What is a community?

And what does it take to make one? Is it like-minded people, who share ideals, beliefs or some other common values? Does it take a certain number of people to make a community?

If the people around you encourage and support you, even when you’re full of it, are they being a good community? If you aspire to join a clique or elite, and that clique decides to accept you, are you then a part of a community?

I believe that community is nothing but mutual respect. People can form a community without having common beliefs, without having shared identity or defining themselves in terms of each other. Numbers are irrelevant; ideals and desires are irrelevant; even the extent of mutual support and patronage is largely irrelevant. Community is a state of mind. It’s a sense of belonging that springs from feeling other people accept you despite, not because, of who you are.

When I came to Australia I did so for personal reasons; I didn’t come for my career, or the crowd, or the sense of belonging. I came here because my heart told me to, even though the reasons were wrong. And I never tried to rationalise that away. I didn’t try to convince myself that there were other reasons for coming here, that my career, my social life, or my lifestyle would otherwise improve. Oh wait, no, that’s not true. I did try to convince myself of all of those things — and to some extent, I succeeded; because to some extent, those things were true.

But they were never the reason, they were just ad-hoc post rationale.

And my reason turned to dust, and here I was, lonely, isolated, unhappy. I only had one real friend here (and everyday I’m thankful for his friendship), and already I’d made a whole bunch of enemies. But you know what — I stayed anyway. Because what I’m looking for is here. What I’m looking for is everywhere.

The world is a community; we can’t help ourselves, it just happens.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 11:00 am, contains 408 words, 6 images, and is filed under Web Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. The views and opinions in this blog post are those of its author.