Chapter 1

Awareness, Courtesy and the Quality of Life

We begin by examining the notion of community. Community is fundamental to any social problem, so we should at least acknowledge its importance. The simplest use of the term refers to a population center, a concept that by itself is not very interesting. Nomads aside, a population center is just a region where some number of households are located. The occupants of those households could be carrying on an existence that is completely independent of the people around them. Even when you factor in such unifying elements as religion, schools, government and the local economy, the sense of community may yet be absent. Most of us are familiar with this "sense." It's a common expression, and people are apparently comfortable with it, but pinning it down exactly is another matter. What I'm going to eventually argue is the defining aspect of community is awareness, and the familiar sense we speak of arises from community awareness.

When I say community awareness, what I'm really referring to is collective awareness. The difference is this: There may be persons who are aware of the community, or of something they imagine to be the community, and you could perhaps say those folks are community aware, but I want to talk about awareness alone; to bring into focus individuals who are simply aware to some degree—not necessarily aware of anything, just purely aware. The awareness of several of such taken together creates collective awareness. I submit the whole in this case is greater than the sum of the parts, that the collective awareness of these individuals is what creates community.

It's a deceptively simple concept, this awareness thing. Let us be clear that it is not at all equivalent to the way awareness is used in such phrases as cancer awareness and environmental awareness. In those contexts, we refer to particular targets of awareness; namely, cancer and the environment. Even when folks speak of "consciousness raising," they usually refer to something we are conscious of, rather than consciousness itself. They are connected, these two usages, but there is an important distinction between them. In one case you are taken up with the object of your perception, in the other you're involved with the subject, the entity that does the perceiving, meaning you, yourself. Your attention is directed inward rather than outward.

This may sound abstract and perhaps a bit strange. Let's just say that awareness involves more than the flat, bland "I'm here and I'm awake" experience, and when you have a gut-level feeling for this, you more clearly recognize its significance.

As we'll see later, strong communities contain a greater number of individuals with more fully developed awareness. If this is so, then it follows that to gauge a community's strength, you must measure people's awareness. But this is not such a simple matter. I suppose we could wire electrodes to the neighbors' heads and record their brain waves as they go about their business, but that's not a practical option for us. A better approach is to find something more tangible to measure. Something, say, like the quality of life.

Quality of life is much more straightforward, logically and empirically. Whereas awareness is abstract and amorphous, quality of life is concrete and clear-cut. Quality of life hits you in the face when you walk out the front door. It's leaving your house unlocked versus barred windows and an alarm system. It's three-acre zoning and horse stables versus homeless men panhandling in traffic. It's the smell of freshly cut hay versus a code red ozone alert. Quality of life is as real as it gets. Understand that awareness is just as real, but the reality of awareness does not lend itself to examination by way of reason and logic. Examining the quality of life, on the other hand, could be as simple as counting the number of robberies in your district.

So what does awareness have to do with the quality of life? What connection is there between a vague notion that hints at something metaphysical and the hard reality of a rising crime rate?

Well, answering this question is the purpose of my essay. In order to establish a connection between awareness and the quality of life, we must work from both ends. We'll take a look at how folks in these parts behave and present evidence about the general state of mind in the neighborhood. At the same time, we'll outline a logical structure that closes the loop between observation and conjecture.

Let us then consider how the quality of life can be assessed. When you speak of a residential neighborhood, the three factors that come to mind first are safety, quietness and courtesy. Normally we weight these in the order I have listed, giving safety distinct priority over the others. Some examples will make this clear.

• Courtesy. Say the couple next door is reclusive. You hardly ever see them, and when you do, they don't so much as glance in your direction. You tried to strike up a conversation once or twice, but in four years they have yet to show any interest in establishing friendly relations with you or your household. It would have been nice to have a neighbor you can count on to, say, take in the mail now and then, but with these folks it's out of the question. They clearly don't know how to interact civilly with the people around them. It's not an ideal arrangement, but you can adapt.
• Quietness. Now when the neighbor's kid is in the habit of playing his stereo at jet engine volume when he comes home from school, blasting the block with booming, mega-bass hip-hop, it's a good deal more disturbing. It would no doubt bring about a sober discussion between you and the kid's parents, regardless of how friendly his family was with yours. And if your request to lower the volume weren't heeded, you might call the police to get your point across. It's an annoyance, but it's a problem that can likely be solved.
• Safety. However, if a pair of hold-up men takes your wallet while you're out for an evening stroll, it gives indication of a problem that may not be solvable. It's a situation that seems not within your power to control. Your vulnerability is exposed in a serious way. You might think about taking measures to protect yourself, like buying a gun, or consider moving out of the neighborhood. That's how important personal safety is to most people.

If we could narrow the discussion to these three factors—safety, quietness and courtesy—it would simplify things, but there are a number of others that deserve consideration.

First, there are the life necessities that support our very existence: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .text truncated

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Reviewing the main points: We postulated that the essence of community is collective awareness. I suggested that awareness is directly related to the quality of life and then defined what that means. We saw that taking a position in the garden gives us a handle on environmental factors, both internal and external. I argued that with a truly preventive posture, one's perspective is reversed and courtesy takes precedence over quietness—that is, respect for the garden zone—and safety. Arguing that refined awareness leads to clearer thinking, greater courtesy and responsible action, we concluded that awareness should receive an even higher priority than courtesy in the quality-of-life hierarchy. Next we saw that a preventive approach must involve education, but it's a different sort than we're accustomed to. Courtesy education and awareness education are not the same as book learning. Nor are they the same as moral education. We saw that refining awareness involves bringing it home, where home means first yourself and second your immediate surroundings. Lastly, I declared that my own strategy for handling awareness in the community is to approach it by way of courtesy.

As it stands, none of the institutions we mentioned—school, church, family or the law—is educating us in a way that's effective. Courtesy is taking a beating, and you need look no further than Camp Springs to witness it.