Serene Karplus, Nederland. Defining Community.

Geography is not enough. The fact that we all love the mountains and tolerate the wind is merely a start.

Demographics are not enough. That a statistician can place us under specific zip codes or races or languages is only an aid.

Special interests are still not enough. We delight in meeting like-minded folks on ski slopes, bike routes, and hiking trails, but mostly as a shared recreation.

Facebook, email, and chat rooms inform us and facilitate communication at lightning speeds, but may not truly connect us.

Families, neighbors, friends draw intersecting circles around us, creating patterns in our lives that may or may not align with our interests and choices.

But none of these categories define or shape a “community.”

How, then, do we create or maintain a community? What is it? Asking twenty people on the street will likely yield twenty different answers. Here we share one.

Community is about “Showing Up.”  And “Showing Up” is about a great deal more than physical presence. Sometimes we think we showed up if we sat through a meeting, flipped the light switch after it or locked the door behind it.

We value those in the community who show up to participate in what others have made possible – those of us who ride the carousel, hold a little one’s hand in the Enchanted Forest, or lunch with the seniors. We are threads in the fabric.

But what did we contribute? How did we make that segment of our community stronger or better? What project did we lead or what smaller task did we perform to make our shared vision come to fruition?

“Showing Up” is investing our most precious resources – time, energy, money, commitment – even when inconvenient, into others around us, into something bigger than ourselves or our immediate family.

“Showing Up” requires awareness of a picture bigger than our own insular view.  It demands we pay attention to how the world around us functions and how whatever we have available came into existence. It asks us to roll up our sleeves to contribute to the work, not merely be the beneficiary of the work of others.

Every community event that brings people together, every building that houses it, every meal that feeds body and spirit is the result of those who “Show Up” to make life better for all of us.

Community lives inside organizations, in neighborhoods, in churches, in towns.  But the community is not every attendee or resident whose ID card or address declares them a member of a group.

Community is the connection of those who build it and maintain it, who do the work to keep it vibrant and vital.  The community is those who “Show Up.”

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Everyone is invited to the Nederland Area Seniors luncheon at the Nederland Community Center at noon. A donation of $4 is requested from those over 60 years of age and $8.25 all others, but no seniors are turned away due to inability to pay. Please make reservations by 4 p.m. Friday for Monday lunch and 4 p.m. Monday for Wednesday lunch at 303-258-0799.

Monday, November 17: Roast Pork, Cabbage w Apple / Green Beans, Sweet Potato / Roll, Peach

Wednesday, November 19: Beef Chili w Cheese/Sour Cream, Cornbread, Celery / Carrot Sticks, Orange