I have touched on some of this stuff before, and even brushed up against it previous when i had 4 things i just touched upon.

So here we go, I’m writing from notes i took on a paper plate.  I almost prefer writing on unconventional things than on a legal pad of paper with a pen.  well, I generally always write with a pen.

I know when i initially came home from college and started looking to create my own community and find friends and people with common interest, it was difficult.  I was baffled at, when  i sat down and fully thought about it, where in the hell i was supposed to meet these "like minded people".  I thought about the old days of a small town and how you could run into people at the grocery store, and see them on the street later, and run into them at the bank or post office, and then see them again on sunday at church or at a friend’s party.  Now granted… this is a small western town idea that i have seen in TV shows and movies.  Lord only knows if it really existed, but i like to think it did.  And I like to believe that this sort of community also existed in cities.  People didn’t have the ability to cover as much geographical distance and so would stay within a certain radii as they went about their business.  *side note*  there are always pluses and minuses when it comes to innovation and new technology, the car/train/airplanes are great, but they separate us.  computers and cellphones are fabulous, but they isolate us.  But these are highly innovative and great advances… it’s the nature of the beast**  So to continue… I entered my suburban lifestyle living with my parents almost a year ago and struggled with the concept of where i was supposed to come up with people to have relationship and community with because as a human, that’s what i crave.  (which ties into a lot of what i’m learning and reading in Searching for God Knows What by donald Miller)  So i thought, well there’s bars and coffee shops, and church and my job… and my family.  But realistically, my job was very isolated, i don’t like the bar scene, I have no intention of approaching people at a coffee shop, and my family had limited connections, it was their friends from their interests…  so there really was no place to meet people except at church.  So that’s where i started.  But i think that is a sad sad state of affairs.  the ability to find community is slim and hard.  and making friends is a difficult task to begin with, and now we have gotten to a point where it is even harder.  Do you know your neighbors?

So that was one point.   another one is something i may have forgotten what i meant.  *looks at plate*  all i have written down is "the city community".  I’ll go with this one where i’m at right now.  I think there is a lot of potential for the city community.  I think there is so much benefit in investing in the area where you live, in getting to know your neighbors, being involved in your area.  It gives back to the city, it keeps areas in better repair, and it shows people that we care about the area around us, the public space and that it deserves respect.  I know it’s like throwing a stone in an ocean in hopes of creating a dam.  but i think it’s possible.  There’s something about seeing people on their porches, walking the streets, and hanging around outside that us suburban folk have forgotten.  These actions mean that the neighborhood is safe, it’s taken care of in whatever capacity the residents can.  When people are out and about thei’re looking after each other, they’re aware of the changes and happenings of their neighborhood and their outside of their own head.  Now granted this is very idealistic and not true for probably 25% of the people out.  and there’s the issue of loitering and "idle hands becoming devil’s tools" but there’s always a cost/benefit ratio that is present.  In the suburbs, people have enough yard space and that they’re more isolated and introverted.  they don’t have ot interact with people around them.  this affords some sense of security but it also isolates people.   so choose what’s more important to you and do it.    Yay for hitting two points in one.  my third point was the “porch monkey/ saftey” issue.  When i get my house, i’d love to hang out on the porch and watch my neighbors go by.  Because if they see you around and become accostom to you then they can watch your back persay.  When i go and visit the co-op, it makes me laugh and feel almost more comfortable, one of the neighbors knows me because my car is beat up like hell, and they’ve watched it get all beat up.  So they recognize me… i feel accepted almost.

My fourth point in this crisis was just an introspective look at how i would train myself to become an urbanite and become comfortable doing community and being around and involved in the neighborhood as a suburbanite.  How does this transition occur, is it easy?  I know initially i was apprehensive to tool around the area, but my friend, who introduced me to the co-op and got me comfortable in the area, doesn’t really have a cautious sense of feeling unsafe or truely worrying about it, so i was a little more willing to just move around and tool around with him, and then i grew comfortable in the neighborhood.  it’s curious watching boys’ security and comfort in an area vs. female security, caution and comfort in an area.

I also somewhat hit on the point of how technology is aiding in the creation and destruction of community.  I know a number of people that would have never found the co-op that i hang out at, without the internet and everything, and many people passing through using the co-op as a hostile would have never been introduced, met or helped out without technology.  But it also serves as a tool to isolate us and seperate us.

This point i’m stealing more from my friend who feels passionate about the crisis of community .  The rate of change in our socitey is soo fast and frequent that at this point, i don’t think we have time to process them or react to them with enough time and thought to process what the consequences might be and how this will affect the future of our lives etc.  I mean how is the construction of new office space in the city and outside of the city affecting our neighborhoods?  how is the continual vacant office and store fronts in our city coupled with the new construction affecting us.  and How is the destruction of vacant property affecting both pro/con the neighborhoods?  we need to stop and dialogue, assess some of the actions we’re taking.  even when there’s good consequences and when it’s the best route to take at a sepcific time, we need to conintually be coming back and check-pointing and seeing if we should change our courses of action…

there.  that’s what i have to say for now.

Or are they still called Senior Citizens…

Friday when i was driving home from work, I saw this older car (the boxy type) and this weee little old lady driving it.  as my boss calls them, she was a “no see ‘em”  She could just barely look over the steering wheel.  I couldn’t tell if she seems nervous, prepared to face the trials of driving, or cynical.  But it seemed to me that she shouldn’t be driving in any case.  she stopped a whole entire car length behind the first car at the red light.  Don’t know why, I can only speculate.

But it seems to be the case in our spread out world.  Whether our city neighbor hoods suck because they don’t have stores; need based, quality stores within walking distance. Or because we don’t have quality public transportation that any middle class old person would feel dignified riding.  (Dignity is an odd thing)  Or because of the way our communities are structured, so that old people become isolated and need to fend for themselves.  In some cases they just are purely strong willed and fell helpless and powerless if they are unable to do anything for themselves anymore.

But i feel like if we created and changed the places we are living now, we as drivers won’t have to be afraid of the old people, the old people won’t have to be afraid of the young drivers, and they can actually have people around them  helping them out (probably in only 75% of the situations, some old people are grumpy and others just get lost)

One of the dearest people to me passed away a year and a half ago.  her husband died about 10 years before she did.  and she stopped driving about 6 years before she passed.  But she didn’t have anyone, besides us and we were living our typical busy middle class suburban American life style.   She became an invalid and still lived by herself.  quite the spunky, with it, and strongest person I know.  It’s amazing that she was able to do all the necessary things to live, survive, and thrive in a house by herself.  I think she’s an extraordinary case.

But I believe there are more old people out there living like that than we know and than should be living like that.   a lot of the old women I help do jobs for are still pretty with it, but these big oldish houses get a lot to handle.

I just think we need to start creating a feeling of community in the gross suburbs, or in the cities we live so that when at least I get that old, i can relinquish my drivers license, however spitefully, with the comfort of knowing i’m not trapped in a houseing track out in the middle of nowhere.

So the last post was about Rochester.  I live in Rochester, New York.  Grew up in the suburbs actually.  but we’re pretty close to the city.  and once I got my driver’s license and wanted to hang out, I generally (always) would go to coffee shops in the city.  So it was a nice contrast.

I want to add an addendum to the last post.  I was thinking about it today while driving down the 5 lane super suburbia transport.  I asked myself why this road is soo unappealing to bike down.  And then I thought back to my college days in Holland Michigan.  I spent a summer there and biked all over the place.  I even biked up to the state park with a friend once (45 minute bike one way)  But there were side walks everywhere.  and the township was set up on a grid, so there were blocks and blocks of houses and parks and neighborhoods and some main streets and a cute little shopping street and a farmers market on the end of it.  there were about 5 main, heavy traffic roads that if you wanted to bike or walk or run or hang out you avoided.  But there were numerous other side streets to loop around through and explore.

So, today I take that memory and experience and compare it against the Suburbian thoroughfair.  When i would consider biking down Chili Ave (for those who think it’s not daunting) I wouldn’t want to do it.  It has right of way over all the hundreds of crossing streets, it has 4 laned roads coming in at intersections, It has numerous huge parking lots in front of buisnesses accessing it’s street.  And I would be biking no where.  There are patches of trees near the residential houses, but those are few.  There is nothing to see.  The residential houses are split level houses with one or two car garages taking up half the visual.  Any “rules of the road” that accompany a bicycle would be over ruled in my head for safety.  Sure the shoulders aren’t too small (which is surprising)  but there’s a side walk that’s a little further away from the 40mph cars.  And I know how I drive on that street, 49mph.  So I’d be up on the sidewalk anyways.  Just doesn’t welcome the pedestrian.  Here’s to reiterating and re-illustrating the point.

(it’s a sad day when you feel you had a great point to make and it gets lost as you provide the substance to make that point on.  Tee hee.  still sounds good though)

Whoa, what could that title mean.  I don’t know.  wait, i’m the one that’s supposed to know.  tee hee.

The World is Flat.  read it.
I think it’s really an interesting and well written book.  I’m so not finished with it yet, but  love it.  From the educational history to the great commentary on where the world is headed in the technological fields.  fascinating.

It’s really interesting to me.  On one hand we have the killing of american cities (which is slowly being rectified as people are ever so slowly waking up.  but they’re trying to solve the symptoms)  And we have poorly designed zoning laws and all different social causes and consequences of our cities,the amount of land we have (meaning how americans use it) and so much more.
on the other hand we have a society that is dissillusioned.  (this may be around the world, i don’t know)  They think that technology is the solution to all our problems.  we’ll just make something new.  something better.  but sometimes technology is the problem.  And we still think we are the top dog by far with no challengers, when it comes to countries.  We were a strong, ambitious force to be reckoned with, whether in the military, economy, innovations etc.

But look out americans.  China, India, Russia and Asia are kickin’ our ass speed wise and will catch us and fly by.  We’re loosing steam.  Our ambition is slowly thinning out, having a sense of direction is lost on my generation.  Purpose, drive, passion, determination, I don’t think we know what it means and what the quality of a well done job means.  these are very general statements and there are a lot of people out there that are all these things.  But there’s a sense of being lost I feel in my generation.  We grew up in suburbia.  we grew up with televison.  we grew up in our private little familys with our cul-di-sac friends, and our prefectly dysfunctional families.  Our parents did the best they could.  How were they to know.

How many engineers do we have entering the employment field?  How many scientists are out there graduating college?  According to Friedman (The author), not enough.  JFK helped do a huge inspirational push back in the day of fear and survival.  (the cold war)  We’ve got nothing to fight for, half of americans don’t believe in the war going on, we’re addicted to petrolium by the lifestyle we’ve built over the last 50 years and technology alone will not save us.  we need to create the technology, shape the world, get onto the playing field with the rest of the world.

Wake up and start changing the world.  If only it didn’t seem so daunting.  Maybe i’m writing about me and the people around me.  If i had enough left brain, drive and sticky-ness, I may have done the engineer path.  but such is life.  I’m an artist with a mind.  Hear me roar.  I just feel that something has to be done.  There’s little pockets all over the place of sucess.  My word to you, “keep it up, keep kickin’ ass”

So I was walking with a friend tonight, and i started talking about something I realized before… when you look down my street, (i don’t know what your city/suburban/rural street is like) but when you look down my suburban street, you see all the shades are drawn.  like during the day i’ll be driving down my street, and just lookin’ at the houses around me and there is no inside, there is no life.  i mean yea, i see the kids toys strewn across the driveway and lawn, but the house is a closed book.  And granted, at night it’s creepy to have all your windows black faces starring back, and you don’t know if anyone is starring back.  But even during the day?

I mean what’s the deal with all this privacy?  Stalking is bad, and theft is scarry.  but that doesn’t happen to everyone.  Privacy didn’t even really exsist as a “human right” until the last few centuries when the interior set up of houses started changing from single common rooms to seperate rooms to rooms with specific functions.
now a day all you get is privacy.  I drive in my car alone, i sit in my house alone (With my family)  I’m not sitting out on the porch hailing my neighbors… i’m making note of what i see them doing in the front of their house because that’s the most i’ll ever know about them, without being bold and ballsy and approaching them.  I’m also not strolling down the street, passing other people out on the street, stopping at store fronts and such.  no such interaction.  And so when it comes to houses, I too shelter that from the world.  I’m used to my personal bubble, and i sure won’t let that change.  say hello to strangers?  heck no. 

and I guess, the idea of community is wrapped up, more like twisted up in this thing called privacy.  The more privacy I have, the more suburan sprawl takes place, and the more dependent we become on cars (as it becomes more and more unstable) the less community I have, unless of course i spend my life driving from place to place to place, at which point it’s just useless because you’re so tired from traveling.  But where’s the community.  unless a diliberate choice is made, there is no accidental interaction.  I see my church people on sundays, i see my work people every day, i see my family because i live with them and i see my friends because i drive 10 miles to see them. 

and when there’s a loss of community (which makes up for sucky familys, sucky living situations, sucky life conditions etc) then there’s sooo many more spiraling ramifications that come from it that probably are depicted in at least 20 text and normal books.

I like community, it takes time  to build it.  but it also takes deliberate action, and continutity is not a given when you are forced by suburban sprawl (And so many other things) to create your own communtiy.  

Bah, sleep is sprawling across my brain….  hope this was interesting.