Com-mun-ity: souls united in the desire to give of themselves in service
to what they hold most dear.
These six elements bind a community together and make it strong and
coherent. When they are absent or eroding, community declines. Community
members and their leaders need to consciously monitor, foster, protect, and
strengthen these elements of their community where ever they are present in
a community and where they are absent consciously undertaken efforts to
reintroduce them into our daily lives and the community culture.
Face Time:
Are we creating
opportunity to interact? Do we say hello to those we haven’t met or do
we think of them as strangers? Do we talk to people we know when see them,
or do we look down and continue on our way? Do we get together to socialize
with friends at least once each week?
Or do we stay home and watch TV?
All Crew: Are we All Crew?
Are we participating or going along for the ride? Do we roll up our sleeves
and take on community responsibilities or do we sit back and let others do
it? Do we share leadership or try to amass power for ourselves and our
friends?
Solid Level Ground:
Are we standing on
Solid Level Ground? Are we spending our money here? Do we support our local
businesses?
Are we doing what
we can to help everyone be secure and live well? Are we tolerant and
respectful of other’s opinions and needs? Or are we living simply to get
ahead personally and have my way prevail? Do we take pride in doing better
than others or do we relish other’s prosperity?
Harvest Hands: Are we willing Harvest Hands? Are
we trustworthy and trusting? Do we ask each day, who needs my help today?
How can I help? What can I do? Or do we assume everyone can or should handle
their own lives? Or that someone else will step in?
Common Bond:
Are we acting from a Common Bond, or are we thinking of what we can get for
ourselves regardless of how it might effect others and the community as a
whole? Are we open to hear about other’s needs and views? Do we make an
effort to find ways to accommodate as best as possible what’s most important
to everyone?
Rich Soil for New Seeds:
Are we personally doing what we each can to help
create at a Rich Soil for our children? Do we volunteer for school
activities and support family-friendly policies and facilities throughout
the community? Or we think of kids as a nuisance and assume its up to their
parents to keep them neither seen nor heard?
from Sitting with the Enemy, A Novel
Copyright Sarah Anne Edwards, 2007
based on the research of Robert Putnam, political scientist and author of
Bowling Alone.
