Notes from my Knapsack 2-28-19

Notes from my Knapsack 2-28-19

Jeff Gill

 

In the company of strangers

___

 

I work in Newark, and not far from the church I serve used to be a neighborhood bar.

 

Can a parson be sad to see a tavern close? Sure. For one thing, I'd always meant to go inside, and just hadn't gotten around to it. (Hey, ministers have to eat lunch, too.)

 

And when it closed, I realized that it was very nearly the last of a formerly common reality, the corner tap room.

 

I read on the internet, and it therefore must be true, that in the late 1940s around 90% of all beer and liquor was consumed in public places, but that by 1990 that figure was 30%.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if it was even lower today.

 

Robert Putnam in "Bowling Alone" pointed out in this and many other areas that we were becoming less connected as a people; he's continued for nearly thirty years to write about our eroding "social capital." The title of his most famous work was about the fact that the actual amount of bowling measured in games rolled hadn't actually dropped that much over fifty years, but the number of people participating in organized leagues had declined sharply.

 

He carries that point out into a variety of service clubs and organizations: it's not about liberal or conservative, progressive or traditionally minded groups, but people doing things together that's declining. And I'd include both churches and corner pubs. People pray at home at 2 am and say they are "spiritual but not religious," and they drink at home, too.

 

Add in trends away from marriage and childbearing, and you see a precipitous rush to solitude, or is it simply loneliness? Isolation and atomization pulling us apart, consumerism reinforcing the impulse to order online, take delivery on our front porch while we're away, and to keep our enjoyments private and alone.

 

So I am cheered when I am downtown in Granville, and yes, by the pubs and bars as much as by the busy churches and civic groups. We are a social community, and while I've written recently about my concern over how well we include and involve newcomers to Our Fayre Village, the hard fact of the matter is that we're more sociable and interactive than many communities, I'd suspect most. By a wide margin.

 

Just strolling – alone sometimes! – down the sidewalks of Broadway or Prospect and seeing the lights and tables and couples and groups at tables and in conversation, the tinkle of glasses sometimes heard as doors open and close, the sense and spirit of community at work across the rooms, it is all something for us to take pleasure in.

 

It is also represents a dual challenge for us, both to increase the circle of inclusion, and to maintain this community spirit in the face of some pretty serious trends against our way of being Granville. There are interests and investments pushing back against this sort of mutual interest, urging us to return to our corners and cubbyholes and solitary retreats. Lonely people are good consumers, and there are lots of people who want to sell you something there without distraction.

 

Meeting people in Granville is always interesting, and something I wish I did more of even when pressed for time. And I look forward to the warmer months ahead, the sidewalk tables set again, and the windows open of many establishments to where you can more easily get an inkling of the community at work within.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he hasn't been in as many bars as he probably should have been. Tell him where you meet strangers who become friends at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.