Where is your community?

I tend to look at events as if I were living 100 years later and reading about them as history.



From that perspective, I'd like to share a conversation I had today with my husband Jarda.

My belief is that the US is going through monumental structural changes in the economy, in race relations, in science and technology, in immigration, in spirituality, and in the arts.




Tradition...is it still holding society together?
The change is enormous, pervasive, and unavoidable, and it did not start recently, with any President or Congress--it has been happening more quietly for decades, but is now impossible to ignore.




An art gallery in Copenhagen in a former church
I imagine some upsetting years ahead, but I know that smart and kind people can organize programs and services to keep their communities together, in spite of the chaos around them.




Three Czech teenagers, looking for a diversion on a slow Sunday afternoon
Three key words are


coalition
partnership
cooperation

The biggest word is community.




Two Czech older women, exchanging views at the tram stop
When people start caring about what happens to their neighbors, even if they don't know them, good things happen.




Neighborhood association, the old-fashioned Czech way
President Obama talked on Tuesday about the leadership of the citizenry as being the greatest leader of all.




Plant sale at Mead Gardens--neighbor to neighbor
Don't just complain, get angry, or retreat--find like-minded people and make something better, right where you are.