Loss of community and good tomatoes

It was a small crowd in church this morning. I was tired from the lack of sleep I had allowed myself to suffer from by watching a movie late into the early morning. I was sitting in the choir loft with the choir. As we slid in to our seats, I commented that the balance of the congregation could climb into the choir loft and the pastor could "preach to the choir."

Summer is great in many ways. But, unfortunately, it seems to cause us to fold in to our families and our friends and neighbors lose touch with us because we are vacating, visiting, celebrating weddings and graduations and anniversaries and such. Meanwhile, we tend to spend a lot of our home time inside the airconditioning. So we lose touch with our neighbors at a time when we traditionally are more free to touch base.

Here I am. I spent most of the day in our back yard with Cindy, working on the yard and the back of the house. Finally, we went to Cissie Perry's house and ate supper and at least touched base with one friend. We could have taken folding chairs in to town and shared a concert with our neighbors, but we didn't. Now we are getting ready to visit mom and dad. At least that is some effort to touch base with others.

The heat and humidity of summer do not keep me from getting together with my friends and neighbors. It is just the average pulls of modern culture that pulls me away from them.

Now I am sitting here, by myself, writing this, while a conversation goes on on the radio in which they are discussing the fact that our food is engineering by scientists and grown by corporations and sold to us by fast food restaurants and chain grocery stores. It makes me want to buy some tomato plants and plant them in the back yard.

But that would take me away from my neighbors, now wouldn't it?