"A healthy community is a thick system of relationships. it is irregular, dynamic, organic, and personal ... People are up in one another's business, know each other's secrets, walk with each other in times of grief, and celebrate together in times of joy. . . . People help raise one another's kids. In these kinds of communities, which were typical in all human history until the last sixty years or so, people extended to neighbors the sorts of devotions that today we extend only to family. . . . The social pressure can be slightly overbearing, the intrusiveness sometimes hard to bear, but the discomfort is worth it because the care are benefits are so great." Brooks, The Second Mountain, 266-267
This is, so amazingly, the community I get here in East Tennessee. I don't have this in family, although some of my family happens to be wrapped up in this community. I have this in very intentional humans whom I have chosen to do life with and to help support each other.
Everyone needs this. If you don't have it, strive for it. Work for it. Get it. Don't give up until you do.
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