I wanted to share some thoughts about neighborhoods and isolation – tied together in the analogy of a movie theatre. I thought this up tonight after a bike ride and the video was shot off the cuff. View it here or below. And yes, I did shave my beard two weeks ago and I’m not quite used to it yet.
What do you think?
Very interesting and great observation. When my wife bought the house we live in now we did not want the builder to install a privacy fence. It was nice to be able to see our neighbors and all of the homes around us. A few years later almost every home in the subdivision has a privacy fence. 6 ft wood privacy fences are very common in our market. I wonder what happened to make this happen?
Oh, and I like the haircut!
Thanks Bryan. It’s interesting to hear about a “privacy fence.” Is there any difference between a “privacy fence” and typical permieter fence? Or is a fence not typical and so it is called a “privacy fence”? In California fences keep us all separated. There are very few places that do not have them.
I’m definitely getting used to no beard and now that it has been gone for two weeks (after 14 years), I am beginning to wonder if I need to start growing it back already. We shall see.
Ryan, your post reminded me of something I saw years ago. It was about porches and how they have gotten smaller over time. Use to be we would sit on our front porches and have neighbors over to visit but with that interaction going away the porch dwindled in size. Some neighborhoods around hear intentionally built larger porches so that that neighbor interaction would be fostered. I like the idea of neighbors gathering together. I believe you are right, it does bring the community together when we know one another better.
Tom, that’s really good to hear about the porches. I’ll admit that porches are actually a bit of a pet topic for me. I expanded my porch a few years back for the same reason as you mentioned. Is there a strong sense of community in your neck of the woods or is it hit and miss depending on the neighborhood?