Not all those who wander are lost
Date published 4 March, 2019
Getting People Outside
This muse arose from a wander around a village that is not in the slightest bit unusual. Neither is it an unpleasant village, and I shall not name it in case someone takes this personally.
The village had all the qualities that make it ripe for inclusion on a calendar, apart from not being in Sussex.
The village green was well kept. The houses were looked after, and picturesque. The church sat appealingly amongst some tended graves dotted in amongst leafy trees. The ratios of Range Rovers to people was exactly in the central 4 percentiles.
But I cannot know that last fact. Because although I could count the Range Rovers, I could not count the people. Indeed, I saw no people at all.
I did, for one whole year, rent a house in a village exactly like this. And in the whole year, apart from speaking briefly to the next door neighbour as they put their caravan back on the drive, I met no one.
For another whole year, I rented a house in another village, visually not unlike the one above. After a year I knew a number of people, and chatted almost daily with them, and exchanged the purchase of beverages as one does. I have lived briefly in many other villages, but that is another tale!
The people in village one would have been every bit as decent, and as friendly, as the people in village two. I am certain of that. My muse is this. Village 2 had a vibrant village shop, right in its centre, and almost opposite that was a very friendly pub. It had a bustling cricket club that played matches in full public view on the field. What it had, to be more generic, was reasons for people to go outside. And when people go outside like that, they meet each other, and I reckon that produces community over time.
I know there is more to it that this. But I believe that if people live their entire lives - work, shops, school - in various locations, but drive someone just to close the door and sleep, it seems not to build community.
And that is a bit sad.
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