Isolation & Estrangement

I prefer privacy. Had up-close and personal in one town. They end up knowing too much and criticising everything and everyone. I was MISERABLE. Of course, it might just be THAT town. Ooooh those narrow-minded people. I was in shell-shock for well over two years after making my escape to another area. A favorite saying--one person would lean into my ear, point to another person, and say, "I wouldn've have anything to do with her, if I were you!" The person in question was artsy, maybe gay, certainly cautious. Um . . . I'll never know what she was. I couldn't get close enough to her to find out why she was banned from the "in" crowd. It was all so juvenile. I don't even recall this kind of behavior from grade school.

Anyway, didn't this German have any family? I've got some family and a few close friends. They would know if I died.

Rather than the above being an indication only of more isolated communities, I would say it's also an indication of a growing tolerance of mal odors.

Three years! Whew!

How many people live in your Tampa Bay area? Do they all get together for breakfast? Or just the "in" crowd?

I think, this gives an answer to many questions: there has been someon to look after this person.



[However, I must admit that I even didn't read about this (and couldn't find it in the regional/local papers eithers).
So it might be that we get customed to it?]
This happens sometimes, but only with people, who really want(ed) to live their own lifes.



You have to signature once per year "that you are still alive".

dupre- The breakfast is just for my street. We usually get 20+ people every week!

The idealic "community" of yesteryear (if it actually ever existed) is long gone. There are still a few isolated places where neighbors actually "look out" for each other but even those seem to be fading.

Most people in the "baby boomer" generation probably have some recollection of neighborhood picnics and/or block parties as well as neighborhoods where all the kids played together. Nowadays, with both parents working in most households there isn't anyone home in the house all day long and when they do get home in the evenings they don't have the time to socialize with the neighbors.

Is it any wonder people are more isolated?

Just found the article:Link to Hamburg newspaper

The legal guardian (the person, who is in custody), knew the handicaped victim since 15 years.
He is a professional lawyer, visited him regularily and often, handled everything for him and was wellknown in the six-storey-building.

The victim had no known relatives, came originally from close to my place = 350 miles away from Hamburg.

fishin'- Maybe where I live we can afford to spend time caring for one another, because most of us are retired. We had a neighbor who drove from Florida to Chicago to pick up another neighbor who had gone up north, and then had a problem, and could not get back by himself.

Our community has an emergency squad, made up of volunteer neighbors, which works 24/7. There are certified EMTs, dispatchers who man the phones, and drive the ambulances. The service is free. ( A regular ambulance charges 300 bucks) If a person is having a heart attack, the regular government ambulance is called, but the emergency squad deals will less life threatening issues.

I was talking to someone who works the emergency squad, and he was complaining that the newer, younger residents have no interest in joining the squad. These are folks in their middle 50s. They do not have the sense of community that the older folks do, and now the squad is being manned mostly by people who will soon be too old to continue.

How many adult children look after their parents, after they've left home? Do they call each day? Do they go to dinners very often?
What do they do, when their parents become ill and need medical and legal advice?

More importantly:

How many adult children put their parents in nursing homes and assisted living homes, when they could easily accomodate their parents in their very own homes?

Love is more than a kiss !

Well, at least in Europe, you find even youngsters, who are doing such.

From the United Kingdom (just because it's the news today):
Hidden army of young carers


This is, IMHO, however another theme than the originally thread.

There, everything was planned as it should be:
a handicapted, living for his own (and not in a home), in the middle of the city (the place where he lived was in a cul-de-sac in the center of Hanburg), well looked after ... .
I don't think you could know in advance that all this would lead to a murder!

Interesting.

For the record, as a gen Xer, I grew up in an area where there were a ton of kids playing outside all the time, and I've known one family in particular since I was 4. (Still in touch.)

I'm pretty lucky with my area, too. Immediately across the street are two families with kids about the sozlet's age, and while she's not old enough to go over there by herself, we see them at least every other day. One family is a stay-at-home dad, mom works outside the home, and the other family is a stay-at-home mom, the dad works from home.

Certainly this is all less common than it used to be, though. (Well, maybe not the stay-at-home dad/ working mom part.)

I prefer isolation, I don't even know if I even have neighbors, & besides it's much better to have your privacy. At leats that's my opinion.

Dux;
do you really, perhaps not, or you wouldn't be here; at a2k your thoughts are pretty "public"!

I prefer a dose of both; living alone, and socializing as much as is practical, and seeking out new experiences to share ideas, and polish my social skills (I'm sure you'll agree they need a little attention!).

I guess I do, but not from the ones that are around me, btw expressing is part of who I am, however I'm pretty picky of with who express myself, & with my neighbors I don't express myself, & I was reffering specifically to socializing with people near me(physically) I didn't meant any other thing. Maybe when I consider myself with enough knowledge I'll help other people, but that's just a maybe.

I'll drink to the "maybe" s!

Make it two of orange juice, to the MAYBEs

Many of us have come from another forum, Abuzz. A number of years ago I wrote a thread there trying to determine whether the members considered themselves very outgoing and social, social isolates, or somewhere in between.

As I remember, many of the people who replied said that they did socialize somewhat, but was very protective of their "private time".

Hmm. Maybe I will make another thread like it.