Eye Level Pasadena

Neighbor Hugo Schwyzer knocks it out of the park again*: Girl talk, depression, and culturally conditioned rivalry. Excerpt:

“…because we inculcate in girls an absolutely impossible, unattainable ideal of physical and emotional perfection at such an early age, we set many young women up both for self-loathing and for hostility towards their female peers….[T]hose of us who care about young people need to be particularly attuned to the lack of resources that young girls have for safe and healthy opportunities to talk. Safe and healthy, by definition, means an uncompetitive environment, and it means providing them with understanding listeners whom these girls will not perceive as either judges or rivals.” (Link)

*If you didn’t see his post last month titled “Fat”, “Slut”, “Selfish”: a note on the three great fears, it’s also worth a read.

On Thursday, Gavin and I visited the Santa Monica iPhone line. (We occasionally leave Pasadena, it’s true!) We met several people from Mahalo (“the world’s first human-powered search engine” — here’s their about page). We told them we were from Pasadena and asked them if they could create a Pasadena search results page, and the next day they did. Head on over and check it out, and while you’re at it, recommend a few links that would make the page even better.

Pasadena – Mahalo

Bill at Dying Man’s Daily Journal wrote about his neighbors yesterday and his last paragraph jumped out at me:

I admit we were very fortunate to move into a neighbor hood full of such nice and wonderful people. But I think if people really stop and look around they will see their own neighbor hoods are not all that much different, full of wonderful people. It is a real shame we have somehow become so busy and so private in our lives we are missing out on so much. Knowing and sharing with the wonderful people around us. Really how much effort does it take to just chat and get to know a neighbor. (link)

Bill lives in Canada, so this isn’t a post about Pasadena, but about neighbors and about what is possible. I think Bill is right–that all of our neighborhoods are full of wonderful people. I have a dream for Pasadena: that it will become even more the kind of place where people naturally get to know each other–across age lines and background lines and area of interest lines and color lines. I want it to become even more the kind of place where being part of the community is in the air–it’s not just a place to live or shop, it’s a place to sit and talk and hang out and help and enjoy and appreciate everyday life together.