We had a great time on Tuesday night seeing Portastatic, Greg Humphries, Chris Stamey, and Tift Merritt. All of the bands played acoustic shows, for free, to encourage early voting in Asheville. Portastatic is, hands down, one of my favorite bands. Greg Humphries was the guitarist/singer/songwriter of Dillon Fence. Chris Stamey's Dad was my pediatrician. And Tift Merritt is great. We went with our friends Jeff and Martin, who made the show that much more enjoyable. I was struck by the feeling of community that permeated the show. Everyone there seemed focused on doing something that would improve our community. I am sure that we would all disagree on exactly what we would do to improve the community, but we all wanted to do something. It was really amazing, and I felt great to be there, among people who seemed to care.
This, in turn, made me think of our community - and how Jessica and I have become part of groups of people who care about things. My parents were really great at building community. They still are. They know how to get involved, and they know how to create traditions. Growing up, my family just did a lot of things together. We simply were not five individuals who happened to live together, we were a group within a group. We ate together, went to games together, travelled together, went to church together, played together, fought together, learned together, etc. And often times, we did these things with other people in our community, ie: family friends. So now when I do much of the above things, I still think of them. It is my hope that Jessica, Noah, and the soon to be baby Graham can achieve that type of community. We are on our way, and I think that it has good for us to live in Asheville, and not in Winston-Salem - where the community would be automatically provided for us. I always had that community, because of my family roots, but here he have had to learn how to build it on our own, and Jessica has been the leader in that effort. She is a community builder, and has been since the day day I met her at UNCG in 1996. I love that about her, and it comforts me. We carved pumpkins last night. And tonight we are going trick or treating with our neighbors and friends. All of us are excited about it, and it makes me feel lucky.
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