by Dr. David Fialkoff, Editor / Publisher

Author Jack London only spent a few months in the arctic. But it was enough. One of his stories tells of a man, solitary, starving, desperately forcing himself forward through a trackless wilderness. Coming upon some bare bones, he boils them to extract their scant nourishment.

Finally, he arrives at the sea, is spotted there on the beach, by a distant passing ship, and rescued. During the ocean voyage south, he dines very well at the captain's table, and yet, with his recent starvation so deeply etched upon his soul, at all times he has his pockets stuffed with biscuits.

My mother's family rode out the Depression on the farm of a lawyer who admired my grandfather's way with animals. They were both members of a pigeon racing club, and Grandpa's pigeons frequently won. Taken hundreds of miles away by train, the competitors were released all at once and flew home with a band around one leg. Whichever pidgeon's band bore the earliest timestamp was the winner.

One cold winter day, back there in Connecticut, my mother's brother Danny, a boy at the time, outraged over some perceived familial injustice, decided to run away from home. I don't know how many hours he was gone, but, as Mom told the story, when my future Uncle Dan did return, he positioned a chair up close to the stove and sat there so long that the skin on his knees began to burn.

I think this can't-get-enough phenomenon is at work among retirees here in San Miguel. I have no other way of explaining what I see.

When I spell-check this article (I always compose on a non-correcting platform) the following sentence will appear with a blue line under it, suggesting an alternate phrasing: Community is the best medicine. When I click on that blue underline, the spell-check will suggest I add the word "the": The community is the best medicine.

But, you see, I'm not referring to a specific manifestation of community, not a community, nor the community. I am speaking (or writing) about the state, the ideal of community, as one might talk about friendship or love or goodness. That the algorithm, the artificial intelligence at work behind the spell-check is not programmed to understand community as an ideal tells us a lot about where we are today.

The rest of my idea regarding community is this:

Community is the best medicine, for the individual and for the planet. A sense of belonging helps people live longer, happier, healthier lives. Better local community and a stronger local economy will solve most of the problems facing society today.

This is not just some philosophical statement on my part. It's not even only a plan. It is a practical program, a functioning enterprise. Here's how it works:

The richest companies in the world make their money through our efforts. Facebook, Instagram and Google make 99% of their money by selling ads next to our content. If we made our own Facebook, Instagram and Google, a social network and search engine just for San Miguel, then next to our own content we could sell our own ads.

It's not even hard to do. Give me one person in San Miguel who is passionate about mezcal, vineyards, chocolate or bicycling in San Miguel, and I'll give you a better collection of information (a superior database) on mezcal, vineyards, chocolate or bicycling in San Miguel than Google, with all their money, could ever put together with their remote algorithm, their out-of-town artificial intelligence. "Better than Google" sounds sustainable to me.

Keeping the money circulating locally, benefiting everyone it touches, is the goal. With all due respect to your particular philosophy and politics, enriching people is the best way to improve society: to lower crime, to promote the education of girls, to keep fathers in the home, to protect the environment...

Our own local search engine and social network? We've got that. That's Lokkal. That's what I've been working away at night and day for five years. (Hey, I'm operating on a shoestring here, and Covid was a bitch.) Now we just need to flesh it out, to grow it by way of some community participation so that it blossoms and bears fruit. And on that point, I lament, as Hamlet did, "Aye, there's the rub."

When I speak with retirees, here in SMA, who could participate in building Lokkal's online representation of SMA's vibrant "bricks and mortar" community, who could contribute their efforts to bulking-up our digital town square, they react like Jack London's recently rescued man hoarding food, or my Uncle Dan craving heat. I think that these retirees, having suffered their own deprivation; years, decades, a lifetime of towing the line, working at some job when they would have much rather not, are now hoarding their lack of responsibility, and just floating along. I understand that. It's just that localism is the solution, and, quite literally, everything is at stake.

Could I go to Silicon Valley, right now, and get tens of millions of dollars of venture capital investment for Lokkal's local internet concept? I'm sure I could. But shareholders would defeat my plan to have Lokkal run as a public utility, of, by and for the people.

You are out there, reading this right now. Right now, your participation, just you, could make all the difference. Your writing about something that interests you will inspire two other people to curate their passions. And those two will draw in four more. There's a critical mass, a tipping point for this, and it's very low.

Remember what Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

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Dr. David Fialkoff presents Lokkal, our local social network, the community online and off. Please do contribute content, or your hard-earned pesos to support Lokkal, SMA's Voice; Atención robustly reborn for the digital f you can, please donate using the orange button below. Thank you.age. If you can, please donate using the Paypal button below. Thank you.

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