Day 53 - Community is Just a Click Away

I grew up in a sleepy little suburban town and I just loved it. It was pretty much like every other suburban town you would imagine back in the 1950s. Neighborhoods organized Halloween parades for all the kids to show off their costumes, there were parks and playgrounds where we could play softball or get together with friends. As we got older, there were dances held at those playgrounds in the summer night. It was all so cool. Behind my house were deep woods that held a real fascination for me and my friends. We spent hours wandering around in there - building forts and bridges across the creek. In the dead of winter we searched for good sized puddles that had frozen over. We took our ice skates out there and stayed for as long as our freezing fingers and toes would allow. We felt safe and connected to that place and to each other.

Community is important to me. May be it comes from those early days of being in a cozy little town where the librarian knew me and all of my friends and where we could walk down to Main Street when we wanted to do a little shopping and feel some independence. Community means connection and it means that I am reaching out to others just as they are reaching out to me. I like being in town and running into someone I know and having that two minute conversation that makes us feel connected, or going into a store and having the person behind the counter remember some small detail of my life. I like the feeling that I belong and that there are people who relate to me in that same way. 

The whole concept of community has shifted with the internet and all of our devices for keeping in touch. Now it seems it is equally important to be included in the cyber world as it is to be recognized while walking down the street. It is wonderful that people with very specific commonalities can find each other in this big ole world. I love to be in touch, and I must admit that it is easier for me, especially on low energy days, to rely on technology rather than having to get up, get dressed (to be at least presentable) and then haul my tired self out into the world. I will always love seeing my friends, family, colleagues and neighbors. I also know I can make quite a nice little world for myself without leaving my chair.