I just downloaded the book, The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact
Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter, by Susan Pinker, based largely
on the strength of the book review by Kate Tuttle (Boston Sunday Globe, August 31, 2014). I haven’t read it yet, but -
spoiler alert! – the punch line is already revealed in the title, that our
interactions with other people can make us happier. Or, to borrow a line from
my next book: “Other people can be the source of our greatest joys – and sorrow.”
And, don’t I know it – living in a village within a village, a condo community
within Aqua Village, aka Watertown, where we’ve had terrorists running through
our backyards, while at the same time neighbors baked cookies to take to the
Police and Fire Department the next day, since there wasn’t much else to do
while in lockdown. And we take great community pride in our Faire on the Square
every September, and our parades, with veterans marching proud in uniform.
Anyone who has ever lived in a condo
community also knows the joys and pains that can come with that new set of
house keys and carefree lifestyle. A condo association operates like a
miniature democracy, where the political is exquisitely local, representing a
microcosm of society. When all is well, no one shows up to meetings, and all is
quiet. The equivalent of low voter turnout. But when there is a problem (read:
something that is going to cost more money and/or offends their moral
sensibilities), owners will come out of the woodwork, showing up in droves.
When we first moved into our condo
twelve years ago, we discovered that there was some major work that needed to
be done. As I saw it, our options were to fix things, or buy a new
refrigerator, so we would have the box to live in. We were surprised to
discover a small contingent of owners who were completely opposed to the work.
They had planned on staying just a short time, and didn’t see why the financial
burden should fall on them during their brief stay here. It was maddening, but the
whole thing was ultimately resolved in the way of a true democracy, through
passionate debate, analysis, and some compromise. It has been several years
now, and things have been thankfully peaceful.
This summer we did something different
that wound up making a big difference. In the past we’ve always grilled on the
deck side of the building. It seemed to make sense, but it always felt a little
desolate, as we’d pop out, grill our food, and run back in with our dinner. (Of
course, with the grill off the deck in accordance with local fire codes.) Our
neighbors seldom came out to visit on this side of the building, but it didn’t
seem to make sense grilling on the other side, with all the ambience that an
asphalt driveway can provide.
This summer, we made a conscious,
deliberate decision to do something different. We decided to dedicate ourselves
to “chillin’ and grillin” every night possible, weather permitting, having a
cocktail and throwing our white plastic Adirondack chairs out on the driveway.
It did not feel terribly chic or elegant, but it was easier to grill on the
garage side, as it simplified grill clean-up.
A surprising thing happened. The
driveway side also faces another bank of units. Our neighbor, Mike, stopped by
and talked more often as he took his little Chihuahua for a walk. We initially
exchanged quick greetings with our other neighbors as they each came home in
turn, which gradually turned into longer exchanges, and ultimately inviting
them to join us, pulling out another chair or two, and having longer
conversations. We’ve always liked our
neighbors; we had just never had a chance to really get to know them. New
neighbors moved in. We met them and learned their names and where they came
from. Looking around one night, it occurred to me what a diverse group we had –
Greek, Italian, Russian, French. We had almost every type of salad dressing
represented!
One of my favorite memories was the
third of July (before the washout on the fourth), when we had a spontaneous
get-together, with neighbors stopping by, leading up to the high point of the
night when a few of us started singing the song, “Que Sera, Sera.” It probably didn’t hurt that we’d all had a
beverage to start out the night.
It was with relief, then, that I read
Jeff Jacoby’s column about the reported health benefits of moderate drinking,
as in a drink (for women) or two (for men) per day (“Why Can’t Alcohol Labels
Tout Benefits?” September 10, 2014). It’s a controversial topic, to be sure, as
pointed out by Dr. Richard Saitz in his letter to the editor September 13, 2014.
The topic was debated September 18th at the Boston University School
of Public Health. If I were invited (I was not), I would have argued that it
probably has less to do with the amount of alcohol ingested (a documented
toxin), and far more to do with the laissez faire attitude, the desire to kick
back and relax.
The way I look at it, our summer of
chilling and grilling was our attempt to imitate the French, and not just by
branching out and trying a bottle of Vouvray – which is as fun to drink as it
is to say. Many studies have tried to figure out why the French seem to have such
better health. It may have absolutely nothing to do with their diet or
exercise, or the copious volumes of wine they drink. It could be all about
attitude. And the French, with their je
ne sais quoi, have it right. They are the very creators of the term c’est la vie.
That’s what we had going for us this
summer. Not caring how our chairs looked set out on the driveway. Just enjoying
life and the company of our neighbors. As we enter the late summer, early
autumn of the year, and of our lives, maybe happiness is more about letting go.
Caring less, forgetting more, and taking nothing personally. Forgetting can be
just as important – and effective – as forgiving. Many of the problems of this
world are due to an inability to forget. McLean is experimenting with a couple
of ways to erase painful memories (“McLean team explores mechanism for erasing
painful memories,” by Carolyn Y. Johnson, September 1, 2014). An article that
same day in The Globe Magazine reported
on research at the University of Illinois linking hyper-connections in the
brain with depression in young adults (PLOS ONE, August 27, 2014). Simply put,
a lot of connectivity in the brain can predispose someone to ruminate more,
which is also linked with depression. We think, therefore we are sad! When all
we need is a little more “Que Sera, Sera.”
Or, as Miguel de Cervantes wrote so many years ago in Don Quixote:
“Quien canta, sus males espanta!” Translated to English: He who sings, scares
all his troubles away! (Our singing may have scared away more than just a few
troubles.)
To borrow a quote from Dr. Bessel van
der Kolk, Founder and Medical Director of the Trauma Center at the Justice
Resource Institute in Brookline, in the article “Getting Past Hurt” in The Boston Globe Magazine September 14,
2014, speaking on how to heal traumas: “In the same way that people can drive
each other mad, the company of people, and being understood by people, can also
heal us.”
So, it is with some sadness that we
are cleaning up the garage and getting things ready to be put away for the
winter. I will cherish these last few days while the weather is nice enough,
and the sun stays out late enough, for us to enjoy our last few opportunities
to grill and chill for the year. I can definitely say that we had a happier
summer, though, having benefited from the company of our neighbors – our Village!
About
This is a fresh piece, the inspiration
being our summer of chillin’ and grillin’ - and a series of articles I read in The Boston Globe over the span of a few
weeks, that all seemed connected to each other, at least to me.
There is hope that as the season
changes, maybe we will just migrate to indoor activities together, like
assembling pans of lasagna or enjoying giant pots of soup, making gnocchi,
bread, and cookies. We will bring the summer inside. I am reminded of an Albert
Camus quote: “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an
invincible summer.”
There’s a party going down in Aqua
Village! Watertown’s Faire on the Square is this weekend, all day Saturday,
September 27, 2014, at Saltonstall Park! Stop by and enjoy some last days of
summer and interaction with the local villagers. Enjoy our village!
References
De Cervantes, Miguel. 1605 and 1615. Don Quixote.
Jacobs, Rachel H., Jenkins, Lisanne
M., Gabriel, Laura B., Barba, Alyssa, Ryan, Kelly A., Weisenbach, Sara L.,
Verges, Alvaro, Baker, Amanda M., Peters, Amy T., Crane, Natania A., Gotlib,
Ian H., Zubieta, Jon-Kar, Phan, K. Luan, Langenecker, Scott A., and Robert C.
Welsh. 2014. “Increased Coupling of Intrinsic Networks in Remitted Depressed
Youth Predicts Rumination and Cognitive Control.” Public Library of Science
(PLoS ONE), August 27, 2014.
Jacoby, Jeff. 2014. “Why Can’t Alcohol Labels Tout Benefits?” The Boston Globe, September 10, 2014.
Johnson, Carolyn Y. 2014. “McLean Team Explores Mechanism for Erasing Painful Memories,” The Boston Globe, September 1, 2014: p. B5.
Pinker, Susan. 2014. The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter. USA:Spiegel & Grau.
Salahi, Lara. 2014. “Hyper-Connections in the Brain Linked to Depression,” The Boston Globe, September 1, 2014: p. G11.
Van der Kolk, Bessel, as told to
Rachel Deahl. 2014. “Getting Past Hurt,” The
Boston Globe Magazine, September 14, 2014: p. 18.
©
2014 Rosemary A. Schmidt
Rose
Schmidt is the author of “Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life.” If you would
like to request permission to use or reprint any of the content on the site,
please contact the author. Use of individual quotes with proper citation and
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