NSD,
Far be it from me to chastise someone for hating the Midwest. I am *so* tired of Iowa.
Yesterday afternoon I was staring out the window across all the "green space" at the center of our campus. I was trying to understand the paths people follow, why some follow the sidewalks, others cross the grass.
Most people expect it is in general going to be a "shortest distance between two points" but it's not clearly that at all. A lot of it (i hypothesize) is well-trained people "keeping to the rules" of "staying on the sidewalks" (more so here than in such 'fuck the world and its rules' places like Leicester Square or wherever).
But then I started noticing something else. Almost every walker was a singleton; and they almost never took paths where they met someone else along the path.
Unless they were handsfree (rare here), they weren't talking on cell phones (less than 5% of total observed). Couldn't tell about earphones at the distance I was. But it was clear they were almost all taking paths that wouldn't intersect with each other.
Now part of this was due to being a fairly low traffic part of the day. The "movie theater" principle: when people go to a movie theater, they tend to sit "apart" from each other, too. until the congestion is such that they have no choice.
But I think it's interesting because we're not talking a campus of complete strangers here. This is a place that trumpets its "small town-ness", it's "community" whenever it has the chance. It's part of how we justify charging 40K/year for spending time with us.
And it was a time of day when the pace is probably as low as it gets for a large fraction of students and faculty (i.e., between 3 and 5 p.m.)
And it was a pretty nice fall afternoon, too, so there was no "lets get out of this dreary weather ASAP" operating either.
Yet despite all that, the traffic at the center of campus, at the center of the "community," follows the movie theater model.
Of course I can't really cast stones. I was standing by a window at the end of all....by myself, with my back to anyone that might appear elsewhere in the hall.
Until I answered the phone.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)