The oppressive stillness of this gated community I’m staying in is really getting to me. Birds have never sounded more ominous. They are the only sound. Yesterday a dog barked once and it echoed across the golf course creating many barks and then it was back to just the birds. No people out, cars occasionally. Narrow little trees and an occasional breeze and that’s about it. Today it is raining, the sound of the rain drowns out the birds and is a relief. I don’t want to hear those birds, it’s like the world has ended and that’s all there is left to hear. Tomorrow we go home and it will be a huge relief to be in a living, breathing city again.
I stayed on the countryside of New Zealand for several years, and it was very quiet, but there was a lot more life there than in this place. In a gated community it is a false stillness, synthetic, and it cuts down to your very heart. Like the world around me has lost its soul.
Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.
Dear 100 year self,
If you ever get into golf for age related reasons, never move to a gated golfing community. It will cause you to die faster and surer than the most aggressive cancer.
Love,
Me
The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman 
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