I’ve been thinking about the importance of community lately because my daughter’s second grade class is learning all about communities and what goes into building one.What makes up a community? Who lives there? What resources do the need/want? How do they feel connected?
In my daughter’s class they each got to make their own house (row house style) and then they voted on what other buildings/areas were most important in their community. They ended up with a fire station, grocery store, movie theater, and park. As you can see in the picture it recently “snowed” in their community which is cleverly named Milky Way Town (the entire community was made of recycled milk and juice cartons, then covered with paper). My daughter was bummed the library didn’t make it on the top 4 list, but as a community of 2nd graders they made these decisions together. Good old democratic vote!
Community is defined in the dictionary as:
1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and oftenhave a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. a locality inhabited by such a group.
3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests andperceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.
I love living in Colorado and more specifically in South Boulder. Why you ask? It’s the community. Lots of active and friendly folks living day to day taking advantage of all the perks this area has to offer (great outdoors, awesome weather, nice parks). We have another community now that our daughter is in elementary school and her sister starting in August too. A community of wonderful teachers, parents, and kids making their school better every day. Each of us doing our little part (volunteering, sharing, etc.) I’m proud of what our community accomplishes every year and thankful to be a part of it.
The house you end up in is important, but make sure you think about the overall community feeling. Is it a neighborhood/area where you can connect with other folks?
“The essence of community, its heart and soul, is the non-monetary exchange of value; things we do and share because we care for others, and for the good of the place.” – Dee Hock
“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it.” – Marianne Williamson