One of the hardest things about moving to Berkeley 4 Augusts ago was not knowing anyone. No friends lived here already. No one was here to help us move in or to greet us. We slowly met people around PSR's campus but very quickly felt out of place. We were neither on campus or off. We didn't live in dorms where we would eat meals with other students. We weren't commuters who had their own community to drive home to. We felt isolated in married housing.
Thankfully we found our church within 6 months of moving to CA and new neighbors moved in across the hall. But even then community has been hard for us to build. With all of the busy-ness that people create for themselves and all of the distractions that our society has invented (TV and internet are the biggest I can think of) to pull our attention away from actual personal interaction, I feel like sometimes I forget how to interact and that people don't have a lot of free time to interact with me. I start to feel self-conscious about what to say or how to be. Then it seems like building a community is an impossible feat.
Even though it has been tough for us to create a solid social network, we know how important it is and we keep working at keeping the community that we have. The work does pay off. The smiles and hugs that are shared have lasting effects. The quick phone calls just to say hi or to report on the small good things in life can change a whole day around. These acts might seem so common to many of you but these are things that Grant and I have not been used to since moving here. I started to think about all of this community stuff because of a post that I read at the No Impact Man blog. This gentleman is nearing the end of a year long experiment on how to live in NYC and finding out what really makes him happy and full of life. It certainly is an encouragement to me to step away from the laptop a little bit more and call up a friend out of the blue.
Damn time zones.
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