I had a breakthrough today. Although, on my trail runs, I feel a sense of love for every animal and enjoy moments of connection regularly, I almost never seem to be able to jog near or past mourning doves without accidentally startling them. Finally, having seen one individual far enough in the distance to adjust my pace accordingly, I loved being able to gently hike along with him/her for a short distance before our paths diverged.

I’ve been trying to zero in on exactly what the sense of belonging I sense running in the forest even is, especially when it feels like such a contrast when compared to the type of disconnectedness that seems to accompany any attempt to speak up about the hegemony of the corporate news industry. And I believe the right term may actually be a sort of citizenship.

Increasingly, it feels to me as though, just as America’s foundational documents arguably do not simply bestow rights on people born in America but, rather, acknowledge rights bestowed on everyone by God, the journalism corporations whose hegemony over the country still feels far too strong do not actually decide who is or is not a citizen.

Even though I personally love to feel connected to friends in far-flung cities and ecosystems throughout the world via numerous media organizations, lately, I’ve better appreciated how a sense of welcome and situatedness can be reinforced by one’s physical surrounds. Even in Baltimore, whose reputation elsewhere seems to have so little to do with nature preserves or ecological beauty, there is a great deal to appreciate and enjoy simply by paying attention to and engaging with the reality of what is here (not, heaven help us, the city depicted in “Homicide” or “The Wire”).

As I’ve felt compelled to ponder it more deeply, the idea of neighborhood, for me at least, signifies less and less of a known quantity to be observed from a distance or guarded against, but neighbor-hood, an activity I choose.