I think a lot about the concept and practice of community. It’s the professional world I’m immersed in but also a deeply personal and life long yearning to seek, to reach out, to connect.
I wrestle with balancing what constitutes the bonds that are necessary to thrive as a collective and how are they mediated and often opposed by the intense American strain of individualism. The acts of everyday heroism and banding together that are manifesting in the wake of the recent Midwest storms are uplifting and cause for optimism.
Sometimes it’s as easy as sharing in the spirit of gratitude. A friend who clandestinely raises organic chickens in the city surprised me with a dozen freshly laid eggs. A small act of kindness whose essence continued to magnify as those eggs became the family breakfast-dinner along with some really good uncured hickory bacon, waffles, and fruit salad.
Thank you amigo, whose identity I’ll keep to myself for fear that the Orwellian bureaucrats will find you and shut down your efforts to create a sustainable ecological community. Keep looking to the stars, it’s where your ancestors always imagined you’d be.
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