Late Night post....

I was cruising the internet late at night to get my mind off of a violent movie about Brazil, and came across this book (Life Inc.) and subsequent author's explanation of it. Click the link to watch - total time 9mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOBWhVe68os

Life Inc is about the restructuring of our society over the past few centuries and the shift from community to individualism. This contributed to the paradigm shift from "what's best for the group," to "what's best for me" think. I know in my life, the times I've been most happy are with friends and people I care about. This, as many may know, has often been in the form of PARTIES! But i use that term lightly. A party can be anytime a group of people get together and enjoy themselves - its not always for a reason or is it necessary to have a reason in the first place!

In reference to the author's comments in the video about having backyard BBQs, I too had a similar experience growing up. When my family first moved to Arkansas, we lived in a subdivision where houses were on parallel streets and the yards backed up to one another. At first, not many people had fences so the backyards interconnected and became a huge playground for the kids of the neighborhood. I can remember eating homemade ice cream on the back porch of the house directly behind ours, eating chocolate chip pancakes on Saturday mornings at another, and having BBQs and Crawfish boils with multiple families on several occasions. Then, after sometime and some neighbors moved away, one person built a fence… then another, and another, and another until our patchwork park was compartmentalized. These fences and walls were more than just physical, nearly all our interaction between each other stopped. This was a failure, on all our parts, to continue the growth of our little community – and we were all much poorer for it.

This past Saturday was the University of Tulsa's 2009 spring graduation. Congrats to all my friends who've completed this awesome milestone - I know what you went through. BUT, beware; the next year is full of equally surmountable challenges. The largest one for me has been trying to meet new people while traveling and living in several locations. If I only had one lesson to report that I've learned after my first year post-college, it would be: Any experience or accomplishment means very little if you don't have the people you care about it with you to share it.

Go and reverse the trend. Participate in your community. Have friends over for dinner. Drive through your neighborhood with the windows down and say 'Hello'. And at the very least, LEARN YOUR NEIGHBORS NAMES! It doesn't have to cost a lot, think 'potluck' Be the catalyst and get over your fears.

For continued reading and book excerpts, check out the following link: http://lifeincorporated.net/