Community is: I see what you’re building. I want you to survive. When I can, I choose you before the giant corporation. I tell other people about you. I show up. I share resources. I celebrate your success because your success makes the whole ecosystem stronger.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the word community. For most of my adult life, building community has been part of my religion.
I have deliberately paid more to buy from neighbors instead of corporations. I have driven farther. Waited longer. Paid double or triple sometimes. Recommended local businesses. Shared their work. Spent thousands of dollars over the years with people around me because I believed something very simple:
If we want small local businesses to exist, we have to actually support them.
Not just say we do. Not just share memes about shopping local. Not complain when another little shop closes while our money continues flowing past its door toward another giant corporation.
For years, I believed “community” primarily meant the people around me. The people down the road. The farmer nearby. The small business in the next town. The person trying to build something with their own two hands.
And I still believe deeply in supporting those people when I can. But lately I have been questioning something:
Is proximity really community?
Because I have learned that someone can live five minutes away from you and have absolutely no interest in participating in your life, your work, or what you are trying to build. And someone 2-12 hours away can drive all that distance just to say,
“I see you. I believe in what you’re doing. I want to support this.”
That changes things. Maybe community isn’t simply a collection of people who happen to share a ZIP code. Maybe community is made of people who complete the circle. People who give and receive. People who celebrate each other. People who don’t need identical religions, politics, clothes, bank accounts, social status, or last names before deciding another human being is worth supporting. People who understand that cooperation doesn’t require sameness.
I have spent many years trying to build spaces where people could garden together, learn together, heal, create, eat, share resources, help one another and build something better than endless competition. And I’ll admit something………………
There have been times when I became exhausted because I felt like I was pouring into something that wasn’t pouring back.
That doesn’t make giving wrong. But eventually you have to ask whether constantly giving to people who never participate in the circle is actually community, or simply habit. I am beginning to understand that my community may be much larger than the few roads surrounding my home.
Some of my community lives nearby. Some lives an hour away. Some lives across the country. Some I may never meet in person. They are the people who believe that another person’s success doesn’t diminish their own. The people who choose curiosity over judgment. The people who build instead of gatekeep. The people who understand that “love your neighbor” is more meaningful as a practice than a slogan.
Years ago I started something I called Project Love Your Neighbor.
The idea was ridiculously simple………….before automatically giving your money to the largest corporation available, look around. Can your neighbor grow it? Make it? Fix it? Cook it? Teach it? Provide it? Sell it? If yes, consider starting there!
Then buy from the corporation what your community cannot provide. Because money circulating among ordinary people becomes groceries, rent, animal feed, school supplies, gardens, repairs, jobs and another local business staying alive. It becomes resilience. And that philosophy still matters enormously to me.
But I’m adding something to it now…….
Your neighbor isn’t necessarily the person geographically closest to you!
Your community is also the person who shows up. The person who participates. The person who believes cooperation is a two-way street. The person who helps complete the circle.
I still dream about building community. Maybe more than ever. I just don’t think I need to keep trying to force community into places where it isn’t being practiced. I would rather put my energy toward the people, near and far, who genuinely want to build something together……like all the “they’s” do in their corporate enterprises…I mean, if the little people stood up and started caring for one another, would we really be so little???
Because “support local” isn’t a bumper sticker. Community isn’t a noun we claim. It’s a verb we practice! And perhaps the better question isn’t, “Who lives near me?”
Maybe it’s, “Who are we becoming neighbors to?”
Do your actions match your words? Or are you just going for likes on facebook with that meme??? The truth is, you can’t complain about corporations moving in all over if you aren’t taking part in supporting the “little” people. Are you feeding your neighbors in need? Are you inviting them into your home when they don’t have power or water? Are you aware that some just need love and maybe a little propane here and there….? Or would you rather condemn them due to whatever differences you choose to focus on?
As for me…..being part of the circle, I will continue to support the circle that truly practices what they preach…the circle that continues….with action……with LOVE………those who truly believe in community….no matter where one lives.
The business model of corporations is to deceive and poison in order to keep the profit margins high. It doesn’t take much effort or research to confirm this as fact. So, the only conclusion is that most people prefer to be sick and miserable. Otherwise, they would seek out individuals like yourself…and SUPPORT THEM CONSISTENTLY. Not just for you, but for themselves and their loved ones. It’s a no-brainer and a win-win!
Thank you so much! <3