Community 2: My Birthday

I got my first birthday wishes, on-line at ten past twelve from Phil who I haven’t seen for nearly a decade, since he and Bridget departed, with monstrous hangovers, for New Zealand. We’d even lost touch completely until last year. Phil was a housemate and very much part of my community when I was at College and I classed him as my ‘best’ friend for a lot of years so having him back in touch makes me very happy, although the distance makes me sad. I had a barrage of other happy birthdays on facebook from Dubai and Portugal as well as closer to home, from people I haven’t seen in years to people I see regularly.
I was woken a few hours later by a text message telling me to look under the bed where a present had been left from my friend John who visited at the weekend. John lives in Machynlleth in Wales where I am an occasional part of another incredible community – the environmentalist fancy dress party animals, activists, thinkers and adventurers that surround the Centre for Alternative Technology. The present was a book, ‘Critical Mass, Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration’ a beautiful collection of essays from critical massers all over the world and a reminder that here is another amazing community of which I am a part.
All in all the day reminded me of the scale of the word community – it’s not just our street or our town or our immediate circle of friends but everyone, everywhere. I spent my birthday evening finishing putting a presentation together on sustainable communities, why we need them and what they are. I’m not that angelic – I’d promised to do it about eight months ago and suddenly realised it was this Thursday, last minute as always. I just hope no one challenges me to start doing things as soon as I realise they need doing – it would be impossible. I’d been struggling for a closing statement but I went with this:
‘And finally - all of us have our own areas of specialisation and it’s very easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Sustainable communities are not just about sensible energy use but also about water, waste and resources and also the opportunities they offer the people who live and work in them.
And of course they are not just about the way they are designed and built but also the way they are inhabited and used and how they interact with the already existing communities surrounding them, including the global community.
And all of us are a part of that.
And all of us have a duty to contribute to that.’
It was beautiful, honest. If they hadn’t been a bunch of hard-nosed engineers I swear they would have cried.
Happy Birthday to me. Thank you everyone for your love.
Right – back to my homework, only another 1000 words to write. It’s due in Tuesday and I’ve only had it since November.