Quick Thoughts: A Weekend Without Fuel

Since I feel a need to write I’ll share something I’ve been kicking around my noodle. We’re  coming up on that time of year where you’ll no doubt get that e-mail telling you to stick it to the oil industry by boycotting gas stations for one day. I’ve always doubted the claims these e-mails make; the oil industry would feel no pinch since you’d just have everyone either fill up before, or after the target date. I think the only ones that might actually feel a pinch would be the gas station owners and tobacco companies. You’re less likely to make that impulse buy at the convenience store, inside your gas station, if you are not there.

While these e-mails are well intentioned, I think what would be a fantastic idea would be for everyone to plan for a weekend spent near home, aiming to minimize travel. I don’t mean this in a shut yourself in kind of way, but quite the opposite. What would be novel would be that this weekend would be for spending time with, initially your family, (remember them?) then your neighbors, (ever meet them?) and then your entire community.

To start, Friday would be, like it is for many homes, family night. You could watch movies, play board games, (remember those) bake cookies, plant a garden, even playing on a WII; whatever it would take for you to spend quality time with your immediate family. Surfing the web, talking on  your cell phone, emailing on your blackberry, or keeping up with your peeps on the social network du jour would not be acceptable uses of this time.

We then move on to Saturday, this could be set aside for a day spent with your neighbors. I’m not sure if it’s the community I live in now, but I sure do remember good old block parties. While I don’t really think it’s my block as much as the condition of our insulated society that we just don’t get to know everyone on our block anymore. I barely know my immediate neighbors, much less those down a few homes. This would be a wonderful opportunity for planning a large scale project like cleaning up a local park, a recycling drive, or something of that nature. You could then move on to organized events for kids, (or the big kids,) and then top it off with a good ‘ole pig-out BBQ.

That leaves Sunday which would then be an event for your entire community. Since the objective of this weekend would be to promote community interaction and environmental concerns, any number of projects could be planned around this day. The weekend would end much like the block party with more food, and perhaps this time local artists and entertainers.

I’m not sure what environmental impact a weekend like this could have, unless that ’s part of your communities plan, but the human impact that time spent like this could be invaluable. Getting out and taking part helps you feel ownership for your community so at the very, very least it would make for stronger neighborhoods, and communities. Wouldn’t it be a silver lining if the high cost of fuel today becomes the catalyst for bringing many of us out of reclusive tendencies, and helps us remember the joy of being neighborly?

What do you think? Am I just dreaming?