We have often said this in relation to church buildings.
We build our places of worship and then they can so easily exert control over us and even dictate how we live our life of faith. By calling them ‘sanctuaries’ we already give shape to how we will view them. I could give many examples here, but probably the most obvious is that once we have a building of a certain size we feel the need to fill it and to keep on filling it – so we can build a bigger one. This in turn determines how we see our mission and what form our ecclesiology takes. I’m sure there are some exceptions to this rule, but our buildings definitely shape us. For those of us who meet in homes this applies equally but there are different strengths and weaknesses.
So I have been pondering how our suburbs shape us.
I’m sure that the type of buildings we erect and the form of the suburb gives shape to our interactions. Its noticeable that in almost all of today’s homes the primary living areas are at the rear – away from the rest of the world and that these days very little living is done ‘out front’. A second obvious factor is the remote controlled garage door phenomenon. Now almost everyone has a garage with access to the house and no need to be seen at all by the neighbours.
I’m sure this has changed the way we interact in communities. I have noticed that two of the families in our street use their garages as outdoor living areas and they are subtantially more ‘interactive’ with the rest of the street than those who live ‘out the back’.
I remember reading Simon Holt’s book God Next Door and appreciating his observation on the loss of the front porch. Now we have the rear alfresco area in its place. I began to wonder about a social experiment where a group of 4 or 5 families moved into the same street and intentionally built ‘back to front’ houses with living and alfresco areas at the front and where the primary social activity occurred out there. I began to wonder how it might affect the vibe of the street if half of it were built this way.
What do you observe about your own suburb in terms of how its form affects the shaping of its community
What you’ve described is more about how the design of our home affects us than the design of our neighbourhood.
Sometimes I used to look across our large backyard, over the fence and into the large backyard behind us, and over to the one beyond them. I thought, imagine if we took all the fences out. We’d have almost an oval if we then removed a few trees.
Our neighborhood has cul-d-sacs at the end of some streets (a circular dead end). When we began our family we chose to build our house on a cul-d-sac so our children could play in the front with the neighborhood kids. The parents would set on one another’s porch and watched the kids play. From toddlers to teens our children played in the cul-d-sac. Now that the kids have grown, my husband and I have taken to sitting on the curb or tail-gate of his pickup truck and visit with the Canadian couple who lives next door. Other neighbors hollar at us from their yards or cars as they come home for the evening, but nobody ever comes over to join us (even when we invite them). We live in an upper middle class neighborhood and they may think we are being “getto.” I spent my highschool years living in government projects and I guess the front porch thing is reminescent of those times when single moms would set on the front porches and watch the children play in the center court. They would visit from porch to porch or hollar across the way. Simple pleasures of life…”getto” or “gold”?
Would that living front or back made any difference in our neighborhood where most homes serve only as vacation “now and then’s.” Our gathering places do exists however. Locals (not the n&t’s) gather at the recycling center and the midget-sized PO with its coffee pot and always filled candy dish.
I like your blog very much and have linked with it.
We live in a cul de sac and probably one of the few who have been there since the beginning, I guess one of the things I have noticed is that suburbia has become much more individualistic. There is also the security issue, people have roller shutters on windows, and as you said the garage door comes down and at times you dont even know if anyones home, people want to feel safe behind closed doors.
Perhaps its also got to do with modern technology, so long as I can be entertained by the TV , internet and whatever other gadgets I choose to amuse myself with , it will probably keep me away from community living.
I have also noticed the danger in things like internet chat, MSN , Facebook etc. All these things can give you a sense of having spent time with a person when you have only had conversation on the net.
I have a neighbour that I am quite friendy with and I have her email address, so I have to be careful that I dont just send her messages rather than going out of my way to speak to her in person.
I guess its a cultural thing and one thats very hard not to get caught up in and just go with the flow.
In our neighborhood, we have several of us who will sit out front and socialize. But despite the fact that many others have been at least as long as we have (8 years now), there are still those whose names I do not know. They don’t come join us as the kids and dogs play in our front yard. Perhaps I need to be more intentional about inviting them.
But there are bad points to being this close with some neighbors. The dents on my garage door, pile of toys, and torn-up plants attest to the fact our neighbors’ kids consider our front yard theirs as well. 🙂
(Nice blog. I’ve added you to my blog roll.)
Hello! I really like the name of your blog. It says a lot. I also enjoyed this post. I am often frustrated with our attachment to our buildings, this dependency makes it almost impossible to imitate the ministry of Christ! It’s funny that “going out” has become “out of the box thinking!” Your post resonates with me and some things that my husband and I have been thinking about.
We always wanted to live in a ‘community’ sense, but, try as we might, it just didn’t really work.
There was the odd exception, but there was never that real sense of each person in a proximity WANTING to be close to each other, just little diads on occasions.
We moved into our current location 2yrs ago. I know it’s 2 years, cos tomorrow night, we’re having a street party where everyone (except one family who had previous plans) will be there. It’s just a BYO everything do, but it’ll be cool.
The thing we’ve noticed is that it’s clearly not about us.
Every person on the street just values community and sharing and hanging etc. Not all of the time, but at least a couple of times a week during winter and more in summer.
No other christians looking to share the joy, just a bunch of folk who have experienced it before and seem to have decided that it was worth having another go at.
For a couple of months after 1st moving here, I thought I was clever for ‘making it happen’.
Now I know that it’s got nothing to do with me.
I love my street!