Community the change over the years

Photography by Marta Flinn

breath, and smell what you have been missing

The past few weeks I have been taking an English course emphasizing on community. When you think of community, what is the first thing that pops into your head? For me its always this one scene from the Sandlot, on 4th of July.There is this big block celebration, everyone is enjoying the food and fireworks. Well the adults converse with one another and the children run around the street. Is this how it is now? The few neighborhoods that I have lived in the past few years are not close to what I have seen in the Sandlot. No one knows each other, not by face or name.

I few times I attempted to say good morning to my neighbors, but in return there was only silence. Just until today did one of my neighbors actually ask me how my day was. It maybe because they are new to our block. Sometimes we like to know that there is at least on friendly person in the world, so I responded to her question. Now this got me thinking about how we are all becoming so isolated with our own lives. Which brings me to my next point, something that I learned today. We have three different places that we associate ourselves too. The first place is our own home where ever that maybe, our second place is our workplace or school, and the last is a third place, where there are people that we don't know, or just places that we go with friends to have a good time or relax.

I have been noticing many of the third places that I used to hang out as a child are no longer there. I used to go to the blowing alley, batting cages, and this gnarly monkey bar park, but these places are no longer there. I just keep wondering, is it because so many of us spend so much time at work, school, and on our personal devices as to why these third places are going out of business slowly. We can pretty much do anything online. Just like I am doing right now, posting my own opinion and community. Why would we ever have to leave our own homes.

Truth is, the internet is great for many things. But it can never replace the benifit and feeling that we get hanging around the people that we love.

The next few days I am going to be doing some research on third places.I will try to see what is going on in them, what the environment is like, who goes there, ect.

So for now I'll just leave you with this. Just say hi to some one that you don't know or just smile. I know that when some one smiles at me, it makes me feel much better, and makes my day a bit brighter than it was before. Until later!