The Virtues of Porch Sitting

I'm trying out different beginnings for an article I'd like to write for the local paper:

1. I welcome you to Durango’s Official Porch Sitting Union, Chapter 1880. Yes, it’s a real thing. And apparently I have the authority to create it. So says the Official Porch Sitting Union.

2. What do ancient Greek Stoics have in common with the painting American Gothic? Porches.

3. Around 300 BC the birth of the Greek philosophy Stoicism began on a stoop.

4. I love this idea of sitting on a porch and sharing ideas. Something about the hot sun, cool beverages, and shooting the shit. Maybe it’s about politics, maybe it’s just jokes, maybe it’s jokes about politics.

5. Maybe the cold weather makes me realize how many of those hot summer afternoons I took for granted. My kids and I still cling to the scant sunny hours after school, dramatically reduced after last weekend's time change.

6. Andrew Jackson Downing believed in the front porch as a bridge to nature.