Community -vs- Commuting
Last fall when I started a new job in another of the suburban communities here in the Twin Cities metro, I wrote that this would be the first time in my 30 years of adult jobs that I ever worked as a commuter. That meant to me that I was not working within the community where I lived. I said that felt strange to contemplate. I have always felt connected to the community where I lived. In fact, it was an essential part of my life. Work for me was more than just something I “went” to do and then “came home.” Work was IN the community.

Of course as a pastor of a church that was easy to do. The people I worked with, the parishioners, were also those I spent time with, did relaxing things with, etc. I would also see them in the stores, coffee shops, etc. Lots of interactions in lots of different places.

When I “semi-retired” (i.e. went on a leave of absence) and started to work as a chemical health counselor in the local school district, I was still working where I lived. It was always neat to run into the kids from school in many different places. Or like this evening, a parent who came into the coffee shop while I was there.

I have always liked this kind of community connection. As a teenager growing up in a small, rural town in northern Pennsylvania I couldn’t walk a block without someone I knew driving by. (Which also had its bad points- everyone knew what I was doing?) But I loved it. I still do.

Which is why I go to the local coffee shop. It is a small sense of community.

I truly miss the community in my current job as a counselor in an outpatient treatment program in the different community. Actually, most of the suburbs don’t have that kind of community I am talking about. Most people live and work in different places. If you don’t have children in school or belong to the same clubs/churches/gyms/etc. you don’t have that connection. I had never noticed how common that is becoming. I have a hunch we are all the poorer for it.

This growing loss came to me the other evening as I drove down the main highway from one side of town to the other. The new highway connecting this suburb with the metro is being worked on. It is causing this big rift to be built in the community, a rift that was already there but is now being put into concrete and ramps and sound barriers. It is the rift between community and commuting.