Eric Kennedy Reflections on Dillard (Three) #1

Eric Kennedy Reflections on Dillard (Three) #1

In reading chapter 6 in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek I found myself asking the question of where is our presence of community in our society?

There was a lot going on in Three, but one thing about this passage made me think about something. The gas station that Dillard visited in the small town in chapter 6 was giving free coffee for those who filled up, this to me was pretty cool, Wawa did free coffee from 4-7 for a while, but then the attendant said something that struck my attention. He said that the gas station across the street charged 15 cents for a Styrofoam cup, and that really got me going. 15 cents? Really, is that even necessary? Where is the sense of community in this world when someone offers free coffee, but then makes you pay for the cup to put it in. After seeing the comradely in the hikers that hike trails such as the Appellation Trail, I wondered why someone could do these things, and I felt that it is because of westernization. Now we are the western world so how could westernization be happening right here in our own country? Well for starters it’s because of the increased communications, people think they need to contribute to the world economy by upgrading, which means that they downgrade in personal service. The small town wants a Wal-mart so they give up their mom and pop hardware store that’s been there for the last 40 years. Where is this world coming to that we ditch what we know for convenience? The tribes that once enherited this land knew nothing of private ownership of lands and mostly looked out for their community, maybe they had it right.