As a former government major at a classical liberal arts college, and as a Christian, community is something that I have thought about quite a bit. What is it? What does it look like? Is it Mayberry, Leave it to Beaver, or some sort of Amish barn raising? I find that it is easy to idealize community, to the point where it is merely an unattainable concept.
But that's not what this post is about. See, I've realized that I can mourn over our society's increasing fragmentation and philosophize all day about the positive aspects of living in a community, be it economically/spiritually/emotionally, but that won't do a thing about whether or not I am actually a member of a community. Wendell Berry said it best (as usual):
But that's not what this post is about. See, I've realized that I can mourn over our society's increasing fragmentation and philosophize all day about the positive aspects of living in a community, be it economically/spiritually/emotionally, but that won't do a thing about whether or not I am actually a member of a community. Wendell Berry said it best (as usual):
"Community, I am beginning to understand, is made through a skill I have never learned or valued: the ability to pass time with people you do not and will not know well, talking about nothing in particular, with no end in mind, just to build trust, just to be sure of each other, just to be neighborly. A community is not something that you have, like a camcorder or a breakfast nook. No, it is something you do. And you have to do it all the time."
When the owner of the orchard that is just steps away from our house gave us permission to pick up apples for free, it took me about 2 seconds to know what I wanted to do: invite everybody we knew (or didn't know) over to pitch in and share in the bounty. And, despite Hurricane Joaquin's impeccable timing, that is exactly what we did! We had approximately 10 bushels of apples to turn into cider, pies, applesauce and apple butter, and with everybody's help, Apple Day was a smashing success (no pun intended) ;-)
Everybody who came left with something that had been made that day. And everybody who came got involved in the process at some point, regardless of their age. Things got messy, everybody was a little sticky, and the work wasn't always easy. But people who had only met each other 5 minutes before were making applesauce together, little (and big) kids flopped on their tummies for a game of chess, and there something undeniably sweet mingled in with the smell of baking pies and simmering apple butter. I looked around on Saturday and realized that what I was seeing was the essence of community. It didn't matter what year it was, or how geographically close we lived to each other, community was attained.
Thank you so much to everybody who came out and pitched in! You guys made the 1st Annual Apple Day happen, and we took a lot of notes on how we want to make it even better next year!
//and thank you to those who took pictures and shared them!! I was too busy to take any myself on the day of, and I'm grateful to have these//
Thank you so much to everybody who came out and pitched in! You guys made the 1st Annual Apple Day happen, and we took a lot of notes on how we want to make it even better next year!
//and thank you to those who took pictures and shared them!! I was too busy to take any myself on the day of, and I'm grateful to have these//