Communion, commun-ism, communicate, community, commune, be-come, come, com- … sometimes, it’s good to go back to the roots of words.
At least one true meaning of “com-” is “with”.
It is said that the best way to destroy a culture is to destroy or twist the meanings of its words, because without the core meanings, the most basic of human function ceases, the ability to “communicate”.
So, for a moment, we want to talk directly about Roses in the Alley, and our vision of “community” (being securely and freely “with”; to “build” “with”).
If you type in rosesinthealley.com in your browser you will get rosesinthealley.net. Why is that? because .com means business in this day, and .net meets community. Networking is the new word for Communing. So, if you want community, you don’t use .com; you are .net. You don’t commune; you network. I’m not sure how that happened, or whether this particular thing is good or bad, but it is true.
But there is a coldness to the word “network” that is not the normal sense of the word “community”.
Communion used to mean coming together as persons, in love and relationship, freely and securely with granted permission to do so. Now, in the political sphere it has been replaced with Communism and Communication, neither of which are about these things. And in religious realms, it now means something exclusive, where permission is withheld until granted by an authority.
And when one talks about coming into community, it is often attacked, seen as coming against, not coming together.
Can we for a moment just go back to the core meaning? It might help our ability to speak to one another.
Here is one really sincere expression of community in music :-)!
How would you express community? We welcome your comments. May they help us build together… communion of persons!