Community

Tonight, I went to a concert Mari was performing in. She plays piano in a community jazz band. It was a lot of fun. What I really liked about this group and the larger group that performed before was that their members were a broad range of ages. Some of them were youngsters still in high school, and there were people who were working age, and then there were also people who were obviously retirement age. It was so cool to see them keep the musical lives they had all started in high school alive. That's something that has to keep a person young at heart. Plus, there's this added sense of community.

I don't feel attached to my community...well, actually, my community isn't where I live. The community that I'm part of is where I work. I know very few people here who aren't part of the college. I'm satisfied being part of the college community, but it bugs me when I get these strange looks from people wondering who I am. Ok, so maybe I could solve that if I'd simply join a church. Well, I'm just not going to do that simply for the sake of getting to know people in town. Besides, too many people at the college know my beliefs and I'd probably be burned as a heretic as soon as it got out. And it's too late to have kids. That always seems to get people involved in the community. No, I'll just have to bide my time and people will eventually get to know me and who I am. And I can't complain. I've always lived like this, sort of an outsider. But, by the time I retire, I hope I can fit in. It would be very hard to retire, knowing that I would be leaving my community behind...hell, I won't be able to retire until I'm about 80 so I should stop waxing so sentimentally.

Enough of this. I'll have to rejoin my community too early tomorrow morning so I better get my butt to bed.