Comments on: Open Windows

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:38:15 +0000

I love your blog. I’m learning so much from it– thank you. I read this post about curtains and as an American, I find these remarks interesting and in some ways amusing (and I don’t mean that in a negative way). I love being able to see the life going on in people’s homes, but with my own home, especially during dinnertime, I always feel a little sense of relief when I pull down the shades. It makes me feel as though I can shut out the world and my family can have its own little corner that’s none of anybody’s business. I feel a little like a zoo animal eating dinner with the windows open. But it seems my thinking is the opposite of the cultural thinking you describe.

I wonder if some of this comes from living in a society I perceive as so large and so– disparate?– that it becomes very comforting to shut it out and have privacy. I love where I live, and I’m very happy being American, but maybe living in a smaller, more uniform, more predictable society gives people a different sense of their relationship with the public eye.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:06:22 +0000

My husband and I live in Vancouver’s West End. We’ve had a grund floor apartment for 6 1/2 years and my husband is always commenting that everyone likes to look in our Windows! He is from Mexico where people live behind huge cement walls and have bars on their windows. (For safety). It’s funny how differently we all live in different parts of the world. I love walking through the West end at night and looking in everyone elses windows!

By: Lesley

Lesley — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:19:12 +0000

My husband is Danish, and I sure wish he had picked up that whole not minding if the windows were open thing. He used to be worse when we lived in apartments, but still when he gets home from work he comes and pulls down the blinds in the living room. It drives me batty. I need light. I love light! His parents curtains can’t even close so he certainly didn’t learn it from them. Oh well, we’ve been married nine years and I’m slowly wearing him down.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:04:05 +0000

It’s the same here in Sweden, I don’t know anyone who use heavy curtains and people seldom have their blinds down during daytime. We want all precious light we can get! When I have lived on the ground floor I usually feel a little uncomfortable at first having all those people being able to look inside, but after a while I just forget about it.