The Community You Know

Last week during Spring Break, I made a trip back to my hometown, the community I know. Or maybe it is the community who knows me. It seemed surreal since I ran into people I had worked with many years ago when I was a reporter. They were a bit older, and of course, so am I, but they really hadn't changed.

Because we shared something for several years, we had a common bond, and that common bond made it easy to talk, share and catch up on what life has handed us. But in talking with these people who had been such an integral part of my life in the 1990s, I discovered that I had changed.

While we will always have our shared experiences, our lives have diverged. I no longer live in the small town where I grew up, and I no longer have those shared experiences. Now, my experiences involve a different city and a different way of life.

Sometimes when I go back to the town where I grew up, I fondly remember the community that I had then. It was a bustling hub of newspaper, softball, city, county, College Station, Bryan and Texas A and M connections. But when I return home I realize that I have just as much bustle in my life and just as much community.

This week, I attended an IABC Fort Worth professional meeting with some students, and we were welcomed with open arms to the community of communicators. It felt just like "old home," so I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the company of my current community.

What this says to me is I guess your level of comfort is in direct proportion to how well you know the community and how well the community knows you, no matter how close or far away that community might be.

Getting Enmeshed in the Web

I just finished an article for PR Strategist co-written with Dr. Amy Collier. The article was about using wikis in public relations, and we are the experts.

Here's the funny thing: I just began working with wikis, and public relations isn't my first profession in mass communication. I'm a trained reporter and editor. So how can I write this article and be considered an expert? Well believe it or not, it's all about community.

In the Parker J. Palmer book that I'm reading, The Courage to Teach, Palmer talks about how getting enmeshed in the web of life creates community. He also talks about how we can only create knowledge or truth in this community-like setting.

For me that means, I can wallow around in the world of wikis, and with the help of my co-author, Dr. Collier, I can discover truth--in this case how to use wikis in public relations.

When I've wallowed around in the world of anything on my own, I've found it difficult to make connections with truth or knowledge. There's just too much out there for me to discover and make sense of on my own.

It's only through getting enmeshed in the web of community and depending on someone else to help guide my journey that I've encountered a little piece of truth and produced a little bit of knowledge. That's a pretty strong endorsement of collaboration from my perspective. And a pretty strong endorsement for seeking and using communal knowledge.

Community and Solitude

In reviewing Parker J. Palmer's The Courage to Teach, it became clearer to me how the two concepts of community and solitude can coexist--both are necessary for survival.

Human beings need community to feel a part of something greater than themselves, to connect on a more intimate level with others, to feel needed, wanted and loved. These are all good things. But you can get too much of a good thing.

Just as too much chocolate can make you sick, too much community can make you sick too.

Have you ever heard yourself saying, "I'm tired of people"? Or maybe it was more like, "I'm sick and tired of people!"? Sometimes the things we say in exasperation or frustration are really the things we feel, no matter how bad they sound or seem. Sometimes, we just need to be left alone.

There's nothing wrong with wanting or craving solitude. There's nothing wrong with wanting or craving community. Sometimes I forget that these two paradoxes exist in the same human being--me, you, everyone.

So while creating community and fostering community is important and necessary for a successful business and a successful life, don't forget to create and foster yourself. You can have community and solitude, but go easy on the chocolate.

Using Wikis In Marketing And Media Relations

This is my presentation from the Best of the Southwest Communicators Conference last weekend.

Wikis are really good tools to create community. Far better than blogs because they offer a more open environment and an egalitarian approach to participation. Check out this SlideShare presentation and let me know if you agree.

Using Wikis In Marketing And Media Relations

View more presentations from Kay Colley.