I left work early one day last week to watch our school’s girls softball team in the sectional semifinals. This was not the first nor last time I’ll leave work for youth sports. What made this different is that I didn’t have a kid playing in the game.
The community was understandably excited by the team advancing this far. I had friends with girls on the team – many of which I knew since they were knee high.
Why did I go? On one hand, I could say that I was going to support the team and cheer them on. Which is true. But selfishly I also felt like I wanted to be part of something exciting outside of myself and my normal obligations and interests.
In dramatic fashion, the team won in the bottom of the seventh with a walk off single and a play at the plate. The sheer joy in the faces of players, parents and other spectators was contagious. The girls ran towards each other jumping and cheering. You could not help feeling so absolutely happy for them.
Standing to the side of the field was a little league team of younger girls – perhaps eight or nine years old. A few of the “big girls” came over to them and they were swarmed – enveloped by a sea of hugs and gloves. I’m sure they saw themselves in each other. “That was me once.” “That will be me some day.”
I thought of the people who made that moment possible. All the volunteers who run our little league, the coaches who start by wanting to be part of their own kids’ experience and end up shaping so many others who eventually make up the high school team. Of the local businesses whose names adorned the back of those little league jerseys. Of the people who mowed the grass and lined the field. Of the school who supports athletics. Of the boys baseball team who is also advancing to the sectional finals who were all there behind the right field fences screaming in support of their peers. Of all the people in our community, many who were there – most who weren’t but who all pay local taxes to make fields, buses, coaches, uniforms, scheduling possible.
Community comes from the Latin root meaning – shared by all. What a magnificent sentiment and one on full display that afternoon. I felt privileged to be a part of it.
Earlier in the week, perhaps driven by similar desires, I went by myself to our local Memorial Day Parade. The community I found there was not just my village but my country. Marching at the front of the parade was a group of midshipmen who each year join us for the festivities while they are docked in New York City as part of Fleet Week. I felt so grateful for their service and moved that they could share this day with us.
Too often we seem to cheapen the idea of community by adding qualifiers to the word that divide us; “a mostly affluent or poor community” “a mostly black or white community, “a majority democratic community or a republican one.”
Community is about bridging differences by sharing experiences and values – whether at a softball game, a parade or a town meeting. It is coming together to invest a part of yourself in something bigger than yourself. Even if you are not directly involved in or benefit from it.
In our same village there is debate over whether we should invest in a school bond. In our country, a blowtorch is being taken to various government agencies that invest in science, education and health.
I wish those who question whether we should invest in our communities – both big and small – could have been at that game. To see multiple generations from the parents to the players to those little leaguers share something special – not just a win – but community.
Whether the team wins the sectional finals or advances beyond, I hope they know they have already given us such a wonderful and important gift; a reminder of the power of community and why it is so critical we invest in it. Thank you Yellowjackets.
This Week’s Recommendation: Check out this story about how people are coming together in a small Missouri town to keep Carol – an invaluable part of their community for the last twenty years – from being deported and separated from her children.
Consider sharing this with members of your own community.