The New People

One thing about the Internet -it's easy to find like minded people. You can get together on social media and have a community of sorts. That may provide some emotional support, but that's about all. It's hard to provide real world assistance when your “community” is scattered across the planet.

Then there are actual brick and mortal communities -places with neighborhoods and public spaces. Every community has people who are outside the community norm. Sometimes they are tolerated. Other times they are shunned. Once in a while they are just considered local color. If you are moving into a place, it helps to move someplace where strangers are welcome, not just tolerated or worse.

In the past few years I'm become friends with a number of people new to the area. They are attracted by a number of factors: relatively low housing costs, easy access to nature, walk-able city, no sales or income tax. We are also getting people who find our area fairly welcoming and tolerant. While people in the area have always been friendly, it used to take three generations to be considered a local. That's changed a lot, even in my lifetime.

I think that greater numbers of people are aware of the real value of community. If you have no friends and share few values with the people where you live, it might be time to move. When times get tough, you are going to need to be around people who will help you out. Finding your tribe is important. One woman who I talked to said she lived in many different places, but this is the first time she's ever felt like part of a tribe. It's not about finding people who'll always agree with you. It's about finding people who can acknowledge differences and still like you anyway.

It's can be tough living here. Winters are brutal. Good jobs can be hard to come by. Many people end up working several part time jobs to make ends meet. The social and political environment will not be to everyone's liking. That's fine.

The Internet can be a really useful tool when looking for a place to move to. You can get a pretty good idea what an area is like with some in-depth on-line research. Then you should probably visit the area for a while, to see how it feels. Some things have to be experienced in person.

-Sixbears