Luxury of the Bubble

crab apple blossoms

As I was writing yesterday about the Cherry Blossom Pink Bubble, I kept thinking that I was so privileged to be be able to have a bubble at all. I live in a bucolic setting, far enough away from urban centers to shelter me from much of the violence in the world.  I had one reader privately comment on how we as a nation have a big bubble.  Sure, there are urban spots in this country that have higher body counts than some war zones, but those are by far the exception.  We live in a bubble, sheltered by our physical isolation from the rest of the world by two enormous oceans.  Most of the people who slip over our borders on the north and south are looking for a way to feed their families, not for a way to blow us up.

Crab apple

The people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Mali, and the Central African Republic do not have the luxury of a bubble. They face violence regularly, they face bombs and gunfire on their way to buy their groceries or worse, while sleeping.  I just have to keep my kid out of the woods during deer hunting season and face an occasional pan handler working the parking lot of the supermarket, a luxury.

Now it is time to stop peering out through the walls of my bubble and turn inward, the vegetable garden needs water, the seedlings need potting up, weeds need pulling, the mowers need gas and belts, the dishes need washing, the hole for the gooseberry (due within 24 hours) needs digging and the newly opened crab apple blossoms need admiring. 

Too quiet in Suburban-Land

It has been about six months since moving into our new home, and a year and a half since moving into this state hundreds of miles from anyone we knew.  We're in large lot suburban-land, you may or may not see the neighbors for weeks.  I'm not working at the moment, so I thought I would putter around for a bit and get to know folks.  One problem, I'm meeting very few folks.  One way I have met lots of people through the years is through my daughter's activities, those obligatory events and practices that chop up and chew up any parent's schedule.  It isn't working well here.  During soccer practice the parents who come and decide to stay, sit in their cars messing with their iphones and ipads.  At the events, everyone seems to pretty much walk in, watch the event and leave.  There doesn't seem to be as much, "Hi!  Haven't seen you in ages, what are you up to??" sorts of conversations about me.  Then I realized, I'm living in commuter land.  This town is where folks live, but it not where they work, socialize, eat out or shop.  You have to leave town to do those things.  It seems to be a community with little community, it's pretty, it's quiet, it has wonderful schools, low crime and comparatively low taxes, but does it have a soul?.  My mission, to either discover the bits of community that there are or create my own little community in the vacuum. Wish me luck!