What = Community?
This is a first of a series about community. Since Ronald does so well within this setting, he is my first guest blogger.
Hello. I am Ron, but Kara Beth calls me Ronald. When my mother called me Ronald, I knew I was in hot water, but KB uses the formal name 100% of the time, so I no longer think it foretells trouble.
Community is the word of the day and reminds me of my childhood. My parents were farmers in Illinois from their marriage in the 30’s until 1961 when we left the farm and became ‘city folks.’
As a farm boy, I lived in a close knit community. Individual farmers could not perform many of the tasks required without help and relied on nearby neighbors. Putting up hay in the barn for winter fodder, shelling corn, and hog and cattle butchering all needed more than one person to complete the tasks. Sickness or accidents caused local farmers to join together to care for the person’s animals or to get the crops harvested. While the men and boys banded together working outside, the women were cooking for the families involved. Communal meals at the end of a completed project brought friends together in a special bonding time. We worked together because we loved each other, and I never saw anyone paid except laborers from outside. Working together = Community.
My career was teaching English in a large high school. We raised three lovely daughters, and I grew beautiful, yearly gardens and planted more than we could use. I would give vegetables to elderly neighbors and helped younger ones dig garden plots. The neighbors watched out for each other’s children as they rode their bikes to the neighborhood store. The man across the street plowed snow from our driveway. All were comfortable helping with activities one couldn’t do alone. Caring for neighbors = Community.
As we prepared a truckload for our move on the day we retired, a group of teacher friends packed the truck with all our furniture and other belongings in two hours in a process that would taken me over eight hours. Their help and final kindness = Community.
We moved to Texas for two years and then here to Georgia. Once again, I planted a huge garden and lined the yard with blueberry plants. Our garden became a treasure trove for our neighbors as I shared tomatoes, green beans, okra, squash, peppers, and blueberries with neighbors. Elderly and widowed neighbors especially enjoyed produce from my garden when they could no longer could tend one of their own. In turn, several would make jelly for us or allow us to come pick from their fruit trees. Sharing = Community.
Kara Beth and I live in a retirement community. I have moved furniture, shared meals, carried heavy trash to the dumpster, climbed ladders to hang flowering baskets, and worked to help decorate for the holidays. Meeting needs = Community.
Community for me has not ended, and I hope it never will.
Ron
KB You may want to check out a guest blog by my friend, Vicky. Her blog for Advent posed the problems of Community or Going it Alone.
