LETTERS TO STRANGERS
...WORDS I HAVE POSTED PUBLICALLY IN VARIOUS PLACES IN RESPONSE TO OTHERS WORDS...
...a friend is a stranger waiting to be met...
Location Loneliness
THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE...
"I've had my share of heartaches, misfortune and mistakes.
LETTERS TO STRANGERS
...WORDS I HAVE POSTED PUBLICALLY IN VARIOUS PLACES IN RESPONSE TO OTHERS WORDS...
...a friend is a stranger waiting to be met...
Location Loneliness
January 13, 2000
wow, this message just showed up at this end... I suppose if not for loneliness and wanting to communicate so much, the haphazard flow of messages, so much like actually tossing messages-in-a-bottle into a vast cyber ocean never knowing how long it will take for the message to reach land or which land it will reach first could be quite amusing and fun... maybe looking at it that way might help (it helps me now :)
Hi :)
>> I believe that in the city people are more suspicious of your intentions.
>> When you talk to someone the first question that is asked by the recipient
>> is "what does this person want from me or can I get from them?" That
>> paranoia is magnified by the concentration of people per square mile.
>
>Well, this is certainly true in my experience. In the UK, for example, it is a
>shock for someone raised in the Home Counties to find that if you travel
>north, people will talk to you at bus stops and even, after an initial exchange
>about the weather, on boarding the bus will actually sit next to you in order to
>continue the conversation. A Londoner at this point would probably be in a
>state of utter terror. I remember once in London someone sat next to and
>started a conversation with me in a cafeteria and for the first few minutes of
>the conversation I assumed that the intention was to try and sell me some
>drugs, since I could think of no other possible reason why anyone in London
>might be induced to address a stranger.
>
>Sad, as you say.
>
I agree... walls we build, windows we close, any obstacle we put in the way of sharing what we want to share is sad...
I can only relate to the USA (with a touch of Canada) in my experience, though living in and around Orlando for about 6 years and living in NYC for a couple of decades, I've met many people from other countries and I've found for me, for the most part, non-USAers, on average, friendlier than USAers... I've always been a rather open person... as a younger child living in New York City, I sense the walls around people all the time... attitudes seemed very aloof, even cold or hostile... for short periods (less than 2 years) I've lived in Monterey, California, San Antonio, TX, Hopewell, VA, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Buffalo, NY, and Toronto, Canada (that's all I recall at the moment)... each locale felt different in the general sense... each had enough specific cultural behavioural similarities within and differences from other areas to give me the sense of another place... I've found the same sense even when just passing through an area for a few days...
still, at the end of the day I think it doesn't matter where I live as much as what attitude I present to others... I've lived in rural areas where I did not meet friendly people... and sometimes I didn't... I've lived in huge cities and small cities and found wonderful social interaction and friends for life and beyond... and sometimes I didn't... so while I do see a different level of friendliness and openness outside of cities, I think my social life is more dependant on the way I look at myself and others, and the way I present myself to others, than on where I am... anyway, that's my thoughts and experience :)
honest love, ric
occasionaly this life has left me battered,
but I can't blame no one else, 'cause what I've done to myself
is the only kind of history that matters"
~ Harry Chapin ~
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