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Rootless Americans

The rootlessness of modern American society perturbs me deeply. Throughout history, most people lived their entire lives in the same village as their ancestors. All their relatives lived nearby, and they knew all their neighbors. Walking down the street, they could address everyone they met my name. I recently read the trenchant observation that Americans are the first people in history who expect that their children will live thousands of miles away from them, as though this were perfectly natural (I forget where I read this or I’d cite my source). It may be true that today we have airlines, cell phones, email, and other such technologies that allow us to remain “connected” with friends and relatives around the globe, but there’s something so coldly impersonal and inhuman about this as a substitute for being surrounded by kith and kin you’ve known all your life. It also makes it so much easier to “drift apart” and stop calling or writing over time.

I’m feeling very lonely and isolated right now. Two dear friends of mine, a couple who just recently married after many, many years of dating, are moving to the East Coast in a few months. I just found out today that one of my close coworkers is moving back East as well, which triggered this current funk. It got me thinking of the number of other coworkers who have drifted away over the past few years. People cycle through jobs fairly quickly in the software industry, especially at a small company like mine. A lot of brilliant, passionate people, many just recently out of college, were attracted there in the heyday of the dot com boom and there was a spirit, an energy, a Zeitgeist if you will that is difficult to put into words unless you’ve experienced something of the sort. That energy has largely dissipated and many of those folks have dispersed to other jobs around the country, and while it is still a fun place to work and I cherish many of my coworkers who remain, there is a lingering sense of fragility, of impermanence, that everyone still there may be gone in a few more years.

I’m single, I live alone, I don’t have any roommates. I’ve lived in the same apartment for years but I don’t know any of my neighbors. I’ve never much thought of this as “home” because I’ve always toyed with the idea of moving somewhere to shorten my commute.

I don’t doubt that much of this is of my own making. I could make more effort to keep in touch with those who have moved away, I could introduce myself to my neighbors, I could get involved in my local parish, etc. And I probably should. And maybe I will. But right now it’s 2:00 AM and I’m having trouble falling asleep, and it is so much easier to blame my heartache on the rootlessness of modern society...

posted by The Jabberwock @ 2:10 AM