SETTLING INTO RICHMOND A journey into the heart of a community Preface: To see the rest of the images from this recent adventure click here
I decided that I should probably post more "normal stuff" about life in general. After all, what seems normal to one person (me) might seem interesting to someone else (you). Maybe.
In any case, I have been thinking a lot about community and the importance of "really living" somewhere. This is as opposed to the idea of simply eating and sleeping in a particular geographical spot. And the differences between the two are quite dramatic.
Just six or seven months ago, neither Megan nor myself had any deep friendships (or even hang-out-groups) in the Richmond area. Our friends were accessible with the phone - sure - but we felt like were just biding our time here until something changed... Neither one of us was sure what this would be. So we decided to "get connected".
To make a long story short, we started asking advice on everything from where to eat, to where to attend Church, and where the best hikes were. Strange things started happening as we started branching out into the city. First, we finally started finding things to do in the heart of downtown - which meant we could start avoiding the banal strip malls of suburbia. Second, we began to meet people that were actually FROM here - which gave us access to a richer pool of weekend ideas than we could possibly have thought up ourselves.
The photos above are from a barista competition that we were invited to by the bassoon player of the front-porch band I play in. As it turns out he sets up these "barista jams" (as he calls them) and had recruited the guitar playing leader of our band to be a judge in the competition and thought he would like some support.
The coffeeshop (GlobeHopper Coffeehouse) was an ideal venue for this type of thing and have us a great chance to meet people (who all seemed to know each other) while relaxing and enjoying the festivities. I met the owner/founder of Blanchard's Coffee and, through conversations started with him, heard about a series of great running trails along the James River. All in all - a great experience in the heart of a community.
In the future I will have to write more about this town, but for now I'll just leave it there.
Finally, there was a write-up of the barista event in our local paper in which the writer uses my pictures. You can see them here. Posted April 26, 2010
Posted by: Nick Good stuff, Prezzy-fresh. There's definitely something very healthy in developing a unity between where your body is and where you live. It's like punching a gnostic in the face. Posted 2010-04-27 17:35:34 Karate-chop? Posted by: Christof Whoah, Iike the idea of good living as an attack on bad ideas. So here's my question - if consciously combining body and soul is like punching my enemy in the face, what would it take to karate chop him in the stomach?
Cuz I'm still wondering what that would look like. Posted 2010-04-28 08:46:56 COMMENT ON THIS POST
