… isn’t really community at all.

We’ve been trying to get our neighborhood more involved in one another’s lives. One of the ways you can do that is to plan and host some events and invite people to get together and get to know one another. The quickest way to short circuit the process is to try to maintain control of the community that naturally begins to form.

At work, this afternoon we are supposed to have a company-wide “Bowling Extravaganza” basically to build community. I tend to resist this because it isn’t on my terms. The company tends to promote it because it IS on their terms. We like community on our own terms because it lets us control and manipulate. We resist this controlled community because we instinctively know that it isn’t real.

So my challenge is this: promoting community in the lives of people around me without trying to control how that happens. I can take advantage of the community that forms by giving and receiving from people within it, but I cannot try to shape it–I’ll always shape it wrong and I’ll be the owner. The whole of the community should be the owners… everyone should have a stake. And that doesn’t happen when one person drives or controls things.

So, community on my terms isn’t community. Open, honest community that is willing to serve, listen, and let all members contribute is bound to thrive.

Can’t wait to see it happen.

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