Tuesday 16 December 2008

Can a community just exist of two people?

Right! It's you and me blog, im in the red corner and you're in the blue corner and you are not going to defete me! - I am not going to put off writing this blog any more! I suppose i just feel like i have nothing to write and that everything i say really won't be interesting to anyone else.

I read Lucy's blog named 'Personal' and it really got me thinking. I have been think about what a community is and not what my communities are and what it means to me. I am really lucky to have a good family around me. My mum and dad are still together and i have an older sister and brother. Being the youngest does have it's benifits but despite popular belief does have its downfalls. My Dad finds it hard to let go - im the youngest so he knows once i go there are no more kids to look after. This is the community which i am closest to. Can family be your community? Or does it come under a seperate bracket?

I have a couple of friends that i have known for what feels like my whole life (some of them i have known for all my life) We have common interests, we have/do live close to one another and gone to the same schools etc. Does this make us a community?

I have had bad relationship in my life where i can't stress enough that my boyfirned was litterly my everything. I only saw him and only really spoke to him. He was my community for a while. Or was he? Was he just my boyfriend and duw to my isolation i didn't actually have a community?

I live in a small village, i have lived here all my life, in the same house and with the same neighbours. Boring huh? Or is it? Living in a small village does have its good points where you do really feel like a proper 'community', i suppose neighborly community. Its one of those villages where everyone knows your business but as they are so nosy you do know your house is being looked after when your away. Some are so nosy that if something does happen, like a burglery that they were so busy already looking at your house trying to see what you were up to that they have seen what the get away car was, who was driving and the taken down the number plate! However can a community be more than just where you live and what clubs, church, or school you belong to?

I read Hannah's blog on television and thinking of that as a community - i really see where she is coming from - i too have been ill and therefore have been ... forced ... cough cough ... to watch daytime TV. Not only programs like loose women but there is a program on in the morning called The Right Stuff (or The Wright Stuff - i can't remember). This program looks at what is going on in Britain (a community we all belong to) and poses questions to a panel and to the audience at home to ring in and have their say. Therefore this watching audience i feel can be a community as they all have the same thing in common in the fact that the issues that they are talking about are all happening to us - i.e. should we smack our children? and it give this massive community an outlet to have their say. But again this is associated with the community of where you live i.e. Britain.

I suppose the question i am asking is - what makes a community? Can it be a family? Can it be your friends? Can it be just one friend? Can it be a partner? Can a community just exist of just two people?