A promotional magazine arrived in our mailbox last week, all about moving to a rural community in the Southeast region. The first article’s title reads “Five Great Reasons to Get Out of the City” which lists short commutes, amenities, savings, and, at number four, “Everyone Knows Everyone”.
I take that as a negative.
But wait, this nameless writer argues. “There is a long-standing myth that living in a small town means everyone knows everyone else’s business. There may be a kernel of truth to this, but there’s another way to look at it: small towns are infamous for their neighbourly outreach.”
I am unconvinced. I’ll take a cabin over a rural development any day, thanks.
Then I happened to be listening to Terri Gross’s interview with James McBride on Fresh Air. They’re discussing the setting of his most recent novel, Deacon King Kong, and McBride explains how, throughout his childhood, he would leave Queens and spend summers in Red Hook. “There was a freedom in Red Hook that I didn’t experience in Queens. The church was there. My godparents were strict but they were fun. There was just a freedom there that I didn’t really feel anywhere else. There was also a sense of community that I felt didn’t exist elsewhere.”
When Terri Gross asked how you could feel a sense of freedom in a neighbourhood reputed for its crime, McBride elaborated. “Because you know who everybody is. You know who not to mess with, you know [who not to fool with, who’s in a bad mood because bad news, who’s trustworthy, what someone’s mother is like,] it was the sense of being in a village, a sense of ‘us against the world,’ (…) a sense of ‘we are kinda together here’. Now, granted, (…) you kinda have to remember (…) to let people have their own space, so you just ignore things you just don’t want to see. You see someone doing something wrong, you see someone dating someone they shouldn’t be, you just kinda look past it because everyone deserves their own space. But there is a togetherness that comes with that.”
I think that what McBride does is relay an experience that is both unique and convincing because it has soul. The promotional article has no soul. I mean, that’s normal, it’s to be expected, but still… I like feeling!