Coming Together: PYL In-Flight: Apr 2, 2025
Welcome Back My Community-Minded Passengers:
I grew up in the hills of Castro Valley, a solidly middle-class San Francisco suburb located in the East Bay. Until I was 16 and shared a car with my sister, I was dependent on my mom to drive us everywhere because she didn’t want us walking across the busy canyon streets that surrounded the hill we lived on. It was isolating.
While we participated in sports, there was no sense of community on our hill. It was the 70s and 80s when our neighbors would turn into their driveways, wait for their garage doors to open, drive in, and close the doors behind them. While my knees show evidence of riding bikes and skates on the hill, it wasn’t a place where you casually bumped into neighbor kids to play with.
Fast forward to 2002 when our son Adam was one and we were looking for our first single-family home as we moved from our condo in San Francisco. As we looked at houses we could afford in the cities and towns down the Peninsula, we happened into Redwood City which is halfway between San Francisco and San Jose, 20ish minutes from the coast, and 45 minutes from where we both grew up in Castro Valley. We both worked in South San Francisco, daycare was in San Bruno, so Redwood City was a fantastic location for both work and childcare.
While we looked for a house in the flats, with close proximity to a park and downtown so that our kids could have the freedom that Zeke had living in the flats of Castro Valley, we didn’t know that we were moving into a community-minded city that is and has been socio-economically diverse. It felt like home after living in the Mission for a few years; we wanted diversity. We wanted to raise our kids in a place that better represented the real world than some other places we’d looked at.
Fast forward 23 years and while playing tennis with our son Adam at Red Morton, our local community center, we both remarked on how awesomely busy the whole park. Adam made the comment that Redwood City has served its community well with the city parks and recreation options. I agree.
Red Morton and the other city parks are used by people representing nearly, if not all, aspects of our community, whether they are playing tennis or pickleball, their kids are playing soccer or softball or baseball, or skating in the skate park, or chatting while their dogs play in the pop up pup park. You can see new moms working out with other new moms and their babies as people walk the paved course that winds its way through the park.
There are communities within our community that morph and change with the seasons, activities, and stages of life.
Places like this bring disparate people together through common interests, if only for a short time. We are reminded of our similarities in places like this just as the media and some bad actors are trying to pull us apart. With all of the chaos and funding changes at the national level, I am hoping that we can still find the financial resources to subsidize our parks and community centers.
As Zeke and I venture off to Europe for 7 weeks, with 4 weeks in Bordeaux (HomeExchange points), Zeke researched how to become part of a community, if only for a short time. He didn’t find a lot of resources, but we have a few ideas on how we can live locally and meet people (and we have an idea for a new video!).
We will be within a few blocks of the main public garden, so we plan to spend time there (I hope there are dogs to say bonjour to). He found a yoga studio one street over with morning yoga at 9:30 each day. We plan to shop at the local markets and hope to engage with the people behind the counter to build a connection that might lead to recommendations. My French is passable, assuming I am brave enough to speak like a slow 4 year old.
Do you have suggestions for us? Feel free to respond to this email with any and all ideas. We are happy to experiment and share what we learn.
As we spend more of our time traveling, it’s important to us to remain connected with our various communities, and as we build new global communities through our travels. I’ve built travel itineraries almost exclusively around meeting up with or staying with friends around the world, not unlike my trip to Nicaragua last month.
In the US, with all of the turmoil created by a privileged few, and others that I will avoid putting a label on, we will remain sane by building our communities and supporting the people therein. Through these communities, we can support each other and those who are being alienated, disenfranchised, and worse. Some days it feels overwhelming, and I know I am not alone in wondering how I as one person can affect the change I want to see. But, when I share this with others who are feeling similarly, I am reminded of the power we have together, acting collectively.
The game is not over. We saw that in Wisconsin last night. We saw that with the changing numbers in the Florida special elections. We’re seeing it in the Tesla Takedown actions. We saw it in Cory Booker’s 25+ hour filibuster.
Our actions together have power and matter. So, find your communities where you can. Step into new spaces and take advantage of those that are already available to you. All is not lost.
And if you are reading this, you are already part of an amazing community of people, both women and men. I’m noodling over some ideas to bring you all together more effectively and I’ll share more as I make progress because I need your input. The reality is that I can’t do it without you!
May you find peace, acceptance, and love today as you navigate being human.
With much love and gratitude,
Terri
This week’s song: Come Together by the Beatles. The title seems to work this week.
Journal Prompt: What are you communities? Are there groups you want to become a part to achieve a desired objective? Do you feel supported in your existing communities? What is missing? What is working?
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