What’s your first place? Your second? Or for that matter, your third? And no, while you may have won a blue ribbon or a trophy at some point during your life, that’s not what I’m talking about.

The vernacular to which I refer to here has to do with life in general, and where you live it. If time is, indeed, something that you can spend, doesn’t it behoove you to spend it wisely?

You may have an abundance of free time, or your every moment might be spoken for. Regardless, you have some degree of agency over your temporal existence.

That said, and back to the places I was talking about, time for many folks in the western world is broadly divided between the ‘first place’, that being your home, the ‘second place’, that being your work, and then what is known as the ‘third place’, which I suppose is everything in between.

If you peel away shopping and commuting, what’s left? Some folks have school or education, others volunteer or serve causes or their community. Of course fitness-minded folks, or those with a dance or movement practice make time for physical activity in their schedule.

A lot of it boils down to where you live and how your community is structured. For many Americans living in suburbia, the outlook is bleak. Zoning laws prohibit mixed use in many areas, meaning that the houses are in one place, and everything else requires getting in a car.

What constitutes a viable “third place” is somewhere that you can spend time without spending money, and ideally either socialize or seek solitude as you see fit. Public libraries fit the bill. This is also one of the reasons why independent bookstores and record shops have managed to defy the conventional wisdom and not die on the vine due to the juggernaut of online shopping.

Nature and the great outdoors certainly qualify if you have access to it on a regular basis. The idea of a “15 minute city” has this built-in, the idea being that most everything you need should be within a 15 minute radius on foot or by bicycle.

The culture of your community has a lot to do with it as well. For those living outside of the United States, like my brother in Thailand, or good friends in Amsterdam, it’s an entirely different situation than car-centric America.

Lately, I’ve been cleaning my garage and culling out no-longer-needed belongings which has led to me visiting a busy place in my neighborhood that I realize qualifies as a “third place”.

The El Cerrito Recycling Center is much more than just a place to dump your cardboard and aluminum cans. They have what they call an Exchange Zone, a “reuse“ pavilion where people can deposit books, records, toys, and miscellaneous household items.

What I’ve noticed upon multiple visits is that there is a dedicated population of individuals who spend a lot of time there, gleaning the best of the goodies that come through the “free-cyclers”. While some of these folks probably suffer from “accumulitus” (aka hoarders disorder) others are knowledgeable collectors who recognize rare books and the like and act much like prospectors panning for gold.

One such fellow has become my go-to source for cheap electronic equipment. Over the years I’ve purchased several sets of speakers and amplifiers that he has rescued for a pittance. Richard is a denizen of The Exchange Zone which is quite the hangout. On a recent visit one woman was dancing in the parking lot to the tunes on a portable boom box, while a youngster was inquiring into the details of a discarded stereo.

It’s worth noticing the ’third places’ in your own community, and asking yourself how you might engage or contribute. While work and home are foundational and essential, enrichment happens where you find it, oftentimes in the space between.

With you till next Monday, much love till then!

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine