The Living Room is Where You Find It

November 4, 2021

Reflections, Day 27

“Every experience is a paradox in that it means to be absolute, and yet is relative; in that it somehow always goes beyond itself and yet never escapes itself.”

— T. S. Eliot

Yesterday a picture came up in my “Memories.” It was a picture that my friend Sarah Redding published on social media. I had forgotten the incident, but when I saw the picture, my mind took me back to the evening Dekie and I attended a wedding shower in Sarah’s honor.  The food was good. The people were interesting and fun, and the venue was a bit different.

The party was held in a nicely kept back yard. I was tickled to be able to sit on a bale of hay while eating barbeque and listening to the delightful singing group The Barbaric Yawps.

That night, I had an epiphany. I thought to myself, “This is a delightful outdoor Living Room.” I remembered having heard Emmy Lou Harris say, “We have lost the living room,” referring to the living room where people gathered and talked, and entertained. Perhaps we did lose the living room in a social sense. Perhaps we lost the front porch also—but it was just an outdoor living room.

It occurred to me that the living room was no longer a set place but that “The living room is where you find it.” I found a living room while sitting on that bale of hay.

And I realized that we have a global living room with much potential. I’m talking about Facebook and some of the other offspring. These can be such wonderful living rooms if we treat them right.

And that week, three years ago, I started my “Living Room” daily articles. My goal is to encourage good, original discussions, to prove that the living room can exist without nastiness and contention. There was a rule, though, that went with the inclusion into the living room: To be invited back again, you must behave and be civil. That’s not asking much, and it sure does make a difference.

Be nice. Be kind.

—john schulz