I Am Schumer

Daily writing prompt

How would you improve your community?

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In first starting my site, I saw these prompts as the tools of a fake writer, an uninspired, abnegated, and decaying mindless penman. In consideration of my last piece, I can now see myself in that same description, maybe a piece of projection in that harsh initial judgement that signified a removal of my rose-tinted lenses that I looked at life through, but in response to a new day, meaning a new mood swing, I felt an ephemeral, sacred yearn tug at my stomach and soar up my throat to my throat at first confrontation with this question.

That is the true purpose of these questions. A question of community for writers on there sites across the digital globe in which we convene and celebrate. A question to give diversity and understanding to the multitudinous layers of life’s subtle and sometimes most important questions. A question to make one think and most importantly have fun inside their own thoughts before inscribing them on their keyboard. A question that emphasizes the importance of all questions, the desire to listen and learn, and to look at the purpose of this question, and not apply its Meta back onto is I feel unrighteous and overlooking it’s main purpose.

Firstly, I search to define what exactly is a community, especially your community. Community is defined by our Almighty God (Merriam-Webster) as

In taking this definition to my own life, I see myself as a part of various communities, at different levels from civil, to professional, to hobbyist, to purely deviant. A circle in which a joint is passed around amongst fellow growers, ents, and slackers can be considered a community. A various eclectic collection of nodders, stoners, rollers, tweakers, skiiers, and pedophiles collected at a DIY venue punk show on a Friday can be considered a community. Removing pedophiles from the town, helps one community but limits another, because where would pop-punk and emo of the 2010s be without its precious child-lovers (way better off but without a few classic albums). Therefore, the true search for a improvement that affects all of these communities and negatively impacts none of them now presents a barrier of difficulty in answering the question.

Secondly, improvement then needs a definition. It is something that we all individually we seek in every part of our lives day-to-day, but focusing specifically our communities, per the prompt, leaves out some communities. Improvement itself is widely based on perception of a foible, a weakness, or maybe a system-wide flaw that is prohibiting the community towards its greatest self or final goal, so in the truest view of a shitty philosophy used by every single vile, down-low, villainous, and out-right down-to-the-core shitty person I ever met, Machiavellianism, it what would whatever brings the greatest good to the community. Because only serving the majority never hurt anyone right? How can one make a vague improvement across all of their communities, and not harm another one that they are a part of or one they are in the out-group. It has to be an improvement tailored towards the person seeking improvements. An individual change that makes themselves better, ergo all of their communities in which they engage better because of it.

Consequentially, we finally reach the very insignificant, very obvious, and minute answer to the main prompt. To improve our communities in the broadest way possible, we must just become better people. Yet, how do we better ourselves in the one exact way to positively impact all of our communities? To the smoke sesh, we don’t bring mids and always match? To the DIY community, we violently jump all Nazi’s and Pedo’s that make themselves self-evident and are proud about it? To the book-clubs, we don’t recommend Hemingway and read the books that are assigned? These are all too specific, yet improving ways that we can improve our communities. But for our reserved and possibly anxious avoidant communities we find ourselves in, how do we find these specific fixes that overtime build trust and support for a community of love and respect? It is as Meta as I stated before, we ask questions. To improve a community in the most effective and tailored fashion while also bettering yourself, you approach your communities with a want to learn from them, and desire to listen and hear them, and a love to use that knowledge for the betterment of yourself and your community. It teaches us how to treat one another, it shows us the inner thoughts of each other in the community, and to those gold-star listeners it highlights how one can improve themselves to provide greater benefit to the community. To improve communities, one must try to understand one another, give grace, forgive each other, and hold everyone accountable. Communities grow with each other, so to inspire growth in a community, they must inspire growth within themselves. If the community grows, and they do not, the community does not grow. Forever seek to understand those around, or admit that they never understood anything at all.