This Man is an Island

Posted on April 1, 2005 in Crosstalk Disappointment Neighborhood The Orange

Teresa of In Sequence is excited about a new service which lets chatters tell one another what they are watching and watch it together. I’m not as excited. I am very blessed in the number and quality of distant friends, but when it comes to people who want to spend time with me locally, I find myself poor.

I live on an island. When they laid out Portola Hills, the only gathering places were the pools and a private club. At the base of the hill is a biker bar and a monastery, neither an institution where I want to spend time. The nearest coffee bar is two miles away — slightly less if I cut across Whiting Wilderness.

The thing is that a soul needs a neutral place where he or she can meet people. Maybe a library, maybe a coffee shop. It can’t be away — it has to be in the neighborhood and attract people from the neighborhood which the coffee bar — situated in the middle of an industrial park — does not do.

I think “Damn this county and the developers who put up house after house without thinking what it takes to live in a place.”