I was talking with a friend and I told her that I felt today's dying sense of community contributes greatly to environmental peril.  I said this because I remember the good old days when I knew my neighbor's name and they were comfortable with that.  We would call each other when headed to the store, offering either a ride or to pick up what was needed.  If one of us was ill, the other would cook dinner that night.  If one of my father's kids was being punished it meant using a push mower(no motor) to cut the grass; and the neighbor's grass, also.  Boy did we behave better after a week of that!  None of us dropped dead from the physical exertion, nor do we claim any psychological damage.  Not from the mowing anyway. Now the time he wrapped a curtain around his neck and shot the neighbor's cement deer......Anyway.

We shared the environmental cost.  We car pooled.  We fed each other.  We gave our extra garden bounty to the community.  We entertained each other.  We got together and rented movies that up to 5 families would come watch.  We made real popcorn, and used real butter.  We collected rain water for our gardens.  We gave food away before we would waste it.  We gave and used hand-me-downs with no sense of being poor.  We had tune-up weekends for the vehicles; out of 5 neighbors 2 were mechanically inclined.  Appliances were reconditioned instead of replaced.  These things were not done to help the environment, they were done because we were a community and that is what community did.

Today I don't know my neighbor well enough to call and offer to pick up a few things.  I would be seen as weird and invasive.  I can't make my son mow a lawn with a manual mower, that would be abuse now.  My garden bounty could invite a lawsuit if I gave it to a shelter.  At least according to state law.  I can't bake cupcakes for my son's birthday at school.  I have to buy individually wrapped junk and deal with the plastic wrap.  Collecting rain water is too much work???? Oh my.

Hand-me-downs are not cool, unless they are called vintage and sold at toney department stores.  Appliances resemble the Easter Island faces in our landfills.  Many of them only needed a hose or new switch.  Convenience rules.  And you can't get the appliances from the landfill.  Too much risk for insurance purposes.  Heaven help us, the world has gone crazy and we are turning into robots.  No emotion or caring about the robots around us.  No sense of the end of resources.  No sense of responsibility.  I don't want this, I want my community back.  I admit it, I love them.