Evidently I had The Social Animal churning around in my
sub conscience all night because when I woke up I was thinking
about the multilayered culture in my own neighborhood. Mike,
across the street is a
Mexican American. He has never been
married but has three children. One is white, one has the
same coloration as President Obama and the baby got all the
black genes. There are upper class blacks striving for the
good life and blacks living on entitlements. There are also
lots of white people who are not racist and elect to stay
in the neighborhood and then there is my next door neighbor,
Tim, a black exmarine who calls Mike "that Mexican across
the street". We have also had a lot of white flight to
suburbs to the east of us.

We are friendly with all of our neighbors but Mike is either
very shy because as far as I know, Ted and I are the only
ones who talk with him and have a his card with his telephone
numbers. He is an Oklahoma City policeman.

I am still distressed about Max and Sherry. Max told us that
he is working twelve hour days now. Their children no longer visit and the pool sits unused whereas before the
big clash, it was alive with children and adults. I hope
they get counseling and somehow save the 25 years they have
invested in their marriage.

The neighborhood seems to be a sampling of goal oriented
people of many races and mind sets. There are the achievers and those who have learned to work the system to
the nth degree. We have no upper-class because they live in gated communities by the golf course or further east in
million dollar homes.

We manage to live peaceably and abide by laws with very
few exceptions. This is interesting to me and may not be
to you but it is an example of how The Social Animal provokes thought and draws from many sources.