what is your word?

in a fit of not unexpected insomnia last night, i picked up Eat, Pray, Love from my nightstand and began reading. i forgot how much i love this book. have i told you? yes, i have. see about 20 of my previous entries about it.

before i knew it, i was through with italy and ready to begin india, which is the second part of the 3-part adventure. in case you forget, the book is the memoir of a woman who flees her post-divorce life and spends a year traveling in pursuit of happiness.

one of my faaaavorite parts:

He said, "Don't you know that the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn - what is the word of the street?"
Then he went on to explain, in a mixture of English, Italian, and hand gestures, that every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. if you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever the majority thought might be -- that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there.

"What's Rome's word?" I asked.
"SEX," he announced.
"But isn't that a stereotype about Rome?"
"No."
"But surely there are some people in Rome thinking about other things than sex?"
Giulio insisted: "No. All of them, all day, all they are thinking about is SEX."
"Even over at the Vatican?"
"That's different. The Vatican isn't part of Rome. They have a different word over there. Their word is POWER."
"You'd think it would be FAITH."
"It's POWER," he repeated. "Trust me. But the word in Rome -- It's SEX."

Now if you are to believe Giulio, that little word - SEX - cobbles the streets beneath your feet in Rome, runs through the fountains here, fills the air like traffic noise. Thinking about it, dressing for it, seeking it, considering it, refusing it, making a sport and game out of it -- that's all anybody is doing..
Giulio asked, "What's the word in New York City?"
I thought about this for a moment, then decided. "It's a verb, of course. I think it's ACHIEVE."
(Which is subtly but significantly different from the word in Los Angeles, I believe, which is also a verb: SUCCEED...)

But Giulio was already on to the next and most obvious question: "What's your word?"

last summer as we were reading this for the first time, cpg and i decided that Philadelphia's word is HISTORY. because everyone here is obsessed with it. we want to be defined by its highs, and we want to overcome its lows. the bottom rung of society is desperately trying to escape it. and possibly more than in any other city in the US, HISTORY truly is all around us in Philly.

but what's my word? that's a tougher one to answer.

and what's yours, friend?