a new one. I guess I wouldn't be far off to guess that in the future a new magnet would pop up elsewhere.
The cliché that change is the only constant is really a cliché, nihil novi sub sole, there is nothing new under the sun. Generation come and go, new centrum rises and abandoned. Only the sun would witness this silently until it too had to go. By that time this place would be very cold drifting aimlessly through space.
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