I've been thinking a lot about community... Community is being a part of a group. It is belonging to something. [A student holds up a picture of the earth] Here is a picture of a community that you all know and recognize; it is the planet we all live on called earth. Somewhere on this planet, we are living in a little dot called Philadelphia. Now imagine zooming out from this picture to see what community our earth belongs to.
We end up looking at our solar system. And there is our planet earth. Our world looks kind of small compared to all of these other planets. It's small - but it still belongs.
We zoom out further and now we see what is called our galaxy - the Milky Way - and somewhere in that galaxy is our solar system that contains Earth. Starting to look even smaller right? But it still has a place in that galaxy.
We zoom out further and we see what is called our "Local Group" - a collection of galaxies that are near our galaxy. That little dot is our Milky Way. Now our own galaxy which before looked so large - it now seems so small itself.
We zoom out further and we see what is called our "Local Group" - a collection of galaxies that are near our galaxy. That little dot is our Milky Way. Now our own galaxy which before looked so large - it now seems so small itself.
We zoom out further and we see what is called the Virgo Supercluster - this contains our local group and other collections of galaxies - our local Group is one of these little dots somewhere in here. Our "Local Group" looks tiny now which makes our galaxy look even smaller and our earth...well - this is where my mind starts hurting.
We zoom out further and we see the observable universe - and one of those little dots is the Virgo Supercluster. That looks small now which in turn makes everything else look tiny and makes our earth look totally insignificant.
When I first saw this, I almost had a panic attack because I immediately questioned the point of ANYTHING in this world. I started to think that nothing matters and we DO NOT MATTER AT ALL. But the more I thought about where we fit in the universe, I started to think a little more positively. Instead of feeling small and insignificant and essentially like giving up life as knew it - I started to appreciate how amazing it is that we actually exist among all of this space stuff - I started to appreciate how we, these miniscule tiny little nothings, could have emotions and feeling that are so strong. How is it that we could be so insignificant yet I can look at my wife and daughters and have such strong feelings of love for them - how could I go through each of my days at work and have such strong feelings - negative and positive - that I feel drained at the end of the day? That's amazing.
And that's the thing - NO matter how small or insignificant we might seem or we might feel, we all still belong. We belong to a smaller community that needs each and every one of us. Just like our little earth belongs.
So how do I define my community? What is it to me? Immediately I have to think it starts with where I live and spend most of my time. Which right now is here. But it hasn't always been - in fact, my community has changed many times over my lifetime.
I think back to my childhood and community was a small town in south Texas where we never even locked the doors to our home - I'm serious, I didn't have a key to my house for the longest time. It was a community where our neighbors looked out for each other - were a little bit too nosy - but where I had a neighbor whose Mom secretly made me a lunch for a couple years because she knew I didn't want to eat the free lunch I qualified for at school, which was my only other option. That was my community.
The second stage of community that I can think of is when I moved to New York to pursue my dreams of becoming an actor. There, I found myself immersed in a different world, an artistic community, where other people who had the same dream as I did were always willing support an idea, show up and watch a show in a dingy little theater on the Lower East Side, who were always there to offer words of encouragement through the many, many, many moments of rejection and failure. It was a community of dreamers and that, for a long while, was my community.
Now I'm here - in Philadelphia - at Freire Charter School. And for many years now I have been part of the education community. This community is comprised of many people - young and old. And it is one where I see people working their tails off behind the scenes, where people suffer and succeed but they keep on showing up. They are resilient. It is a community for me personally where I may write a kid up one day, but I am able to have a sincere talk with them the next and it usually ends in a smile. It is a community where when I'm completely overwhelmed and it shows - a fellow teacher will offer the small, kind act of buying me a cup of coffee and it changes the course of my day. It is a community where when I go on a service field trip with a group of tenth graders and they know that I do not know the trolley lines and the subway stops - they make sure to look after me and make sure I get off at the right stops because deep down I know they care about me. That is my community now.
When I look at these three distinct communities I notice they all have something in common: They all involve support, encouragement, and love. And that last one is important to me - and I try to remind my classes from time to time that I love you because I don’t' know how often you hear it - and what I mean when I say that is: I will always try to see you the way you deserve to be seen, and not just see you by your actions. And if we all do that - then what a strong community we will have. And those of us that feel small, and insignificant - like the earth in the observable universe - will know that we belong. And THAT is community. (Click below to continue reading...)
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