Community has many so many meanings, but I was having trouble defining what a community really meant to me, so I asked my roommate what a community means to her. A community to her was basically a group of people living in a common area, such as a city, house, housing unit or as broad as a county.
From that I started thinking does a community have consist of people that live in a common area? Well I don’t think it does. I think a community can just be people who have a common interest whether they live in the same area or not.
For example, I am involved in rodeo. We are a group of people who don’t live anywhere near each other but are brought together by a common interest for spring, summer and fall. Pretty much everyone in rodeo knows each other and all of us help each other out. People share horses, push each others calves, help read scores, pull bull ropes, cinch up broncs’ and a hole long list of stuff. We also for travel groups where we travel to rodeos together to cut down on fuel costs and its more fun.
The lyrics of this song “Headin to the Rodeo” By Colby Yates talks about how rodeo people help each other out. Listen from 1:38 to 2:36.
Helping each other, like the people in rodeo do, and having a common interest is the most important part of a community. In a demographic community you can live in a suburban area with lots of people around you and really not know anyone. Is that really a community? Your not really communicating you are just stuck in the same area.
Its not that I think that community isn’t defined by a demographic area. It definitely can be, but I don’t think it’s limited to that. A community of people with nothing in common but their place of residence is not a community to me. To be a community members have to communicate, help each other and share a common interest.
kjdennis
