Opinion | Daily Journal

A TAYLOR-MADE LIFE: Taking action on interaction

Taylor Leddin-McMaster

With the weather cooling down from the sweltering 90-degree days, I’ve been enjoying getting comfortably back on my bicycle for rides around the neighborhood. I typically do 2- to 3-mile rides that wind me around the Riverview neighborhood, giving me the opportunity to gawk at all the beautiful homes.

I see lots of faces out and about on these oh-so-few summer evenings. Others are riding bikes, people are walking their dogs and enjoying the park, or people are doing yard work before the sun goes down.

Although it’s a big area, I’ve found that I don’t know many of my neighbors. I know our neighbors to the south, and then I have to go down quite a few more doors before seeing another familiar face. It doesn’t seem like that long ago I grew up in neighborhoods where I knew almost everyone.

While the pandemic played a role, I think the distance from our neighbors started long before 2020. It somehow became easier and seemingly safer not to interact. I had fallen into that mindset, too.

This is something I think about often as I’m going around the neighborhood, whether on bike, foot or behind the wheel. And it’s something I wanted to change, if only just for me.

I’ve challenged myself to wave hello to any people or groups I pass by on bikes or walks. Sometimes people seem a little caught off guard, but more often than not, people kindly say “hello” back.

Of course, this is quite different from going door-to-door and introducing yourself with a plate of cookies, but it has given me more of a sense of neighborliness. Even though they’re technically strangers, they’re still neighbors, they’re still community members, they’re still fellow humans.

And it’s nice in a world with increasing face-to-face disconnect to have those moments of connection, even if those moments are wheeling past at 10-15 miles per hour.