Word of the Week: Community
The word of the week is community.
It’s a word I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, as I’ve been doing a lot of leaning on my own community over the past few weeks. I’ve also been thinking about how new technologies and changes in society affect our idea of community.
Today is Wednesday. Since last Wednesday, I…
- attended a Bris for my cousin’s son.
- ended my 30-day mourning period for my mother.
- participated in a live reading of The Comedy of Errors with a group I found online.
- reconnected via e-mail with a close childhood friend I lost touch with 15 years ago.
- participated in a learning community seminar about 21rst century schools with my work colleagues.
- was called for an aliyah at the Bar Mitzvah of another cousin’s son.
- visited my sister in the hospital and held my 10-hour-old niece.
- conducted a day-long data workshop that helped a school identify a pervasive student learning problem.
- began teaching The Merchant of Venice to an 8th-grade class who will be creating a video project based on the play.
- joined Facebook.
- was invited to present at a conference at the Folger on teaching Shakespeare in the elementary school.
- participated in a webinar, cosponsored by the Folger and PBS, that brought together 176 Shakespeare teachers from across the country.
Traditional community structures such as family, school, religion, and professional networks are supplemented and even augmented (though never replaced) by technology and an increased focus on interconnectivity and collaboration. What I learned this week, though, is that there’s no substitute for being there in person.
Welcome to the world, Elena. You have big shoes to fill.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Congratulations on the birth of your niece. I’m so glad that your family has something wonderful and joyous to celebrate right now.
Am I getting too sappy because I have sick brain right now? Are you afraid that I’m going to break out in the Lion Kings, Circle Of Life?
March 19th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Circle of Life would certainly be appropriate.
Thanks for the good thoughts!
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Congratulations to a new family member! Always exciting times!
I love your choice of community as word of the week. Its meaning has been so stretches over the last, say, 15 years or so. The advent of the internet has made such a difference in how it is used. A community used to be defined as a relatively close knit group of people who lived close by. Now, everything is a community, every group, every spleen, every fanclub, even every illness. Can I be a community of one, me? In the age of uber-individualism, can a community truly exist? How loosely do a group of people need to be connected to be considered a such? Are we here, on this blog, considered one? A community of Shakespeare enthusiasts, Bill-friends, verbivores?
Communities have been shrinking, become more specialized and have less overlap with one-another, which is why I don’t know my neighbors, because they belong to a different one although we live in the same building.
It isn’t geographical anymore, it is limitless.
I like it.
We welcome your niece into our community, whichever one she chooses.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Claudia, thank you for sharing your insights. I loved your post, and it is a lot of food for thought.
I do like to think of this as a community, but defining that community is tricky. Not everyone here loves Shakespeare. Not everyone here knows me personally. Verbivores (I had to look it up) is probably the most appropriate. Lately, we seem to be a community of people who like to solve riddles on Thursday mornings, but that’s entirely my fault.
Once I get my head screwed on enough to return to daily posting, I’m hoping the community will return as well.
April 12th, 2009 at 12:08 am
It was great to see you tonight to celebrate a belated Heller family Passover. Thank you for directing me to this particular blog post. I loved reading it and am reminded of your ever-present sentimentality, wit and eloquence. Glad that we were able to kick-off your Community week with Jack’s bris. Hope to hear/read about more weeks as successful and as fabulous as this one! xoxo
December 26th, 2018 at 4:56 pm
Hi
December 29th, 2018 at 11:27 am
Welcome, Elena!