The Art of Living Together--Closely

For all its romantic association with freedom and expansiveness, the American frontier may well end nowadays at a neighbor’s fence. Having pushed all the way West, we now must reckon with claustrophobia.

Our newest residents, seeking only the same storied opportunities that lured previous generations of immigrants, compete for shrinking space with those who already have a foothold. In new and old housing developments, Southern Californians are living closer than ever before, and as Thursday’s Column One article in The Times showed, not always happily.

The old ethnic groups, who may have lived for generations within the same neighborhoods, look askance at those newly arrived across the street. The solution to neighborhood disputes too often is sought by way of litigation rather than over coffee. An Orange County judge, dismayed over a case concerning a back-yard right of way, offered the telling observation that there was nothing in his court’s power to make people stop hating each other.

His lament suggests a larger challenge, as people continue flocking to the Promised Land that California has long represented. Simply getting along may be a big job, but dramatic new census data suggest that we’re going to have to learn to get along with lots of different people. Today’s Natty Bumppos must make the human spirit their frontier. That means making room in the heart for others, and learning that it is possible to live well within the confines of the melting pot.