Daily writing prompt

What do you do to be involved in the community?

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This question takes me right back to my university days. I mean, what community? And, actually, what is meant by involved? Is shopping at the local green-grocer involving oneself in the community? Is voting involving oneself in the community? Which one? Having married a musician, am I now involved in the music community?

If I take the community, in this instance, to be the town in which I live, I can say I do three main things and probably a lot of little things. I am Chair of the local nature reserve; I’m secretary of Moffat Community Woodlands; and I’m on the board of Space to Grow, Moffat, a charity that runs allotments, a community garden, and that is in the process of trying to turn an old church building into a useful space for the community. I also do the admin and marketing for Walk Moffat, who runs a walking weekend in the autumn, but I get paid for that so it feels less worthy a role. I will be volunteering during the actual weekend, though, so I’ll feel less mercenary then!

When it comes to the wider community, Scotland, say, I am committed to helping it become independent (it seems utterly absurd that a whole country is, ostensibly, owned by another one!) but nothing much seems to be happening in that regard at the moment, so I’m not involved in doing anything. But I will spring into action when the need arises. If I can still walk.

At the moment I’m fighting the urge to become involved in the lichenology community. The British Lichen Society were in Moffat for a week, recently, surveying, and a colleague and I met them at the nature reserve. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and I’ve long been attracted to lichens, but I know myself. I’ll spend a fortune on equipment, devote myself to the study of lichens for a while –six months, two years… – and then I’ll lose interest and be stuck with a room full of microscopes gathering dust and cobwebs. So I’ll hold off on that. Though I have bought a little ‘eyeglass‘ and am enjoying examining very small things with it.

What do I do to be involved with the community? That depends on the community you’re talking about. For example, I do nothing to be involved in the sports community; quite a lot to be involved with the conservation community; and on Sunday I drove my husband to a gig and stood outside in the sun smoking while he performed, thus involving myself in both the music and smoking communities.