I was opening files and this Skype chat between MJ and I came up. We were in the same city, yes, but in different houses, late at night (noooo we didn’t have a fight… it’s a loooong story… to be told another time) We had a deadline on an article we had been asked to write for our good friends at the Good Life Magazine so we both got on skype…

You won’t see a post like this every day on this blog, no sir

Chat History with

Created on 2006-12-07 22:51:33.

mj:22:23:52: test
barcelonaloca:22:23:57: hello
mj:22:24:03: yes
mj:22:25:17: so we’re working remotely for this article. the beuty and the beast of technology
mj:22:25:36: how are we to maintain a physical community with this?
barcelonaloca:22:25:57: it would be a long story to explain why we are not doing this in person, but it IS related to housing
mj:22:26:09: or not
barcelonaloca:22:26:23: ok the absence of housing then
mj:22:27:00: well maybe it is also the absence of the ability for most to be “neighbors” these days or maybe that is a little to harsh
barcelonaloca:22:27:40: I liked your perception of the fence around our house, I’m going to paste it here
mj:22:27:58: it is a beautiful metophor
mj:22:28:11: a physical thing
mj:22:28:19: a real thing
barcelonaloca:22:28:21: Our current house has a low chain link fence around the back yard. You know the type, the one your parents put up to keep the family dog from getting into their friend’s–read neighbors–yard and digging up the tomatoes. The fence dad would lean on while talking to Mr. Jones. The fence where Mrs. Jones would trade mom some tomatoes for zucchini. Well this fence of ours, has gates in it to the neighbors’ yards. Imagine that. Openings to my neighbors’yards. A gesture to the sense of community right there in my own back yard.
But these gates are covered with vines and have been wired shut. When? Why? What a beautiful thing those gates are.
(this is a goo “last line)I wonder if my neighbors would like some Squash?
mj:22:28:24: tactile
mj:22:28:41: is that goo or good?
barcelonaloca:22:28:47: good
barcelonaloca:22:29:10: maybe we should skip the IM thing and go home and get in bed
barcelonaloca:22:29:13: together
barcelonaloca:22:29:19: I like the tactile part
mj:22:29:26: yeah..
barcelonaloca:22:29:38: ok back to the article
barcelonaloca:22:29:40: rats
mj:22:29:48: double arts
barcelonaloca:22:30:12: somehow I think that the point you make about community is also related to “truth”
mj:22:30:15: that should be double rats
barcelonaloca:22:30:29: or double star