I used the title phrase in my last blog, and got to thinking about what exactly constitutes a sense of community. Growing up in the heartland, I have long eschewed the big city as my experiences there have shown that "community" is an unknown factor in most of those cities.

When we arrived here, we arrived, as many of my readers know, with very little. Many individuals in the community helped us with furniture, secondhand clothes, food, and the things we needed to get by (and a good thing to; to rid ourselves of my mother, we basically had to sign over everything we owned and left in storage in Nevada to her, so what we arrived here with [meaning what we could pack on the Greyhound] is what we have). When our first purchased car messed up, I was able to borrow a vehicle to run our ppaper route (our primary source of income), and was assisted in purchasing a second vehicle. Its head gaskets are blown, and I am repairing it (slowly, unfortunately, due to the weather and my ankle sprain) with borrowed tools, and again using borrowed vehicles to run the route. Contrast this with the time out in Nevada when I needed to get out to the mine office 60 miles from home for an interview and was unable to borrow a vehicle to do so out of fear of liability.

Now, don't get me wrong, we have reciprocated in doing our part in the community, and will continue to do so. I have hauled wood, fixed a drain, plumbed a kitchen sink and attached a gas hose to a furnace among other things since I have been here. We make ourselves available for errands from town, and when we have a steady supply of eggs and produce, will be able to contribute even more. This, to my thinking, is what defines "community" (root words: "common" and "unity"). It is also a concept that has been forgotten in larger cities and which is destroying the moral fiber of our society at a rapid rate.

Respectfully submitted,

Gideon MacLeish