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I see you all the time at Tupelo Coffee House, but you don’t know me. We both like it that way. Neither of us will exchange a word, but I have created your brief back-story for my own entertainment. It is fiction, but this is the nature of our relationship. I have 900 Facebook friends, and I frequent all the same spots, but I do not know anyone.

We work here, meet here, and play here. When home is where the couch is, we spend most of our waking hours out and about; returning home only to crash for the night. Time is calculated in semesters, leases, and rental agreements instead of years or friendships.

Neighbors have come to represent mysteries rather than faces or lives. Forgotten are the times of a quick chat on the lawn or a longer conversation on the porch. We no longer live in neighborhoods; we exist in networks.

Once I became a ‘regular’, I began recognizing other regulars. This is where I first recognized you. When I saw you at Second Saturday, I wanted to walk up excitedly and ask what you were doing there. I wanted to catch up. Then I faced the disappointment in knowing…

I don’t know you.

People are more and more ‘connected’ while becoming more and more lonely. When the neighborhood is quickly forgotten, my goal is to engage in my networks. If we are always here, there is no reason we should not know each other.

What if there we were no strangers?

Introduce yourself to someone you see all the time but still have not met. If you see me at Tupelo or my bar, restaurant, or club, you may soon be startled by my endeavor to meet you.

What if you and I started a revolution where people were less lonely?

Don’t be a stranger!