EVERY - The Bulletin Magazine

Circles – Musing on Communities
I loved talking to the ordinary people in our town but it is time for a change. I hope “Circles” will be that change
and get me out meeting people and finding out what makes our area a good place to live.
Since I have been traveling across Canada with only my trusty van and GPS to keep me company, I have spent
a lot of time wondering about communities. I am writing this from a Manitoba Provincial Campground. Looking
at it from a distance, it looks like a small village, there are gathering places and streets where people stay. I live
at number 18 Breadon Bay in a small house on wheels. The neighbours on my street live in an assortment of
homes, some on wheels and some close to the ground. They all seem like nice people who wave and say Hi when
they see each other, and yet there is something missing. It is not a community. Why not?
During the past year I have visited many cities, towns and villages. Some were isolated from the world by
distance or water and mountainous terrain, while others looked much like my home in East Gwillimbury. I visited
with many people from all walks of life. Just to mention a few, I stayed with a woman who was a BC Marriage
Commissioner and joined families together. I also stayed with a doctor who had his office in his home but
traveled often to outposts to bring them medical help, and I stayed with a man who squatted on his land, shopped
for groceries in the dumpsters, and didn't pay taxes. He did however share what little he had with those in need.
I was often hosted by folks who didn't feel connected to the geographic location in which they lived, but claimed
to be members of online communities. I began to wonder what makes successful communities and how each
person, no matter who they are, is important to that success.
East Gwillimbury is comprised of Holland Landing, Sharon, Queensville and Mount Albert, along with a number
of small country villages. We sit inside of York Region, which butts up against the GTA, tucked into Ontario,
which claims a place in Canada. Can each of these be called a community? Does size matter? Can a real sense
of belonging happen if you live in a mega city or does it work best in small, intimate groupings?
While I was at York University a few years ago, I took a course about the way technology is changing the places
we live. We talked about online communities, bedroom communities, and work and play communities. It seems
you don't need to live in a place to call it your community, it doesn't even need to exist in the real sense. Can we
belong to many communities? Is it the individual that makes the community or does the community support us
in being individuals?
As I write, I realize I have no answers to these questions. I am not a sociologist who would be able to pull a
technical answer out of her hat. I am only a person who wonders. I wonder sometimes if life is like a pond with
a stone dropped in the middle. As it sinks we see circles forming on the water. Each circle is separate and yet
each is a part of the pond. Each one has an effect on the other and on its surroundings. As the ripples subside,
we realize that without the stone, there would be no movement. Is that how communities work, separate and yet
related, unique and diverse, with only the water in common?
“Circles” will be an effort to look at some of these questions. I would like to see how the ripples connect. Our
roots are firmly planted in rural village life. Does that change the way we think about where we live? How
involved do we have to be to truly feel a part of the whole? What makes this a great place to raise children, to
14 The Bulletin | August 2010 www.thebulletinmagazine.com