I’ve just finished watching an episode of the Australian TV show “Escape From the City”. https://iview.abc.net.au/show/escape-from-the-city

I enjoy watching it, in part because it shows some beautiful locations around Australia. But I’m not sure about the rationale for some of the people moving. There’s often mention of wanting to be part of a community. I understand that big city life can be isolating, impersonal, and aggressive.

However, I think that finding community comes down (to some degree) on what you put into it. If you make time to meet and talk to your neighbours, get involved in your local community (and by local I mean walking distance, not a 30-minute drive away), support local businesses, and be friendly to people around you, then you will likely find people are friendly to you. If, on the other hand, you are grumpy and sour-faced, ignore your neighbours, and put no effort into your local area, then you’re not going to get much out of it either.

And moving to the countryside won’t change this basic fact of life. Simply becoming a fixture at the local pub or restaurant won’t deepen your relationships with local people the way volunteering and helping others out will. Indeed, this type of thing is more important in regional Australia, because there are often not the support services available – so people do these tasks themselves, or go without.

In terms of leaving the city, moving away from noise is good, and privacy is a consideration for some. I can also understand the desire for beauty. But part of me wonders if we are looking in the wrong places for the peace and quiet we are seeking.

If we move far away from friends and family, what message are we sending them? Is this a smart thing to be doing at retirement age (in some cases)? Yes, granted, digital technologies have made it easier to keep in touch…but it’s still not the same thing as face-to-face contact.

And for the cost involved, is this really the smartest thing we could do to scratch the itch? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For a start, we could buy artwork of beautiful scenes, or look at it online. We could blow up our own photographs to hang on our walls – or even better, practice painting or creating art ourselves.

Could it be that we do this because we get to a certain stage of life and feel dissatisfied with what we have spent our time doing? And yet, because that is an uncomfortable realization to come to, we don’t wish to face up to it…so we take the easy way out. If we are further away from people who annoy us, then on a day-to-day basis, we don’t have to deal with them. This could either be family members, or just people who are part of the endless population churn of the suburbs. We don’t need to make the effort to deal with bad manners, or strange customs, or just with moving out of our comfort zones.

In the long run, is that truly healthy for us? What does it say about our society that we continually look for the easy option? What do you think?