Where’s the Community

I wish I knew more people in my neighborhood.  Or do I already know them?

We’ve lived here for almost four years now. I talk to our elderly next-door neighbor sometimes.  I chat with the young man who lives across the street occasionally.  We used to attend church with an elderly couple a few houses down, and still keep in touch.

Behind them is a family with two kids, one of whom attends school with my children. They came to church a couple of times when we were there, but didn’t stick around. Last summer, the kids played at their house a couple of times, but we’ve never really hit it off with the parents.  In fact, they weren’t even around — grandma was watching the kids at the time.  I did see them riding bikes one day, and invited them to our local Kidical Mass, but they’ve been unresponsive.

In another house is a family who are sometimes involved in Girl Scouts.  We say hello when we see each other.  The son, who’s a year or two older than my oldest, has stopped by a few times to play or visit if we’re playing outside.

Half a mile down the street is our day care provider, who’s also the president of the PTO. We’ve met some other parents at school, but the ones we know live further away.

Hm.  I was sitting here this evening watching people walk and bike by, and wondering why I don’t know any of them.  But after putting it in print, I can see that I do know people. I just don’t know how to get to know them, or how to interact with them.  I do have more than a little social anxiety.  I mean, what do I do?  Go knock on someone’s door and…then what?  Will they think I’m crazy?

Sometimes I think that if we just moved into a neighborhood with people who were more interested in community, it would all fall into place.  It’s true that we’ve had a hard time getting other people in the community involved in things, whether it’s church, Girl Scouts, or Kidical Mass.  But I have a nagging feeling that we might fall into the same habits of not getting to know people no matter where we live.