I have been unable to find a job doing graphic art in the last few months. So, I took a job doing maintenance for an exclusive planned community in Orange County. As one can imagine, I am severely underutilized in my workplace. Thus, I am led to speculate about the social constructions and paradigms surrounding the inhabitation of these “planned suburban communities” (If such a thing can exist).
We as a society have an obsession with attaining safety and utopia within our lives. But safety is an unattainable illusion that inherently facilitates our demise. There is an overt lack of risk taken in choosing to inhabit one of these suburbs. We as a people, don’t appear to plant ourselves based upon where we can flourish, and facilitate the flourishing of others. Conversely, we place ourselves in contexts that enable a greater degree of comfort.
It also seems a bit paradoxical to even call these regions communities. I dont see any sense of “community” in these neighborhoods. The only physical manifestation of community apparent in suburbs is the proximity between homes. They are crammed next to one another like shipping containers traveling across the ocean.
The overall aesthetic in these communities lacks any sense of timelessness, or craftsmanship. There is no differentiation of structure or design risks taken. Subsequently, there is only uniformity and disregard for individuality. They have no history. They tell no story. All the trees are analogous and small. They were all planted in the same day, by the same gardeners. All the houses look the same, because they were all built in the same year, buy the same contractors.
I am not making a judgment that all this is inherently wrong. But, it makes me wonder what sort of legacy are we leaving behind. In on our quest for safety I am curious what we are hiding from? And what are we willing to omit from our lives to facilitate that quest? The structure of our lives is so referential of liturgically. And this is being exhibited within our structures of community (or the lack thereof), then what are we worshiping?
