Mi Sofa es su sofa.

Post about Philadelphia coming soon, but until then, I just read a fascinating article and I wanted to share. It's an article about the website, CouchSurfing, and it's founder, but really, it's about community, in the broadest sense of the word. I don't know if I'm ready to share my closest confines with complete strangers, but it certainly is an idea. There is an undercurrent, stronger everyday, of universal longing for community. The harmony in how it is apparent in so many varying pieces of society, yet fundamentally connects deeply to Christ, is exciting. I do believe these are exciting times friends.

n June of 2006, just as MySpace neared 80 million users and Facebook approached 8 million, an article, "Social Isolation in America," appeared in the American Sociological Review. The work of sociologists at Duke and the University of Arizona, it examined two national surveys of the American public, one in 1985 and the other in 2004. Their research found that the average number of people with whom Americans discuss important issues has dropped by nearly a third, from about three to two. Even more startling is that one-quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom to discuss their most important matters—twice as many as in 1984. This would suggest that in the same 20 years that saw the rise and triumph of communication technologies—the proliferation of email, cell phones, BlackBerries, and MySpace—our circle of close friends and confidants has shrunk by a significant margin. We are somehow more connected than we once were, and more isolated than ever before.