"life's most refined pleasures"

"There is a subtle state most dedicated urban walkers know, a sort of basking in solitude -- a dark solitude punctuated with encounters as the night sky is punctuated with stars.  In the country one's solitude is geographical -- one is altogether outside society, so solitude has a sensible geographical explanation, and then there is a kind of communion with the nonhuman.  In the city, one is alone because the world is made up of strangers, and to be a stranger surrounded by people one passes, is among the starkest of luxuries.  This uncharted identity with its illimitable possibilities is one of the distinctive qualities of urban living, a liberatory state for those who come to emancipate themselves from family and community expectation, to experiment with subculture and identity.  It is an observer's state, cool, withdrawn, with senses sharpened, a good state for anybody who needs to reflect or create.  In small doses melancholy, alienation, and introspection are among life's most refined pleasures."

-- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking