on not bowling alone - Fourth of July issue

Last night, as dusk fell, I sat alone on the front stairs for a bit and listened to the sounds of my neighborhood celebrating - people laughing; kids shouting; bottles clinking; fireworks popping or booming; fighter jets screaming through the sky. You could just sense the contentment and happiness.

Having good weather after about a month of rain of course contributed to the sense of well-being. But I like to think it was something more - a feeling of solidarity and community in celebrating our nation's birthday.

We don't get much explicit sense of this, which explains Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone. But there are flashes of it, and they are worth noting. (Even the crab-master who whined in the comments on my other blog that if our town REALLY wanted to raise some money, they'd be ticketing all the owners of the illegal fireworks going off in his neighborhood is building community, in his own curmudgeonly way.)