Searching for community
The word community used pretty freely. We talk about the business community, or the gay community, or the Latino community and so on. It seems we can throw the term community after almost any group and thereby unite or encapsulate any bevy of humans with a shared connection. We even refer to all people living in Sonoma as “our community,” as does any other geographic clumping of folks in our country.
The holiday of Thanksgiving is coming up. The Sonoma Community Center (there’s that word again) traditionally throws an abundant feast, free for any and all to enjoy on that holiday. So what’s being celebrated? What are we honoring? Why are we feeding people, even total strangers?
At Thanksgiving we like to tell ourselves a fable about community sharing and how two very different cultures came together in the spirit of sister and brother-hood. In truth we don’t know if any such thing ever really happened because that “history” was told, written about, by only one of those two cultures – white European Colonialists. Even if such events of sharing and assistance were actual, this communing of two disparate peoples – the indigenous natives and the immigrants from England – was short lived.
What quickly ensued was centuries of bloody genocide, subjugation and theft of land and resources, effectively bringing about the near annihilation of millions of Native Americans and their many and varied cultures.
But that is not the story of Thanksgiving we tell ourselves, or our children. Our mythology portrays sharing, and caring and assisting one another in times of need. And that’s okay – those things in and of themselves – because those are the angels of our better nature and models to teach and encourage. As with Christmas, our talk turns to peace on earth, goodwill among all people, and sharing what we’ve got with others less fortunate.
Despite some shared interests we who live in this Valley have some considerable differences. There is a divide when it comes to our vision of Sonoma, how it should look and feel and whose interests should be paramount, residents or tourists. So when we speak of our Sonoma community what are we talking about?
As we see it, community is best exemplified by the people who serve the needs of others all year round and over the course of decades. We think of Vintage House and La Luz and the Community Center and their legions of volunteers. We think of FISH and Meals on Wheels, which operate 365 days of the year and are all volunteer organizations, and we include all the other clubs and groups that serve the needs of others without fanfare, recompense or even the need to say very much about it. They just do it because it needs to be done, without the need for photo ops or public relations fanfare.
Maybe the holiday stories are myths, but the spirit of those stories and the heart of community lies in those examples of sharing and caring and serving the needs of countless others. Where the thanks is in the giving. This is what community looks like to us.
What does community mean to you? [email protected]
