chicagodads

Community is open.

That’s it, that’s my big idea for today. At first blush, it sounds so simple, so obvious, so… d’uh. But then you think further on it and realize that most of the communities that we know - or I guess what we would term communities - are not open, are not inviting, are stand-alones and pretty content with things and people as they are. Heck, how many neighborhoods are termed ‘gated communities’?

And if they are gated, are they truly communities?

Community life cannot and must not be sheltered. Once we close off life, ideas, action, and perspectives that are at-odds or just different from our own, we stagnate our own relational lives. Relations are like water. Stagnation leads to death.

Furthermore, if we suggest that those with differing opinions, lifestyles, etc. belong on the outside in the first place, what does that do to those who are on the inside who begin to have a dissenting opinion? Must the ‘community’ (read: clique) now die from both internal bleeding as well as lack of fresh blood?

Let’s open up. We’ll all be stronger for it. All of our families.

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