Building Community

Time for a new topic string.... :-)

A couple of recent incidents in real life groups and an on-line group have reminded me of the importance of community. It's also made it clear to me that many of us don't know how important community can be, and even if we do, we don't know how to build that community.

I know that I didn't grow up in a strong community. My nearby family was incestuously close, but closed off from others. I didn't grow up in a church community and my live-in parent was hostile towards our neighbors. Public school, even with all the bullying and regular humiliations, was the most wonderful place in my life. That's one of the reasons that, even though we homeschool our children, I will forever support public schools and public education. I know that for many children that's as good as it can get.

As an adult, I have discovered the importance of community and I am learning how to create, build and maintain that community. I'm not an expert, but this topic is important enough that I want to explore it.

In this series of blogs, I'd like to explore the meaning and value of community, how to find and build communities, and how to maintain them once we've got them.

What does community mean to you?