I spent about three hours on the road toady, driving out to Riverside County and back. But it was for good reason, we found a free picnic table on Recycler.com, we just had to go pick it up. When we got there they tossed in a broken but fixable futon as well, so the trip was well worth the drive.
What got me thinking was our need for a pick-up truck to get the table. Does everyone that has a truck get constantly bombarded with requests to pick up this or that or help people move? Probably, which was why I was uncomfortable scavenging through all my friends, asking them if they knew someone with a truck. I don’t know…on the one hand that’s what friends are for…but on the other hand, if I owned a truck, I certainly wouldn’t want to be helping people move every Saturday. I sort of felt bad dragging a friend of a friend our for three hours to get a table. But on the other hand I did fill up his tank with gas, and bought lunch, and he did volunteer, so I guess it’s ok…right?
This whole episode highlights the challenges of creating real “community”, groups of people who look out for each other, and want to do what’s best for one another. Community is one thing I’m about. In the future I want to build and instigate “communal” thinking and practices. But if I, who have spent some time thinking about and doing community, was uncomfortable with the above situation, how march harder would it be for the average person, who is typically more independent?
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