Neighbourhoods ?
Greece is one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations and understandably - with sun, sea, relaxed way of life, just sufficient rain, sumptuous cuisine, and tranquility.
There’s something special about taking time to do “nothing”!
Just sitting and allowing our spirits to soak in the beauty of a Greek island vista, getting our vitamin D while casually relaxing on a beach, and only interrupting this solace to partake of the food of the gods - horatiki salad, kleftico, gigantes beans, tzatziki, pastitsio, spanikopita, gyros…! Let’s not forget the olive oil libations!
A day filled with such healing, brings rejuvenation to psyches made weary with the routines of hectic lives.
Life in our neighbourhoods seems so distant! And, we’re not the first to question why we need to return.
City planners stare at screens making decisions on how residential neighbourhoods are developed. In this area, apartment buildings; over here, row housing for first home purchasers; down the street, semi-detached houses. Single family dwellings clustered in various price ranges.
But then there are those exclusive gated communities where the elite like to call home or perhaps, better understood as enclaves.
Neighbourhoods are the creation of planners often made on the basis of financial outcomes for developers, density and taxation revenue for municipalities. But are they for the benefit of their inhabitants?
Cambridge Dictionary defines neighbourhood as: “the area of a town that surrounds someone’s home or the people that live in this area.”
Living in proximity to others has little to say about our interaction with them. In fact, the more costly the neighbourhood, the more segregated the inhabitants seem to want to be. They long for privacy in their world.
Those from the less affluent segments of society take drives through the ritzier parts dreaming of when they will be able to upscale. But seldom do those in gated communities drive through the “other sections” unless necessity dictates that they must, to get to their destinations.
So where do you live? It’s a regular party question, finding out where someone lives, what they do, seem to be ice breakers which open doors to further interaction and in the process, gives us some points on which to anchor our opinion of our newfound acquaintance.
Sitting on a beach on a Greek island doesn’t give a true insight into the life of the locals. After the tourists have come and gone, the islanders live their routines in community - tending their gardens, drinking coffee and wine, taking afternoon naps, visiting with neighbours, all the while shunning time in front of screens.
David M. Chavis and Kien Lee in an article for the Sanford Innovation Social Review in May 2015 entitled, What is Community Anyway? make these insightful comments:
““Community” is so easy to say. The word itself connects us with each other. It describes an experience so common that we never really take time to explain it. It seems so simple, so natural, and so human.”
“It’s about people.
“First and foremost, community is not a place, a building, or an organization; nor is it an exchange of information over the Internet. Community is both a feeling and a set of relationships among people. People form and maintain communities to meet common needs.
“Members of a community have a sense of trust, belonging, safety, and caring for each other. They have an individual and collective sense that they can, as part of that community, influence their environments and each other.
“That treasured feeling of community comes from shared experiences and a sense of – not necessarily the actual experience of – shared history. As a result, people know who is and isn’t part of their community. This feeling is fundamental to human existence.”
Isn’t that what planners cannot give us in our neighbourhoods?
But Greek islands don’t have planned neighbourhoods, rather communities which have evolved over centuries. People who dwell close together with houses clinging to rocky slopes but oh, the views. And, oh, the feeling of being connected!
Communities in which the priority is the wellbeing of neighbours.
In the exclusive neighbourhoods of our cities, it would be unwelcome, in most instances, to have a knock at the door each day and hear someone asking, “Hi Conrad - what are you doing today?”
In the island communities, the knock would be unnecessary, and replaced with a hearty, “How you doing Giorgos or Maria”, would announce your welcomed presence!
Come you must sit and drink a coffee or some wine.
Time seems to be pushed aside because of people, of spending time with friends, of caring for those with whom you live.
Gardening can wait. Tending the beehives can wait. Preparing food can wait.
But spending time with friends, can’t!
That’s the essence of living in community - people!
The Greek island of Ikaria has such a lifestyle, and the rewards for such choices.
It is unique in having the most octogenarians in the world. Jayne Fryer in an article written for the Daily Mail in 2019, says she, “discovers the secrets of tiny Greek island Ikaria where people live longer than anywhere on earth.” (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6258577/Its-Love-Island-oldies-drink-smoke-dance-lashings-sex-eighties.html)
Against this background, let’s re-view some of what we have in the biblical chronicle.
We read from Genesis to Revelation, that God’s heart desire was/is to dwell with his creation; to share and commune together, to live in each other’s presence. Yes, throughout much of human history, presence in a substitute structure was necessary.
Have you ever thought about that concept in terms of whether he wants to live in our neighbourhood or in our community?
Vastly different perspectives!
The Garden of Eden (pleasure) scene is a wonderful place of tranquility and pleasure - naming of animal creation, the enjoyment of orchards and gardens, the blessing of God’s presence.
God had created a sacred space where he was able to share with humanity during the “cool of the evening”. Why would anyone want to damage such a relationship?
It was always God’s intention to commune with his creation face-to-face without intermediation. But the option of free choice interfered with His intention to the point where the last 6000 years humanity has been distanced God from what he desired.
John’s visionary exposure (in Revelation) provides additional insights into what we refer to as the heavenly realm. No need for the sun or moon, no sea, no specific residences for His presence. God dwelling with his creation in absolute harmony - like it was in Eden!
Here’s how the ESV records it in Revelation 21:2-4,
“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””
God caring for his creation, interacting with His creation, enjoying the vastness of that creation, as originally intended and designed!
Like the aspiring home dwellers mentioned earlier, I can certainly understand why I would like to “community” with God. There is so much to leave behind, to gain, and to enjoy which now is only anticipation.
Knowing myself, I have to ponder why He might want to “community” with me, but I trust Him since He says He does!
Created to be with God in Community?