What is "community"?

I have been whining and complaining and yearning for years for "community." I had a sense of what I meant and knew that I would "know it when I saw it" (similar to the method Justice Potter Stewart used to define pornography, Jacobellis v. Ohio).

Then, in one of those "aha" moments, I realized that my geographic community gave me a great deal of pleasure; that I loved my neighborhood, my shopping district, my access to Puget Sound. Hmmm, that wasn't quite it, but that discovery led me to think about other communities that give shape to my life. And it gave me the idea to document my various communities, if for no other reason than to regularly remind myself of what I do have, rather than what I don't. Good idea, right?

And because it's fun to share discoveries and pictures with others (at least my family will read it--won't you?), this blog was born.