What is Community?

Reposted from Summer 2012 a Flicker of Light

I’ve learned a lot about this topic in the past year!

I live in a small town in New Jersey, in an even smaller lake community. The sense of community in my area is astounding to every single person that becomes a part of it. Kids grow up in a “Mayberry RFD” type environment. Everyone looks out for each other, and for the kids in the community. Our kids are so very lucky to have had such an amazing hometown childhood, many have settled and are now raising their OWN kids here. My kids have grade school friends, high school friends, college friends, and work friends, but their Erskine Lake friends have a special place in their hearts.

Here’e a picture of my little piece of heaven.

So what is community? Here’s how Webster defines it:

Definition of COMMUNITY

1: a unified body of individuals: asa : state, commonwealthb : the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself <the problems of a largecommunity>c : an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common locationd : a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society <a communityof retired persons>e : a group linked by a common policyf : a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests <the international community>g : a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society <the academiccommunity>

: society at large

a : joint ownership or participation <community of goods>b : common character : likeness <community of interests>c : social activity : fellowshipd : a social state or condition

See community defined for kids »

Examples of COMMUNITY

a respectable member of the community
The festival was a great way for the local community to get together.
Many communities are facing budget problems.
People in the community wanted better police protection.

Origin of COMMUNITY

Middle English comunete, from Anglo-French communité,from Latin communitat-, communitas, from communis

First Known Use: 14th century

Yeah yeah rah rah community. Who cares? YOU SHOULD. Why? Because no man is an island (John Donne). Every year that goes by, I realize more and more how important community is to me. We need the support of community for our health, physical and emotional.

John Donne “No man is an island” Click to Tweet!

But what is community? As my kids grew up, and my time was free-er, my business started to develop. At first, Rose Duhig and I started doing in-person workshops, thinking that we wanted to develop our OWN mini community. We started playing with social networking, thinking it was the place to give our in-person community a place to stay in touch with each other. I even signed up for a class in online marketing, again, thinking it would help with in-person workshop sign ups.

What I found was that Social Networking can be a community of it’s own! The online marketing class I just graduated from was offered by Marie Forleo, called B-School. You can check it out here. WOW talk about community!! These ladies (mostly!) quickly became a community, even a family, all by themselves.

Example. Tanya Mallot is a B-Schooler, and is a world class photographer. She knew that many of us were cropping our friends out of our pictures for our websites and social networking sites. She pulled together hair and makeup people, reserved a loft, and made it easy for us to schedule time with her on that day for a photo shoot. It was a once in a lifetime experience, and many of us (me included!) would never have been able to pull all that together for ourselves. She wanted her new community to have the best that she could offer to them, and made it happen. Most of the pictures of me that are now on the website and social networking sites were taken by Tanya, Hair by Joshua Barrett, Makeup by Michelle Coursey (another B-Schooler!). I highly recommend them ALL.

Another example of online community. The 2012 Olympics are currently underway. I guess there are people at NBC that read tweets all day, because every now and then they tell us what the athletes are tweeting. I’m sitting in New Jersey in my living room, and I know that Scotty McCreary from American Idol is tweeting Missy Franklin the US Swimmer. I feel like I’m a part of that Olympic community!

So what is community? As Webster says, it’s a unified body of individuals. In 2012, physical proximity is no longer needed to have a vibrant community.

Come check it out and join my online community!