a place for community

A question (or challenge or doubt) has been raised whether it may be more difficult to describe the Ideal Place than it has been create such a space. This would be reasonable if the specialness was rare and unpredictable. But when such a place setting arises with regularity it is worth trying to capture the conditions that create this phenomenon. Further, that the Ideal Place consists of a substantial proportion of new participants and occurs in vastly different location -- it appears that comparing these distinct cases ought to shake out the common factors.

The conditions for the Ideal Place probably tap into a primal instinct. While somewhat fanciful, their existence in the world outside of children's stories suggests that the border between fiction and non-fiction may be a gray area. Or perhaps the special place is set within the very location that only appears to be a border: a hedgerow or a windbreak or a stone wall. Each of these cases might superficially designate a dividing line. However, those who look closely recognize the special and unique occurrences taking place in these interstitial zones.

A special place could be where a person goes on his own in order to enjoy the solitude. It is probably best for each person to find their own spot and not disclose its location or existence to others. However, another type of ideal place takes the form of a gathering. It would have to be more than an ordinary gathering because (at least in my mind) one aspect of the idealness would be that everyone involved would benefit from the experience. In fact, it might even be better if there was a shared sense about why to gather in the first place. As we are growing to appreciate, such topics were long ago explored by John Dewey:

Wherever there is conjoint activity whose consequences are appreciated as good by all singular persons who take part in it, and where the realization of the good is such as to effect an energetic desire and effort to sustain it in being just because it is a good shared by all, there is in so far a community.

~ The Search for the Great Community, 1927

Admittedly this does not describe how the Ideal Place may be established. But perhaps knowing the ends and their subtle characteristics, we can reconstruct the means. Maybe the secret is that we had an implicit sense for what we longed for within an Ideal Space and because our experiences and aspirations were so aligned with that of so many others, our boldness to act may have simply opened the door to what it was that so many others needed.