The notion of community is very slippery. I wrote an essay on what is community when I was 16 as part of an entry form for this national conference I wanted to attend in New Brunswick. I wrote about how community is not limited to streets and avenues, neighbourhoods or even income. A community forms and grows to create and define itself everyday--it is based on people and their relationships, which is the most fundamental part of the human existence. I often wonder how much of an impact growing up in this community has had on me. I wonder how I would be different if I had worked, played sports or gone to school amongst different people.
Today I worked at both jobs, teaching skating at the local rink and serving food at a nearby restaurant. Both are no more than five minutes from my house by car and thus, neatly nestled within my community. I walked to the rink today and this picture was taken just before my neighbour, a cop whose children I babysat for many years, drove by and offered to drive me the rest of the way. I am so glad that where I grew up, this neighbourly gesture is commonplace, safe and welcomed. The paper today boasted warnings to women who use mass transit (me!?) that an extremely violent purse snatcher is on the loose on the eastside. Not that this miscreant would try to lure me into his vehicle, or that my community is by any means violence-free. However, today I was able to walk out the front doors of the restaurant I work at, at 11:40pm through the darkness and hail, to my car without concern. How sad is it when that becomes an accomplishment and a blessing?
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