Where Will we Live, I Wonder?

Our very own Luke Crane*, among others, is profiled in this NY Times article: A Confederacy of Bachelors, about four men living as long term roommates in New York City.

My situation couldn't be more different than theirs, but as a city-dwelling married-with-family full-time-job kind of guy, I do think almost all the time about where we'll live and how we'll live. So much so that my next art show is built entirely around homes and buildings in my neighborhood. Your dwelling is much more than physical space. It's made up of concentric environmental circles that nurture or fail to nurture your physical, social, creative, and spiritual needs.

Living within an easy bus or walk of our library, grocery store, school, Church, and coffee shop is essential to my family's well-being. But our physical surroundings are cramped and awkward, it's not easy enough to link up with friends in a casual sociable manner. We have few close acquaintances in our school and church community, and it seems to take us forever to build up these relationships. To put it simply, we get a bit lonely. And somehow we seem to lack the tools to change this state of affairs.

Hey, now I'm checking out the video that's packaged with that NYT article. It's pretty interesting. We used to live in a multi-unit house in Squire Park**. We had good friends living next door. If it was hot, we had a barbecue. If we had nothing to do on a Saturday night, we could knock on our neighbors door. We shared food and news. Now we all have much better homes, but we're divided. Getting together requires cars, phone calls, and writing down dates on the calendar 2-3 weeks out. Bleh to that! It's time to find an empty lot and build our own condo development.

* Yes, he belongs to us. Were you unaware? ** Seattlites, that's the neighborhood between Seattle University and Immaculate Conception Church on the crest of the Hill.