Community Connections

     Today was the annual Rotary Pancake Breakfast in my home town of Moorestown, NJ.  I'm not sure how many years this event has been held, but it's at least 25 or 30.  The event is co-sponsored by the two Rotary clubs in town - the Afternoon club and the Breakfast club to which I belong.  It's a fun event and is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year.

     Working alongside nearly 100 other Rotarians, I spent the morning pouring coffee, cleaning tables, putting out place settings, and chatting with lots of guests from all over town.  In addition to simply performing my assigned jobs and being nice to people, I tried to look for opportunities to be of extra assistance.  Since the breakfast draws in buses of seniors from local assisted-living communities, there were plenty of people who needed just that little bit of extra help - things like opening a container of syrup, finding a packet of Equal, or getting an extra napkin.  These weren't anything major, but done quietly and gently, they made enjoying the breakfast that much easier for some guests.

     As I left the breakfast, I was thinking about all the people I had seen and talked with who I know from so many different circles - neighbors, teachers, high school classmates, Rotarians, running friends, golfing friends, business acquaintances, and even a family for whom I babysat more than 30 years ago!  I suppose it's that sense of community, of connectedness, that draws many people to small towns like ours.  I wonder if it's in our DNA to want/need those connections, and I wonder what impact our largely transient society and its lack of connectedness has on people.  Perhaps that's why social media sites like Facebook have become so popular.  In some ways, they help satisfy the need for community in a fast-paced, mobile world.  It's still hard to beat chatting with people face-to-face, though.

   
   

Supporting a Friend

     Today I went to a high school basketball game!  You see, a good friend of mine has a son whose life has been devoted to basketball since he was very little.  Between school ball, AAU, rec leagues and every other type of play, the family has spent countless hours in the car and in gyms over the past 10 or more years, bringing him to all sorts of practices and watching all sorts of games.  This phase is almost over though, as he's a senior in high school and his team is playing in the state tournament where any loss means the season (and his high school career!) is over.

     I had actually been intending to get to a game or two earlier this season to show my support, but one thing led to another and the season disappeared.  I figured I better get there now, before it's too late.  I sat with my friend and her family and her basketball friends (parents who've all been through the same experiences).  It was a fun game.  Her son's team won and he scored 18 points and grabbed at least 15 rebounds.  I was glad I made the effort to be there.

      This is another one of those places where reversing roles helps me to better understand the meaning of my support.  When my children were that age, it meant a lot for a friend to come to see my daughter dance or to see my son run in a track meet.  Whether the kids even knew my friends were there didn't really matter.  They were there for me as much as for my kids and I appreciated their show of support.  

     I suppose, at a certain level, we all want to know that others are thinking about us and are "in our corner."  While we often think of this when we're dealing with major life challenges (e.g., illness, injury, death of a family member,  loss of a job), it's just as meaningful when people share our joys with us (births, graduations, promotions, major accomplishments).  Sharing these experiences with friends and family help us to feel more connected.  It's what community is really all about.  I need to do this type of thing more often.