Salmon eggs hatch upstream of rivers in spring. Parr can spend up to six years in the environment where they were born. Then an internal transformation prepares them for life in salt water, this is adolescence. At this moment, the smell of the native river permeates the smolts’ memories. They begin to swim in the direction of the current and reach the sea where they will spend their lives as young adults. When the time comes to lay eggs, the adults swim up the exact river where they were born, the females release their eggs into the gravel of the river bed and the male comes to fertilize them. And the cycle begins again.
Many little Quebecers are born in these distant suburbs where they spend a good part of their youth. They get to know this specific corner of their early years. Then at the beginning of their lives as young adults, they naturally go to town to study or to hang out in bars. They discover an ocean of art, culture and activities in which they bathe for several years. There they meet their soul mate, and the friends gradually give way to work until the big awaited news: the birth of a child. But the idea of raising their offspring in the city repels them. The first reaction, instinctive, makes them go upstream these great highways to give life, perhaps by aquatic birth, where they themselves were born. And the cycle begins again.
More than a dormitory, the suburbs are an incubator of bad ideas. The children don’t care about the bungalow’s garden. As soon as their age allows them, they will escape, flocking to the city by any means possible. Instead, let’s offer them a terrace, an urban park and the excitement of the big city and they will be just as happy. As proof, I can point to all the children who grow up rooted in my densely populated neighborhood. All species are integrated into a complex ecology. Suburban life will always go against the grain of efforts to protect our environment. Just as much from a financial point of view, the incessant expansion of the suburbs is an unsustainable drift. Human intelligence should encourage us to break this unhealthy cycle which contributes to the collapse of our living environment.
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