USAToday

The cubes were dropping in the ice maker, the pictures hung on the wall, painted by people who wanted to be artists. Breakfast had arrived, I swiveled on the stool as I held a strip of griddled bacon in my fingers. A coast line done in acrylics, poetry that rhymes rather than makes sense, and sad shitty websites, this stuff scares me sometimes. It is bad art. What good is bad art? Am I a part of the bad art scene?

Is this even an art project? Is it a good one, or just a song that shouldn’t be sung? I’m tired of meeting strangers, and it has only been three weeks. How am I building community?

Well, I have three thousand emails from people interested in talking to me. I get forty calls a day, at least, from strangers inviting me over. I need to take a minute and remind myself what this is about.

Highlight the importance of conversation.

Create community

What does that even mean? A woman called from USAToday and asked me what this was about, and I don’t think I explained myself very well.

It is important to talk to strangers. It is important because we learn so much this way. Especially about cultural perspective. The nation right now is very divided. People are upset about gay rights, they are divided on the war in Iraq, the religious right and fundamentalist Islam are clashing, there are lots of things pushing people to pick a side. That’s the first step in creating a battle: divide. Then someone can conquer. Which leaves someone else conquered. This is not what I want.

So I am naïve. I am having dinner because I think talking and eating can help people understand one another. Community means a group of people rubbing up against each other, figuring out how to get along. With that in mind, I would like to invite all the different people who offered to have dinner with me meet in one location. Have one giant dinner party. Where strangers can meet and eat and greet, have a seat, take a stand, lend a hand, on and on.

Right now I am bringing attention to the adventure of it, creating awareness that it can be a positive experience to meet strangers. In Europe as a backpacker, I found countless people inviting me into their homes. That doesn’t happen in America. We live in fear of strangers. I want that to change.

Going to Sakae’s home, she brought her community out to meet me. It felt to me that I gave her a stronger sense of her own community. And the same is true for Grace Nutter’s family in San Juan Bautista. By having me come to them, they were forced to explain themselves, to put into words what is important to them. It was family, a sense of community. To make a bad example: when you dig your stamp collection out of its drawer and show it to a stranger, you realize how important it is to you, how big or how small it is. You see its strength and weakness. Does that make any sense? I’ve felt this effect at every single dinner I’ve been to. Community is important to these people, and it takes on all different shapes. Those who have not eaten dinner with me can read about each of these communities right here. They can take away inspiration, I hope. They can pay attention to the community they have around them, and strengthen it. Sorry I am naïve.

Here’s my political perspective on it…President Bush wants “faith based organizations” to help the needy. If that meant he was willing to fund the Black Panthers and all the great work they have done in Oakland, I would support that. But it doesn’t. It means giving lots of money to a few organizations that donated to his Inaugural Ball. It sounds good, because people understand “faith based” to be a compassionate community. More so than a government agency. People want a human touch.

Which brings me out of my original funk. We are a community of humans, and the shitty websites and bad art people want to share with me is as important as a really beautiful work of art. We are learning from each other, learning what is possible, what is powerful, what is healthy, what is harmful. I spent last night at a café, just talking to the café types that spend hours there. Some people just rattled on and on. But I could tell my listening to them was important.

And Clark loves me.