Community: "Like a Rock" Revised

Candie Sisk
Prof. Lolly Smith and Prof. Phebe Shen
English 101D
16 February 2007
Community: “Like a Rock”
Many contributing factors are involved in the formation of a community. It would be simple to take the surface traits such as place, time, and density of population to categorize a city. In fact, looking slightly deeper at things like religion, ethnic background, and wealth would also help understand the true bond and complex energy a community provides for its residents. In order to figure out the source and intention of the energy, it’s necessary to figure out what the simple and complex factors have in common. Location, ethnic background, and dinnertime stories are all examples that help individuals intertwine their lives and bring families together as a strong community. Community is constant. Community is stable.
Despite other people’s separate lives, community is the one element that can bring them together and provide a cause for joy in the common ground they all share. Common ground can understandingly be described through a metaphor that everyone on earth can relate to. In Rosario Morales’s “Ending Poem” she makes a reference to herself as a leaf on a tree that was grown in the soil of her homeland. Taking the tree reference further, it would be safe to say that everyone is born from the same “dirt.” A tree would be the foundation with multiple branches to represent the diversity of the community. Smaller branches become families, and eventually find that they have become a distinguished leaf. Even after the leaf is fully grown, the branch holds all the leaves together in the same way a family holds all individuals together. The main branches support all the twigs together in the same way that common factors such as location, religion, and ethnic background hold many groups of families together. The trunk of a tree will maintain all the smaller groups in a community the way an entire city will accommodate a diverse group of people. Above all else, the ground will still be intact with roots no matter what goes on above. Just as all as humans originate and end the same way. Thus, a broad sense of community, from a neighborhood to the human race, is a good form of stability.
Stability for some comes in the form of a house or a car. For others, it may be a steady job or a city that they have grown up in. Many people may look at community simply as a basic location. The complete meaning of community would be lost if it were thought solely as a destination. For example, in the early 1900’s; New York City was home to many immigrants from countries such as Germany, Ireland, and England. Although their homes may have been far apart, they all found separate centralized communities, where their way of life could be accepted and shared. In turn, this allowed many of them to live as they did back home. This made their adjustment to America easier, and provided them with many opportunities to better their lives..
Maya Angelou, in Reclaiming Our Home Place, makes a different point on location: “One of America’s worst race riots occurred in Atlanta, in 1906, yet today it is home to many African Americans who choose to live there happily . . .The Civil War was fought all over the South, and alas it is still being fought in some people’s hearts.” (135) Maya Angelou, in making her point about community, and sent a powerful message. Maya Angelou insisted the people in an area and the attitude of those people; shape the actions that make a functioning community. The attitude, location, religion and age of a person can influence a community. Many contributing factors change the stability to what the communities are capable of becoming. History shows that a single location will not always provide the same stimulating community; and present day shows that a single sector of people will not always have the same attitude. In return this will not create the same group of people. Overall, the community gives a sense of belonging, which gives people use for their actions, feelings, and words. This creates values and family stories that originate in the community. This community is more than just surface traits, it’s a place to go back to and look at when everything born with in it fails. It’s square one. It’s constant. It’s the stability . . . “Like a rock.”