No Soliciting

It is a sunny warm day in this quaint village in Spain. The smell of fresh cooked meat hangs in the air. Children are running from home to home playing in the streets. Their parents are poking their heads in and out of their neighbor’s homes to borrow a little flour, some tomatoes, maybe some milk.
One of the women’s husbands is out of town so she goes over to her neighbor’s to eat with them tonight. She was not invited and that’s just fine with everyone.
Several men are relaxing in a courtyard smoking cigars and drinking the local brew. Some neighborhood kids run in betwen their legs as they chase a dog. The men laugh and continue their recap of the day.
A local flower peddlar rolls his cart down the street, stopping jouseto house to see if the men would
like to buy some freshly cut flowers for the woman in their life. Everyone knows the vendor by name. The men even offer him a drink as another one buys are large bouquet for his wife.
This seems like a very good place!
What has happened though?!
Today I went to hand out invitations for a community party our church is throwing. We didn’t approach people, didn’t knock on doors, just put the invitations on the people’s doors.
The interesting thing is the lengths people go to to keep people from…well….interacting with them.
Their are fences and gates that prohibit anyone from approaching the front door. Their are large metal screen doors that protect the primary door. There are guard dogs, ‘beware signs’, and even a few “Go Away!” banners. and every couple of houses have a no soliciting sign.
People come home from work in the cars through their garages, shut the door behind them, and never have to interact with a soul- afterall, they’ve got TV to watch!
I wonder if the over-zealous Christians, Jehova’s Wittness’, and Mormons ruined the open community way of life for everyone. Maybe it was Amway and Carpet Cleaners.
Hey, even I don’t like to be approached in my home without inviting someone.
But how can we get this picturesque lifestyle of days gone by back?
I’m not sure. it sounds nice, but sometimes it sounds like a lot of work. And because we’re all so lazy, maybe it’s just not something we want.