Community

1. 1.

   a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

   “the scientific community”
2. 2.

   a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

   “the sense of community that organized religion can provide”

What is it that makes up our community?  Is it the land?  Are we bound by the city limits?  Do you feel proud of the downtown area or maybe your neighborhood?  I think the answer is yes to many who answer.  But moreover, and as defined above, our community is made up of people.  It isn’t a Facebook Forum or a local cafe’.  It isn’t a popular group or a political party.  It is literally each and every one of us.

How can the people of a community get to know each other?  How can we learn more about our neighbors?  We’re all so busy.  We all have an agenda, a timeline or a schedule so packed that we can’t even keep up.  We see each other every day, passing quickly, on Facebook, in the car line at school, or at the store.  Each of us, with our own singular path and routine, rarely varying, rarely inquiring about one another.

Of course, when we need each other, we can come together.  We can rally around a cause or for a friend in need.  We love that about our community.  We share, we help each other, and we look out for one another.  But at the end of the day, what do you really know about the people that make up your community?  Do you know about their talents?  Do you know about their past?  Can you share a story with a neighbor and learn something about them in return?

And what do our Facebook Famous friends look like?  Are they really as pretty as their profile photo?  Do they really have that many vacations or fabulous meals?  Or are they just like you?  Are you just like them?  Maybe YOU have fabulous vacations and a beautiful portrait of yourself.  Those things exist and you should be proud to share your successes.

Our community is made up of success and failure and second chances.  Whether it is love or business or sports or family.  We are all made by the community we live in and we make the community we live in.

I am a portrait artist.  I am a fisherman.  I am a father, a brother, an uncle.  I am a Dragon, a Gunner, an Aggie, and a Red Raider.  I am a business owner, an entrepreneur and a workaholic.  I am Midlothian.  I am  Community.  I am a face that makes up the place.

What are you?