Community is a group of people who observe the individual's growth.--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
Being seen and responded to enable a person to behold voices within, confirmed by the voices of the community without. Where mentors and
elders are lacking, where initiation in one form or another is not recognized, there can be no support system capable of curbing the
intense sense of aloneness that haunts the psyche of the modern
person. Purpose begins with the individual, and the sum total of all
the individuals' purposes creates the community's purpose. A
community is held together by the emotional ties that result in a
conscious feeling of connection... A sense of community grows where
behavior is based on trust and where no one has to hide anything.
--Malidoma Some
If we are going to use the word [community] meaningfully we must
restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to
communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper
than their masks of composure, and who have developed some
significant commitment to "rejoice together, mourn together," and to
"delight in each other, make others' conditions our own."
The facets of community are interconnected, profoundly
interrelated. No one could exist without the other. They create
each other, make each other possible. What follows, then, is but
one scheme for isolating and naming the most salient
characteristics of a true community.
* Inclusivity, commitment, and consensus
* Realism
* Contemplation
* A safe place
* A laboratory for personal disarmament
* A group that can fight gracefully
* A group of all leaders
* A spirit
--M. Scott Peck
One of the strongest needs of the soul is for community, but
community from the soul point of view is a little different from
its social forms. Soul yearns for attention, for variety in
personality, for intimacy, and particularity. So it is these
qualities in community that the soul seeks out, and not
like-mindedness and uniformity.
Loneliness can be the result of an attitude that community is
something into which one is received. Many people wait for members
of a community to invite them in, and until that happens they are
lonely. There may be something of the child here who expects to be
taken care of by the family. But a community is not a family. It
is a group of people held together by feelings of belonging, and
these feelings are not a birthright. "Belonging" is an active
verb, something we do positively.
-- Thomas Moore
I enjoyed reading your musings on community, and i feel enthusiasm for
the potential of building community here. Below are some relevant
quotes from my reading about the nature of community.
taken care of by the family. But a community is not a family. It
is a group of people held together by feelings of belonging, and
these feelings are not a birthright. "Belonging" is an active
verb, something we do positively.
-- Thomas Moore
What makes a community?
Been thinking just now about this subject.
Is it common interests, similar values, just plain on length of time
spent together (in person or virtually), other intangibles I can't
put my finger on, some or all of the above, or perhaps none of it?
Talk about having a bob/dime/cent each way eh? ;)
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