I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED THIS, JOHN. YOU JUST CAN'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE AND HEAR IN THE NEWS, WHATEVER THE MEDIUM. MY DAUGHTER AND HER HUSBAND RECENTLY WENT TO SANTO DOMINGO AND THEY LOVED IT...FOOD, PEOPLE AND EVERYTHING...SO THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LEARNING 'FIRST HAND', FROM ACTUAL EXPERIENCE, HOW PEOPLE REALLY ARE IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. HOWEVER, IN THESE DAYS AND TIMES I WOULD SUGGEST THAT IT WOULD BE WISE TO PAY ATTENTION TO THOSE PLACES THAT ARE CONSIDERED 'AT RISK' TO VISIT. THANKS FOR SHARING, MY FRIEND. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...JOYCE * HIS INSPIRATIONS.

Solid writing, John, something I have come to expect from you. As for me, I'm an outgoing kind of guy. I have more fun that way. Heh.Heh When I travel to WalMart, or other similar store I say hello to almost everyone I meet. Some stop and we have a few word for each other, but many give me a shocked look, and I can imagine what they might b thinking. Still, that is the way . . . Don't want to change.

Some wisdom in creating social networks with your neighbors. Most of us don't. I have found that the way the neighbors get to know each other best is either through a disaster like you describe, or through having children who have no qualms about kids from their neighborhood same school getting together.

My life is entirely online or watching TV. But I don't like it. Getting out is just so difficult and I have a sweating problem related entirely to my high-level spinal cord injury that people don't seem to understand no matter how much I explained to them. The upshot is that going out makes me cold, even warm days when I sweat in the temperature of my skin drops 20°.

My plan from now until Christmas is to call up old friends for a leisurely chat if they still have a line that isn't mobile or constantly interrupted.

As you expressed, travel and living in several parts of the country like I have, shows us that people all over the world are very much alike, very open, friendly and helpful. Nationalism is very dangerous because it brings unnatural contempt over virtually nothing.

Ron

I recently read a quote that sums this up perfectly. "The digital world is no substitute for the real world, and social media is no substitute for a social life." My wife, like most people, can't put her cell phone down. She is on it constantly for one reason or another, and the texting goes on and on and on. That's the reason I wrote my poem, Cell Phone Addiction, Because it is an addiction, It's as strong as any drug addiction. Maybe not as dangerous, but an addiction non the less.

In my neighborhood, people rush to and from their cars. Some don't bother to wave hello. The few who make time to stop and chat are there for each other during storms and power outages. Too bad most claim to be too busy.