YOU ARE ENCOURAGED to consider visiting a public swimming pool, perhaps in a small town in the miswestern united states. such a venue anywhere in the world might be a hoot, but most certainly is in america, a country full of isolated people and brutally hot weather, where a nice cool public pool sure comes in handy.
america is not a community oriented country. it is a land of individual striving and achievement, always has been, ever more so now.
the average american has one friend fewer than a generation ago, according to a study released several years ago. are we becoming a nation of loners? participation in churches, civic organizations, and group activities of every sort has declined.
visitors fromother countries often marvel at american's lonely lifestyle. a vsitor from china, where community flourishes, said :"you americans are the loneliest people in the world. you care more about your dogs and cats than each other!". true enough.
in america, people sometimes see each other as annoyances, threats, competitors, rather than allies and supports. we isolate ourselves, sometimes become desperately lonely and alienated, and behave strangely,destructively, sometimes violently.
in a public swimming pool, one can actually speak to a stranger, maybe. one can admire whatever beautiful bodies one wishes, surreptiously, since amerca is a land of promiscuous prudishness, capitalistic profligacy stifled, somewhat, by christian restraint., a culture always at war with itself.
...floating on one's back in a cool pool, one forgets all that. the last two times i visited a public swimming pool i was kicked out for swimming in the deep part, without a lifeguard. again, that isolation tendency rearing its ugly head.
i need to remind myself the reason i am there; to seek community, not to avoid it.
Bb
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