Eh? The Suburban Wilderness?

So what is The Suburban Wilderness? (Other than just a name for the place I live, of course.)

Good question. It is where I live after all, so it's kind of hard to seperate that out. Impossible, really.

Is it about making your yard as 'natural' as possible? Maybe a little.

Is it about being in between, on the border, interstitial? Getting warmer.

The Suburban Wilderness is a place in, and of, modern America. A place after the baby boom, but before other things. We lack the country's simplicity and the city's energy but we have our own tenacious form of vitality.

The place existed before George W. Bush's America, but these lost and bewildering Bush years represent a fruition, a fullness of the darkest and most corrupting influences of the American situation. And we struggle with them. It's easy to find your way around the Suburban Wilderness, but you can get very lost here.

But Bush is not all, of course. Mercifully: "There are other forces at work in the world." Life tries to be simpler in the Suburban Wilderness. We try to live close to work, and work where we live. We know all things -- including the modern GOP -- will pass, and we try to stay patient.

We're not fully without wisdom. We play good music and fun games, we eat spicy food, and drink cold beer.

We're thinking of getting chickens.