Defining Community for Community Indicators

I received this note via email from Legenis and found it a nice thought for the day:

A Sense of Community

Community is not a group of people or an organisation. Community is an outlook toward life in which you define yourself in relation to the world around you rather than only in connection with yourself. It is the opposite of narcissism. It is what develops as your narcissism advances from self-love to love of the other.

I speak of “community” rather than “your community”, because the perimeters of your community shift and change. Your community might be the people at your workplace or in your organisation. They might be your neighbours or fellow citizens. Ultimately, a full sense of community embraces the entire world, the people, creatures and objects that are a part of it.

You don’t literally have to be active in a society to be part of a community, but if you are not cognizant of the society of which you are a part, then you risk being cut off, limited to your own concerns, and of course, lonely. Even hermits and solitary artists can feel profoundly connected to the world in which they live and work.

Source: Thomas Moore, “A Life at Work”