Since I started taking MARTA to work a few days out of the week I have had to enjoy a three quarter mile hike to my place of work. Of which most of it is spent walking through the bustling new neighborhoods of Brookhaven. Each day as I slog through the June heat, I am taken back with the sheer size of which the suburban house has taken on. In place of the modest ranch with the front porch and the nice back yard, has been placed imposing 3 story brick and stone monoliths. Gone are the back yards because the house has taken up all that room. From a walkers perspective, you almost feel like a dwarf walking through a forest of angry giants. The welcome mat has been replaced with "Go the fuck away!". Sometimes these houses remind me of turtle shells in how if a person walks down the street, instead of waving and saying hello, the occupants duck back inside.
Which makes me wonder why it has come to this. Why have our homes become fortresses of defense instead of welcoming beacons to our fellow neighbors where community is formed? Is it because of our current society of fear? Where 24 hour news and even our authority figures seem to delight in scaring the shit out of us like a demented uncle? Or is it Keeping up with the Joneses 2.0? A aggressive belief by a society with more disposible income than ever before that one must continue to "one up" the neighbor in order to polish frail egos by buying bigger, shinier, faster?
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