This is so heartbreaking, and so good. You really get at the heart of what it's like to live in a US city today. I often think of a line from *Contagion* -- the 2011 thriller that ended up being prophetic -- where a character wonders aloud how many people he can pull into his lifeboat before it capsizes. Walking from my bus stop to work, a busy part of downtown, I wonder the same thing. How can my heart survive these conditions?
Thanks, Zeke. By the time I finished this post, the incident at the market was months old, but by coincidence, days after I published it, there was a horrible news story about the real "Ronny." I don't know how we survive all this...except "sufficient unto each day is the evil thereof." I have to stop myself when the heartbreaks of the past and future weigh too heavily.
yeah...somehow I identify with all of that. I'm fortunate, have shelter, food, probably enough saved to make it to the end of life with a roof over my head, but it doesn't make me feel safe when all around me are folks who have far less and no idea how to make the loose ends meet. And, our new leaders are busy trashing the social safety net, such as it is. Most of them have escaped gravity themselves, so what they do or don't do for the country is of little account to them personally.
What's my dream? To find some place with enough space and just barely enough people that we have to actually depend on one another to be the glue that holds things together. Does that place exist? Maybe. Maybe it comes along with heat, humidity, too many bugs and Baptist churches on every corner. This converted Episcopalian may have to go to rural Wales to find what he's imagining, or possibly Nova Scotia...
This is so heartbreaking, and so good. You really get at the heart of what it's like to live in a US city today. I often think of a line from *Contagion* -- the 2011 thriller that ended up being prophetic -- where a character wonders aloud how many people he can pull into his lifeboat before it capsizes. Walking from my bus stop to work, a busy part of downtown, I wonder the same thing. How can my heart survive these conditions?
Thanks for this piece, Jody.
Thanks, Zeke. By the time I finished this post, the incident at the market was months old, but by coincidence, days after I published it, there was a horrible news story about the real "Ronny." I don't know how we survive all this...except "sufficient unto each day is the evil thereof." I have to stop myself when the heartbreaks of the past and future weigh too heavily.
yeah...somehow I identify with all of that. I'm fortunate, have shelter, food, probably enough saved to make it to the end of life with a roof over my head, but it doesn't make me feel safe when all around me are folks who have far less and no idea how to make the loose ends meet. And, our new leaders are busy trashing the social safety net, such as it is. Most of them have escaped gravity themselves, so what they do or don't do for the country is of little account to them personally.
What's my dream? To find some place with enough space and just barely enough people that we have to actually depend on one another to be the glue that holds things together. Does that place exist? Maybe. Maybe it comes along with heat, humidity, too many bugs and Baptist churches on every corner. This converted Episcopalian may have to go to rural Wales to find what he's imagining, or possibly Nova Scotia...
This website opened my eyes to a vast range of intentional communities in the U.S., some of which might come close to what you're looking for.
https://www.ic.org/