In the Anywhere Burbs

Here in suburbia - anywhere, it's easy to be almost happy. We have time and permission to talk to neighbors, wave at strangers as we stroll our leafy streets, and just over the county line, Norman Rockwell is still painting small town America with its fields of dreams. Nice here where folks are nice, despite the occasional arrest of a pastor or coach for pedophilia, or the raids on that home with its white picket fence, the one neatly disguised; that now and again crack-house. Peaceful here, and often over there a serial killer sharpens his knives but quietly, so as not to disturb the early to bed, half-dead.