J likes to drive around in her car, what my fellow male high school classmates used to do when were 16 or 17. Only thing is that J is 65.

We drove over to the other side of the river. The James River is an increasingly meaningless line of demarcation in Richmond. The wealth, and the poverty, are distributed fairly evenly. We drove through a neighbourhood that thirty or forty years ago was affluent. Now there are store vacancies and store closures. A mile east toward the older parts of the city, homes seem a little better kept, and renovated. Gentrification is perhaps at work, but the houses aren’t that much older. The occupancies on the main thoroughfares always seem to include a dialysis center, sometimes where a gas station used to be. Dialysis center, 7-Eleven, Starbucks. CVS, Walgreen’s (Duane Reed) are almost guaranteed to be on Any Street USA.

I get my heavy dose of culture shock from the drive around. Things are pretty diverse. We have trees, relative quiet, nice neighbours and rarely any gunfire, in my little corner of the metropolitan area. It is a blessing. That J likes to cruise around and I don’t is one of our differences. I’m glad she took me on the trip today. Kind of gave context to the term diversity