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Nalani Kumiko

The temperature is 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and I feel alone.

Natural weather is frustrating, and community connectivity is important. Why are things so dang far? Why do we assume we can’t interact? We deserve interaction.



Why is everything so damn far in the city. The summer heat wave is oppressive, and it’s dangerous to drive without air conditioning, let alone walk to where you need to go, so far away from the houses. Public transportation is a mess. Community connectivity is important. I want to make some artist friends! I want to go and write with other people. This is part of why I love libraries. However, if it’s hard to even make a trip there, and they don’t always have an event that fits what you’re trying to do, then how do you meet people? I know I need to call out digitally to get community to meet together, but the distance and the heat feels oppressive. I am frustrated with the way my city is designed. I am frustrated at what feels like structured, enforced loneliness. Confinement to quarters. So much for mastery over our environment. We’ve turned our own homes into zoo enclosures. I know that’s a bit pessimistic. Eventually the heat will abate, and I can go outside again. I’ll find more people, and some of them I can meet with online. It’s just frustrating, that's all. And maybe a little scary, and I’m reacting with anger to something I cannot control, so I don’t deal with the fear. That’s all. It's a case of agitation for me, because people tent to follow in the tracks their environment places for them. And, if it's such an uphill battle to go outside, and build connections, and maintain them, then it falls by the wayside. People need people. We don't work well in a vacuum. I'm no different. The idea of going place to place, and seeing who would be willing to host an art group, or a writing group is daunting. Add onto that, having to go to people themselves to see if they'd be interested in such a group, and the feeling multiplies. Maybe that's why some people liked making friends in school. Not because school was that great, but because it was a place, and that's it.

It's still possible. It just takes more effort and time.



Fun fact: Argle-bargle is actually an official word in the dictionary. I didn’t know that it was an official word. I just thought it was something people say, but didn’t actually “count” as an official word. Not that there’s anything that doesn’t count as a word, given how language changes, but still. I have great hope that one day our dictionaries, the grand reference of all the words in our lives, the arbiter of what counts as serious language will one day be so chockful of words like this that you can hardly search around it without spashing into them every other page. Hehe.

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