Wednesday, June 14, 2006

the ordinary world

I've been back home in San Diego for 4 days now. I still keep waking up in the middle of the night and not recognizing where I am in my own home, thinking "aw crap, gotta use the port-a-potty", or trying to figure out if I have enough time to sleep in an extra 15 and not risk being late getting my tent folded up and getting in line for oatmeal. It's really odd.

And then there's the jarring you get being back to things like work, worrying about bills, commuting, having to cook dinner... and so many other things. You get so used to the close knit community of "camp" that you forget that the real world doesn't have that feel of community. And then you begin to wonder... why doesn't it?

One of the most sobering things about LifeCycle is being among so many like minded, cooperative, sometimes cranky but ultimately supportive individuals... all working towards a unified goal, as a community. You begin to think to yourself, "God, if only the rest of the world could cooperate on this massive a scale, we could solve so many problems that face society today"... energy consumption, community health, poverty, violence, HIV... if we all had such a close knit sense of community, and smaller communities seeded, informed and communicated with other communities... truly, there may be no limit to what we might accomplish.

I have just seen Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". I can't help but think that part of our problem with all of these things, not just global warming, not just HIV, is the lost sense of local community. How many of our neighbors do we even know by name? Remember when we were kids and used to invite the next door family to dinner? When is the last time I greeted a pedestrian, or even another motorist, with a smile and "hello"? I grew up in Colorado, and remember a time when passing people on country roads, it was simply common practice that you wave while passing.

I miss that. I miss that sense of community. I miss that connectedness. I crave it... not like craving caffeine or a hot shower, but more like craving a home cooked meal after living alone in a college dorm for too long.

2 Comments:

At 4:16 PM, Blogger Goddess Leonie * GoddessGuidebook.com said...

that is SO right on and lovely.

community is vital and is precious and is lacking...

you rock it bigtime kevin.

:)

love,
leonie

 
At 12:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kevin,

I love your words. I have meandered down that same avenue of thought many times myself of late....

You always amaze me.
MagCindy

 

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