Community

A neighborhood or a town, perhaps even a couple of homes nestled near and residents knowing each other. Is that a definition of community? Or is it more than that?

I think it is more. Much more.

Knowing I belong to an area is important to me. I suspect most people feel the same. If something happens to me, it offers a sharing with others. Their happenings are sharable with me, too. It is the sharing, the feeling in common that makes community, I think.

I remember harsh winter storms that dumped a lot of snow and ice on our Wheaton neighborhood. Soon the roads were impassable. So, a neighbor and I felt impelled to drive to some local shopping areas to see how others were coping with the storm. We hoped (I think) someone would obviously need some help. The grocery store parking lot offered what we were looking for. Women attempting to move their shopping carts from the store to their cars were having big trouble doing so. So, we parked and offered to help. Just did it. No thanks needed. Just fulfilled a need that we could.

The same was available at a local shopping mall. We did our best to help other drivers get out of parking spots and navigate the piles of snow. Many easily got stuck. We weren’t afraid of the local streets because Wheaton always does a great job keeping up with nasty weather and driving conditions.

In another town a local family was burned out of their home. The community stepped right up and found temporary housing for the couple and their four kids. Community leaders started a drive for clothing, household items and whatnots to ease the family back into a home. Other organizations helped the family find a permanent home with the help of the insurance company who faced replacing the now destroyed home. The newspaper covered this ongoing story. It was a feel-good time for the readers and the community. Here was a town – not just a neighborhood – that responded to the larger need of the family.

Still another family of six children faced the loss of the father/husband from cancer. Again, the newspaper brought the story forward with the help of many friends and neighbors. It was their story, not one manufactured by the paper. The community came together in a huge way. Food, household goods, money for living expenses and mortgage payments were collected. We celebrated the dad’s life before he died and later when he did pass away. The same help came forward then and the family was able to maintain their home while the mother found full time work, the neighborhood helped with daycare needs, and living expenses were subsidized by a very generous community.

Up close and personal is the help covered by these stories. But community can also cover larger territory as well. Even a state or large region of the country can feel the sense of community.

We are not in this life alone. We are with others. Our families of course, but neighbors, friends, work colleagues, church members and a host of other connecting points that knit us together. Knit, sewn, woven, whatever word we need to describe how we are pulled into a common fabric of living our lives. No man is an island, of course, but living that makes it very real.

Community times are good times. However, often it is bad times that create the need to help each other. Then the good times appear. Like magic.

Seems to me community is something we need to always be conscious of and working toward. That’s the best kind of community, I think.

July 9, 2024

 

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