The popsicle index is most easily explained by a question: Can a 10 year old girl walk to your corner store, buy a popsicle, and return home safely alone?
And … do you know the answer?
Let’s start with a few more questions. Does your neighborhood have sidewalks? Do you have pedestrians on the street at all hours? Do you have a corner store or some neighborhood hangouts? Do you have a park that is usually filled with parents and kids, neighbors you know?
Since most of us spend most of our time in our car, we might not even actually know the answer to these questions. But there’s the rub. The car is destroying our neighborhood fabric.
As a Contributor vendor, I spend a large number of hours out on a street corner or an entrance to a freeway somewhere. Why do I do this? Because there are so few spaces where I can interact with you one on one outside of a car.
Many people who drive and don’t read the paper, think I am out there begging. I’m actually out there holding space. I’m holding space for people, not cars. I am holding space for interaction, and I actually hold a valuable paper with information that you can’t necessarily find online. As people on the street, our super power is off-line.
Our super power is off-line. We spend most of our time off-line. We know what real life is. Most of the people I see driving are so glued to their phones that occasionally I worry for my own safety, let alone the other drivers. So, I could put this another way.
As distributors, off-line is our superpower.
We are the people who served your country, cashiered, did janitorial or other service work, and were thrown back to the pond when we came up with an illness or some other problem. Even though we might not look useful to you now, you can believe that we have been of service.
Our current service is to create community interaction. To break through the loneliness that we all share. To start a dialogue.
Catherine Austin Fitts has said that we need to take a good look at our economics from the ground up. Fitts is a self-admitted Republican conservative who worked for the Bush administration and the Clinton administration analyzing our housing and development funds. She has found that our priorities for people and to create a thriving economy are skewed at best. You can Google her.
I would like to extend an invitation to our readers and to those in your circle. Take a day out of your work schedule and tell your boss you need a volunteer day. Come and do our half day training, and spend a half day on the street selling the paper.
I would love to hear what insights or new information you might have from this experience.
Here’s to thriving communities!