It's all in the weather

Last week when temperatures around here jumped a good 25F in the span of less than a week, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. There were more people out.

Not strolling leisurely through the sun, persay, but coworkers pausing in front of store fronts to savor the shade for 5-10 minutes, or people sitting outdoors for their lunch hour meal, or friends hanging out on the steps of apartment buildings after work hours had closed down for the day.

That sense of community, of seeing others out in the street, sitting in groups, watching life pass by - instead of rushing on to the next appointment, just another day in the harried life of a big city-er, that's definitely something I miss from China, or from most of the other countries that I've visited.

One hypothesis is that when the temperatures climb into the 90s and beyond, at a certain point it is just cooler in the shade and out-of-doors, rather than sitting inside with the fans whirring or the AC cranked up [high energy costs help here, too], and that's what I witnessed last week. Because let's face it, this is a cold, windy city, and often it is not physically comfortable to linger outside on most days [despite my attempts to the contrary when I take my morning walks or eat lunch in the park].

And so, for all that a spike in the temperatures may raise your physical discomfort [depending on your proclivity for skirts!], on a emotional, community-creating-community-connectedness level I welcome the heat. There's something about seeing people actually populating a neighborhood, of passing clusters of friends and neighbors as they shoot the breeze in the waning hours of sunset, that adds vibrancy to a city. Creates a sense of community, swells your heart with contentment that you, too, belong to something larger, something enjoyable, some place you can call home.