Pulling Ourselves Away From Our Pets, Briefly

IN MY AVERAGE AMERICAN town I have many neighbors, one of whom is friendly. His name is Juan, and he came from Guatemala. Juan waves when he drives by, and sometimes we visit in his backyard while he loads or unloads his work truck. I've never spoken to his wife, who is a born American. Without Juan my world would be far more lonely, thus, for Juan I sincerely thank the unseen gods of Latin American culture. My other neighbors, fellow lower middle class native european-american caucasions, never speak to me. Especially the women. Sinecly something like twenty five percent of all American women have been sexually abused, I certainly can't blame them for wanting to avoid me, but, somehow, I feel my loss. Oh hell, the loss is theirs! I'll never forget my friend from Shanghai, who came to America and said: "you Amellicans are the roneriest people in the world. You care more about your dogs and cats than each other!" He seemed upset by it. I assured him he needn't be. You got that right, I told him, and that's just the way we like it. Sharp one, that Chinese friend of mine. Didn't take him long to figure us Americans, and our culture, out. I also reassured him that down deep, Americans are good, friendly people, its just that you have to dig down a bit. I knew he would make friends in America, especially if he moved to a bigger city, which he did. Sometimes, maybe we yanks over do the individual thing a bit, as documented well in the great book "Bowling Alone", by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam. But, deep down, sometimes way deep down, we still like each other enough to hang out a little bit, if and when we can pull ourselves away from our precious dogs and cats.