Community as Contributing to the Social Playground

By Eileen K. Boisseau

Creativity + Social Change

University of Connecticut

 

I imagine my community as shared space where people can gather. We an use this playground in lots of various ways.

Thinking about community from my 7-year-old self perspective, my community includes my friends and me out on the playground having fun. We share in playing lots of different games, but one of our favorites is softball. We each get a chance to get up at bat and sometimes we hit a home run, or just a single, and may not get a hit at all, but we cheer each other on nonetheless. And we have fun! When we play in the outfield, each of our positions is different and we see the game being played from different perspectives. We chatter it up out on the field cheering each other on. To play the best game, we communicate our intentions and goals. Every once in awhile the coach advises us on a better strategy, and we brainstorm our ideas as well. We are a team and share in contributing our best efforts, and celebrating each others individual styles which all come together in creating a productive, happy softball community. But even if we are on the playground and not playing a team sport, there is still a lot of social interaction, and a lot of spontaneity and energy abounding.

This idea of community is all-inclusive and celebrates diversity. Through allowing and encouraging a friend or team member or a member of our social community to pitch in their ideas from whatever angle their perspective derives from just adds to the colorful mix of creating new ideas.

What I have learned is that reserving judgment about one’s style can serve to complement the group. So no matter what the social arena is the idea of community matters in providing the space for the germination of ideas and sharing in the fertilizing and the shaping of something with more robust and colorful results.

If we adopted the idea of equal playing time and equitable contribution in the community playground at hand – whether it be social policy changes such as affordable access to healthcare and housing, or coming together to help restore a neighbor’s house, or spending time creating a mural, the more voices that are heard and the more diverse the hands that shape it, the more of an impact we can make in enhancing our communities. The best part of all is that I think the social playground would be a lot more fun.