Living out here in the third world... You get exposed to all the facets of life. And you are living in such close proximity to others. Even when I lived in tight quarters in Texas, I barely see anyone outside the apartment complex. This area where I live in is teeming with humanity. You will always see people outside your door. I get to witness more of general life, it's joys and sorrows. Baptisms, funerals and everything in between. Life in all a grand parade just outside your door.
That's a REAL community with real people and relationships. People from all walks of life, vendors and craftsmen always building someone nearby. We even have a couple of nutty people wandering around. In this situation, we have the entire community to deal with them such that they don't turn out to be too much of a nuisance to any one person. I suppose it works because even though the nutty people visit you, you can just say hi and humor them for a bit and then they move on. And when everyone shares in this, somehow, it's not much of a burden. They also obviously go home to someone who cares for them.
And because life is so open, nobody has time to hide away in their own house and occupy themselves with negative activities like hoarding, obsessions or even keeping children prisoners in the basement or some horrible thing like that. Out here, something like that IS unheard of. When people get old or sick, there's always someone to take care of them even with an imperfect social safety net. Even then, the Philippines at least has Phil-health which is really Medicaid for everyone, not just seniors. Anyone who contributes is enrolled into the system. The advantages of living in a real community, indeed. There is plenty to learn from.
No comments:
Post a Comment