Keys, locks and community

I think one aspect of life in Port Alexander, Alaska sums up the "community" we have here: KEYS. yup, plain old, ordinary keys....have you ever lived where you never (or very rarely--like only when you leave town for 3 months) lock your house? what about your post office box?

Here in tiny Port Alexander--everyone just hangs their post office keys on the key rack above the post office boxes (the key rack which is kindly provided by the local post office postman)....for easier access. Voila! you never have to search for that darn key again....

I love living in a town where you never worry about anything getting stolen, and I can leave anything anywhere in town and go back later and find it in the same spot. Where hardly anyone locks their house, and everyone knows that you just never help yourself to someone elses's boat or skiff without asking first--but they don't need to be locked.

Just consider how different everyone's lives would be if everywhere in America was like this? no locks? no thieves? genuine care for each other? what a sad commentary on humanity that this would be a radical thing.

I remember being impressed when I was in China at the hundreds of bicycles lined up parked near the sidewalks--none of them locked! I could only conclude that folks in China just didn't take each others bikes--or if they did--it didn't matter. I would love to live in a city where I did not have to lock my bike at every stopping place. What have we lost by becoming a nation that locks up everything?

Trust...that is what we have lost..trust that our fellow humans have only everyone's best interest at heart. Do we have to live in small tiny towns to have this sort of trust in our fellow humans? I am contemplating cultivating this trust in my own life when I return "down south" to the "lower 48"---do I dare stop locking my car and my bike in a city like Seattle?