Sustainable Communities & Train Friends

The reason I started this blog is because I was asked to manage a blog for a grassroots organization I belong to called Sustainable Communities. The organizer of this group, Gar, is a 'train friend', one of several random people that for one reason or another, I have bonded with. Gar got it in his head that I should run the blog and since I knew almost nothing about blogs, I promptly got a library card, checked out "Blogging for Dummies", and began pecking away in cyberspace. I soon realized it would be pretty neat to have my own blog, free from any topical boundaries, so now I work with two blogs, with a total combined readership of approximately 3. What's good about managing a topical blog, like Sustainable Communities (which is concerned with raising awareness regarding energy and climate issues impacting North San Diego County cities, and to establish and prepare community guidelines to address these impacts proactively) is that you are forced to read and stay current. I need something that motivates me to stay in the loop. My natural tendency is wonder off, loose touch, fade in and out. I also like the fact that blogs are so immediate. I think writing on a topical blog will be good exercise for learning how to get my ideas down quickly and concisely. Unlike the never-ending research paper (picture me biting my nails down to the nub, all strung out from worrying that it just doesn't hang together, forcing in just one more perfectly appropriate term [I'm still convinced that my A+ papers were based on getting the 'tone' just right, having perfected the academic 'accent', never mind how many hours it added to my daily toil or how many potentially novel/original ideas it squelched]) topical blogging is all about quick-wit and connecting ideas- you get in and get out quickly.

Also, Sustainable Communities is about reclaiming the benefits of community life. A sense of community offers social identity, pride of place, and a sense that what you do individually has a true impact on others. I think a lot of people miss this. I feel like I miss it, but did I ever have it? Maybe it's just a romanticized idea- how can you miss something you never had? Living in France was certainly a good introduction to 'community'. Their infrastructure, from architecture, to tax policy to social mores encourages tighter-knit communities than we experience here in the United States (particularly in southern California). Ultimately, "community" starts at the level of the family unit. And some families are just better at facilitating community membership than others. If you remember what a drag Sunday night dinners with the family were- if not showing up was not an option- then you probably belonged to a tight-knit, community oriented family. If your parents were more relaxed about participation, responsibility and obligation then you probably skated by, not recognizing any social contract that you unwittingly signed onto. Anyway, none of that parent stuff matters because we're all grown up now and in charge of ourselves. My intent was not to discuss 'good' or 'bad' communities, but rather just to remark that the train offers a great entry into a 'community'. I feel more 'at home' on the train than I do walking down the street in Carlsbad village. The 'horizon of the future' (knowing you'll see that person again soon) plays a prominent role in predisposing us to make friends on the train. Since people tend to take the same train everyday and sit in the same spot, we know they'll be there again tomorrow, so we're cordial and then we get to talking and finally, strike up a friendship. Still, this doesn't explain why we strike up friendships with some of the regulars and not others- I'm simply saying that being thrown together in the same space, traveling on the same trajectory for similar purposes pre-disposes us to become friends when we otherwise may not have. I think convenience plays a lot into friendships. The repeated snippets of time we have with each other as part of our daily routine is largely responsible for maintaining the relationship. All of this seems to be missing at the city/neighborhood level (or at least in mine). There is no 'horizon of the future' to speak of (except maybe with those two families with whom we share a wall, and who sometimes pull up to the garage at the very moment that we are in front of our own) and there isn't any immediately discernible shared interests beyond maintaining neat yards and quiet children. I don't need my neighbors for anything vitally important, so they are more of an appendage to my life than an organ. If we needed our community more, we would have more of a community.