9/11 gathering. Music in the Park. Yountville Community Church. Yountville Chamber mixers. Communities may share a given geographical area or commonalities such as norms, religion, values, customs, and identity. When I went to the Yountville Community Church two weeks ago, I was looking for the latter but left a bit confused. Then I went to Music in the Park and thought, “This is definitely community!” Both are. With a name like Yountville Community Church, I would assume a community from a geographical area, but that does not seem to be the case. I am sure at one time it was. So the church is a community in terms of commonalities, and Music in the Park is a community in terms of location and identity, Yountvillians.
My upbringing shows me that a church extends beyond the walls of the religious community to the geographical area. So with Yountville in the title, will there be an outreach to Yountville? So much is focused inwards on the theater and continued construction that I have yet to see it. When I left the church service and walked through the parking lot, I was advised by a fellow church-goer to “take that mask off and burn it.” Not many commonalities with me and this church-goer, I realized.
My community is Music in the Park, the restaurants, my neighbors walking their dogs.