Where have our Communities Gone?

Ah, so Samhain has come and gone, and we are still experiencing incredibly beautiful weather. Today was 12 degrees (celcius)...Ridiculous for November 1. Halloween night was just as beautiful.

Last night, we handed out candy to some pretty cute kids. And some pretty large teenagers, who I usually feel compelled to humiliate before they get anything. :) I heard more than one rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Whatever, kid. If you're taller than I am, you're going to have to earn it. ;)

Our wonderful neighbours came over with their 6 month old daughter, Kaiya...She's beautiful, and she was dressed as a poodle. It was absolutely precious. They are great people. They really look after us. When my husband and I were gone on our honeymoon, our old whirlybird got blown off our roof by the wind, and Barry grabbed it, climbed up onto our roof, put it back, and left us an apology note for going on our roof?! Such a sweetheart. It's great living next door to people like that. Even though they did make fun of my "health food candy", which, for the record, was still delicious, but it was sweetened with cane sugar and brown rice syrup. Don't laugh, I'm a nutritionist, for crying out loud! :)

One thing that was evident this Halloween, though, was how many people are no longer taking their children trick-or-treating in the traditional way. Apparently though, the malls were packed with kids.

I understand the inherent risks that seem to becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Sexual predators seem to be rearing their ugly heads more and more often, and with increasing populations, globally, there just seem to be more and more crazies running around. I understand, too, the increasing need to be vigilant with our children, since it is, after all, our responsibility as parents to protect them. I would like to think that I would protect someone else's child just as I would protect my own.

It seems to me, though, that by isolating ourselves from one another, we continue to run increased risks of not knowing who we're dealing with. In spite of our fantastic neighbours, we really don't know many other people on our block. Besides Barry, Dana and Kaiya, We know our neighbours on the other side, and they are fairly nice people, although they keep to themselves, and there is a Vietnamese family down the street, who seem pretty nice, with two young daughters and a little Bichon puppy...All I know is that the woman's name is Kam...but I really couldn't tell you much more. Perhaps the creation of community is a way of us keeping each other accountable, and ensuring that we have a sense of who we can trust. I do believe we were blessed with instinct for a reason.

In addition to what I think is just general ickiness of people spending any holiday inside a mall, I really believe that we are robbing ourselves of an inter-connectedness and interdependence that is really necessary for a thriving society. We need each other, like it or not. No one can do this alone, and by knowing your neighbours, or at least knowing enough about them to know whether or not they can be trusted, we empower ourselves to protect our homes and families.

We must not let fear rule us. Isolation breeds fear, which breeds isolation, which breeds fear, which breeds isolation....you see where I'm going with this?

I am beginning to make a conscious effort to involve myself with my neighbours. I am volunteering for my community league. My husband and I will be volunteering to do community watch in the New Year as well. It is well-documented that communities with more citizen participation tend to be safer, and have decreased incidence of crime. Perhaps it is time to begin to heal and rebuild our broken communities.