Handmade: The Stash

In knitopia, there is this well-known phenomenon called “The Stash.” Most common usages of this title include:

• The Stash is overflowing all over my bedroom floor.
• I added some 100% merino to The Stash today.
• It’s my New Years’ Resolution to burn up The Stash.

On Ravelry (I heart Ravelry), there are groups dedicated soley to The Stash: Stash Knit Down 2008, Stash Busters, S.A.B.L.E. – Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, and so on. So I had never heard of this word before a few months ago when I began creating a stash of my own. Simply put, The Stash is a knitter’s stock of yarn. I only started knitting in January and before I knew it I had skeins of yarn stuffed in every available bin and basket.

When the monster, er, I mean, the cat discovered her own personal talent for taking balls of yarn out of the forementioned baskets, I knew I had to find another way. Here’s my solution to organizing my Stash:

The rule is that I can only acquire the yarn that will fit in these bins. If I have too much yarn, I will have to use it up before I buy more. I have read “horror stories” – that is horror stories only if you have an intense type-A personality like I do – of knitters with bins and bins and bins and bins full of yarn. For those people, that’s probably a great thing, and I do know the joy of finding the perfect yarn and wanting to buy it without a project or a plan for it. But I need to keep a rein on my stash so that I know what yarn I have and don’t buy duplicates, so that I don’t take up too much space in our new little apartment in Chi-town, so that I don’t explode with disorganization (we type-A’s tend to do that).

So I have four bins: one for sweaters that I’m going to unravel for yarn, one for wool and alternative yarns (soy, bamboo, silk), one for cotton and acrylic yarns, and one for my knitting needles, tools, and works in progress. I cut out letters from magazines in order to label each of the bins.

And since the bins aren’t full yet, I was able to add to my stash the past couple of weeks. I have been planning for Christmas knitting. Yes, I know…ALREADY! But you must remember that since we haven’t moved yet (and therefore I haven’t been able to find a job) my primary responsibilities all day are cleaning (as little as possible), preparing meals, and surfing teh Intarweb for cool stores/restaurants/farmers markets to go to in Chicago. Oh yeah. And knitting. And not sewing.

So, anyway. Here’s some shots of the yarn I have gotten recently for the making of Christmas gifts.

There’s some gorgeous hand-dyed Blueface Leicester Wool (please notice that it already has cat hair in it) that I can’t wait to start working with – and I have a wonderful project in store for that. I also have two skeins of Cascade 220 Peruvian Highland Wool and lots and lots of Rowan 4-ply merino wool. It almost makes me giddy to think of the projects I have planned. Now, hopefully I will complete them all by December. It is only June after all – I think I can make it.

Homemade: Knowing Your Limits

I’ve been borrowing my mom’s sewing machine since Brad and I were married four years ago. I think that deep down in my heart I had this plan of sewing my own cute blouses (and of course little baby dresses, pants, etc. when we have bambinos). But today I had to admit that the dream is dead. Here’s the honest truth.

I CANNOT SEW.

That’s it. There’s nothing more to say. I hate everything about sewing. I hate cutting fabric. I hate pinning fabric together. I hate winding bobbins. I hate threading needles. I hate running the sewing machine. There’s nothing about the sewing process that I even remotely enjoy. And that would be okay…except, that I also cannot sew. At all.

This is difficult for me to admit because I wanted to make my own clothes and be self-sufficient in that way. Perhaps if I took some classes or really worked on it I could eventually learn to sew, but at this point I really just want to count my losses (which aren’t many since I only borrowed a sewing machine and didn’t buy one).

It’s certainly a good thing to become more self-sufficient and to learn to make things that we could just run out and buy at Target. For one, it teaches us that someone has to make the item we are buying and that our possessions were made by the time and energy of human beings, made in God’s image. At the same time, I think it’s important to realize where our limits are. It would probably take me weeks and weeks of frustrating, time-consuming work to sew a blouse. If I am so angry at my sewing machine that I want to throw it out the window, it is probably difficult for me to be honoring to God, let alone making sure that I am saying kind words to my husband. The pay off just isn’t worth it.

I never really understood it when people were amazed at my knitting because knitting comes naturally to me. Now I understand. Sewing comes naturally to other people – and wow, I wish that were me but I guess I will just have to be content with the skills I have and thankful that there are other people who have sewing skills. Perhaps a good option would be to trade my knitting skills for someone’s sewing skills. Another option would be to buy sewn goods from the wonderful people on etsy. In fact, I just bought some incredible knitting needle cases from a seamstress on etsy, and I’m so glad I did. If I had tried to make them myself I think the process would have ended in some colorful language and a bashed-in sewing machine.

So, sure, I still think we can honor God, ourselves, and others by making things with our own hands, but we don’t have to make everything. Try new things. See what you’re good at. If you’re not so good at something, try it again another time. If you’re still not good at it, move on. See if there is some way you can support someone who is good at that skill.

So will our kiddos have home-sewn clothes. No. But they will have hand-knit clothes. And maybe we will receive clothes from others who can sew. I think that’s the way community works: everyone contributes what they have for the good of everyone else.

Homemade: Guacamole

Avocados are one non-local food that I find myself craving every once in awhile: a few times to use for sandwiches or omelets but usually to make my famous guacamole. I’m pretty sure that my recipe is based on something I found on All Recipes but I can’t seem to find the original right now. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I changed it up a bit anyway.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Start with the avocados. You’ll want to use avocados that have a black skin, and when you lightly squeeze them, they should feel a little bit soft. A green skin means that the avocado is not ripe yet, and if the avocado is very soft, the green meat inside will be turning black and not taste as fresh. If you aren’t going to be using the avocados the day or day after you buy them, get ones with green skin and wait for them to ripen.

Cut the avocado the long way around. Hopefully you can see what I mean from the picture.

Then you will need to remove the pit. This little trick I picked up from Alton Brown. Good Eats = best. cooking. show. ever.

Anyway. First you want to hold the avocado half with the skin down in the palm of your hand. Then carefully but firmly swing your knife blade into the center of the avocado pit. The knife should stick in the pit.

Carefully twist the knife from side to side to remove the pit. Now you have a pit stuck to your knife. DON’T grab the pit with your palm facing the blade! Instead put your hand over the top of the knife and use your fingers to push the pit off the knife, like so:

Now you will need your handy dandy food processor. A good friend gave us this as a wedding shower gift. I hadn’t even thought to add it to my registry. And honestly I only use it to make guacamole and maybe once or twice for other things throughout the year. But it’s worth it for the guacamole alone!

So, into the food processor goes the scooped-out meat from two avocados (that’s four avocado halves), mayonnaise, minced garlic, onion powder, lime juice, salsa, and lots and lots of cilantro. The cilantro is what makes it so don’t hold back.

Whir it all together – is whir even really a word? Well, I’m going to use it. Go ahead and whir like crazy. Alton Brown recommends that you leave it a bit chunky, but I like my guacamole nice and smooth.

Spoon that beautiful goodness into a dish and enjoy with chips. Here’s another guacamole caveat. I heard that if you place a pit in the guacamole it keeps it from browning sooner, but the dear husband says that it’s just “urban legend” or whatever. I still think it works, and it makes the dish looks pretty so I do it.

The BEST Guacamole

• 2 avocados
• 3 T. mayonnaise
• 2 t. minced garlic
• 1 t. onion powder
• 1 t. lime juice (or lemon if you really must)
• 2 T. salsa
• 2-3 T. of cilantro (or more if you’re awesome! I don’t really think you can put in too much)

Mix together ingredients in a food processor. Store in the fridge.

Currently…

Watching

TED Talks. My husband has been watching these for months and I was apparently not listening very well when he was telling me about them. I only started watching them a week or so ago, and I’m absolutely riveted! Basically, TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a gathering of thousands of the world’s smartest people. The talks are 15 minutes long, and most of them are absolutely fascinating. Some of my favorites so far:

• Mark Bittman – What’s Wrong with What We Eat?
• Dave Eggers – Once Upon a School
• Hans Rosling – New Insights on Poverty and Life Around the World

Listening to

Pandora. Very cool radio website. Type in your favorite band or artist and Pandora will find other similar artists. You can approve or reject songs and teach your station what you like. Nice.

Wearing

Well, I’m actually not wearing this yet but will be eventually will be. The goal of Fifty Thousand Shirts is to raise $1,000,000 in relief aid to help those affected by the earthquake that occurred in China on May 12th. Each person who buys a shirt gets their name added to the online wall. Plus, you get a cool shirt to wear. I love buying t-shirts with a purpose. Get yours.

Riding

My awesome new Specialized Crossroads bike that we bought used from a friend. I finally realized that my cheapo Wal-Mart bike is just not going to cut it. Ironically, Brad also has a Specialized Crossroads bike (which is gold, not blue like mine). Awww…won’t we look so cute biking together? It will be great for biking in Chicago.

Speaking of which…

Doing for the next four weeks

Packing! Selling furniture! Setting up the lease on an apartment…in Chicago! That’s right, folks. It’s finally happened. We got an offer on our house yesterday and accepted the offer this morning. Just a few details to work out, a home inspection, and we will be moving out on July 10th!

I’m very, very, very excited (I knew all I had to do was start the vegetable garden and it would happen)! But I’m also a little nervous about taking care of all the details as well as saying good-bye to all our great friends and moving into such an entirely different environment than the one we’re living in now. I know that God is leading us, and I’m just trusting that He’ll take care of all the details.

Kingdom-made: Community, Part Two

Last week I wrote about the community we have with God. This week I have been looking at what scripture has to say regarding our community with others. The New Testament authors filled their letters with direct commands as to how we are to treat “each other.” These are sometimes called the “one another” verses. Many, many, many times, the writers of the New Testament encourage their readers to “love one another.”

“Love one another.” John 13:34, 1 John 3:11, Romans 13:8

“Love one another deeply.” 1 Peter 1:22

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10

“Live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.” 1 Peter 3:8

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12

“Keep on loving each other as brothers.” Hebrews 13:1

Ironically, last Sunday my pastor talked partly about what it means to love like a brother (or sister). Loving one’s siblings isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Suddenly we are thrust into this so-called relationship with another person that we didn’t get to choose. And, to top it all off, we are supposed to love this person. Now, I can’t entirely relate to the concept of having siblings because I’m an only child. However, this could also apply to loving other members of one’s family.

When we say we love somebody, what we are usually talking about is a strong feeling of care and concern for that person. We may also be referring to the fact that we love being around that person and doing things together. But with siblings (or other family members), sometimes we just don’t enjoy that person. Sometimes our brother steals our toy and then blames us for the conflict. Sometimes sisters make rude comments. But at the end of the day, most siblings usually say that they do love each other. And it is a feeling that goes deeper than petty conflicts or arguments.

So, how does this apply to followers of Christ? Obviously, we are called to have deep compassion and concern for other members of our Christian community (and I would assume that to be the global community of Christ-followers). Yet, the relationship between brothers or sisters is not always the rosy, easy, cheery relationship that we expect of church community. I think that most people expect to enter church and be greeted by several people, take a seat, hear a sermon, sing a few songs, and then go home. This is what people expect from the church experience, but I don’t really think this is what anyone wants.

Greeting, smiling, and handshakes are all good things, don’t get me wrong, but is that really love? Is that really loving like siblings? And if it’s not love, how do we foster love in our churches? How do we practically love the 50, 500, or 5,000 people in our church?

Love is such a deep emotion that I’m not sure we can do it practically for a huge group, at least not in the way that we are building deep relationships with all these people. I’ve met some very outgoing people who can make anyone around them feel comfortable and loved within a few minutes. But I don’t think it’s practical to expect everyone to love in an outgoing way. By this I mean, I’m a pretty shy person and the thought of going up to a stranger at church and engaging them in conversation practically terrifies me (for some reason I can do a lot better with teenagers), so my way of showing love to those in my community may look different than the guy who can go up and slap someone on the back and instantly be their best friend. I’m not excusing myself from trying to make people feel welcome in my church, but instead challenging myself to use my gifts and abilities to express love in my own unique way.

I see two things going on here: 1) that we need to be a part of a small community that has deep relationships among its members, and 2) that we need to be actively involved in loving all Jesus-followers, and just people in general for that matter, everywhere regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or theological beliefs. In other parts of this blog I write about showing general concern for people all people everywhere (see Social Frays and Fair Trade). But in this “series,” or whatever you want to call it, I want to focus on what it means to “live in community” with other people who are trying to follow Jesus.

One of the criticisms that non-believers have against the American church is that Christians do not love genuinely. They say they “love” but then the live ungenerous, racist, selfish lives. I think Christians struggle with this too because they look at everyone sitting in the pews around them and yet cannot point to a single person that they would call their “brother” or “sister.” But it’s easy to point fingers and place the blame on “the church” or “Christians” and not do anything about it. What if we instead became deliberate about building our own small communities among other Christians? What would a Christian community look like?

I welcome input from others so feel free to add your own comments. Hopefully, I will continue to explore this topic in the weeks to come.

Handmade: Veggie Garden

For the past few months I have been debating whether or not I want to start a vegetable garden. Last year I literally spent months mulching a large area in our backyard (and I might add the area farthest away from the driveway where the mulch had been dumped – over one hundred wheelbarrow loads, I kid you not!). I started some seeds, which would have been successful in any other house. But starting seeds is very difficult when you have a cat who loves to eat plants and will climb any height to get at the tasty green morsels mommy for some reason likes to put on top of dirt, which is not so tasty but good for tracking all over the house. Yes. That is my cat Zoe.

Anyway, with the house on the market I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through all the effort to buy plants and take care of them, especially the weeding part, when someone else would most likely get the harvest. But I kept looking at the plot and the weeds growing up,

and it felt like the land was telling me it wanted a purpose in life. Boy, do I know how that is, so I couldn’t deny it a purpose. So I picked up a few plants at the farmers market last Saturday: two different varieties of tomatoes, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and cucumber. And planted them.

These are the peppers.

But the five little plants only took up about 1/6 of the space. Now I know they will get bigger, but I left them plenty of room to grow, and now I keep envisioning more plants as I lie in bed in the mornings. I want to grow beans and strawberries, lettuce, and carrots.

Last year with all the weeding a mulching, I think I didn’t experience the joy of gardening, just the hard sweat and unending toil of gardening. Plus, I only grew three types of plants. And summer squash gets old after about 3 days. This year I am striving for much more diversity. Part of me is hoping to be around for the harvest but if the people who buy our house get to also enjoy lots of veggies, I will have to be satisfied with it. I will be in Chicago after all. And that is better by far.

Homemade: Mushroom Quesadillas

I have a friend from Mexico. Let me just tell you one thing about having a friend from Mexico: it’s awesome. For many, many reasons, but one of them is that every time I go to her house she literally “whips up” something fantastic. Oh, and also she has a never-ending supply of seltzer water but that is a different story.

A few weeks ago I was helping her run a garage sale and she made me brunch: mushroom quesadillas.  This recipe, in fact, that I am about to share with you.

First you need to prepare the mushrooms. Saute some diced onions in canola oil. Add a bit of minced garlic at the end and then add sliced mushrooms. I tried this with shiitake mushrooms the first time because I love shiitakes but the flavor was a bit over powering. It’s best to use cremini mushrooms. And make sure they are fresh. Then you will need a small can of these:

You want to pull out one or two of the chipotle peppers and dice them up nice and small because, let me tell you, these suckers are spicy! Add those to the mushrooms along with a teaspoon of epazote (which is a Mexican herb you may have to hunt for. I found it at Wal-Mart but I live in an area with a large population of latinos).

Once the mushrooms are nice and soft, heat up a frying pan to medium. Place one tortilla in the pan and add your mushrooms. Then top with cheese. My friend used queso blanco, but yesterday I used grated mozzarella and cheddar.

That’s it! A fantastic and very, very flavorful meal for lunch or dinner. Also please take notice, because I like to brag, that I made the tortillas also. I found flour tortilla mix at Wal-Mart, and the tortillas were pretty simple to make (much better than our previous attempts at making them from scratch – sometimes making from scratch is just not possible no matter how hard I try).

Mushroom Quesadillas (courtesy of my friend Karin)

• 1 lb. cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 t. garlic, minced
• 1 T. canola oil
• 2 La Costena chipotle peppers, diced
• 1 t. epazote
• 1 c. shredded cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, queso blanco)
• 8 small flour tortillas

Heat up the oil in a medium sized pot over medium low heat. Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute more. Add the mushrooms, peppers, and epazote. Cook until mushrooms are soft.

Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat. Place a tortilla on the pan and then add the mushroom mixture on top of the tortilla. Top with cheese and another tortilla. Let the quesadilla heat up until the cheese is melted, turning once. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

It’s Official

Forget getting my driver’s license. Forget getting married. Forget voting. Forget graduating from college. Today I officially feel like an adult because…I got my blood drawn.

Wow. I know that’s so cheesy and sad but this is something that has been hanging over my head for years. I have been dreading this day for a long time. But now it’s done and I’m super proud of myself. Oh yes. I am treating myself to sparkling water and knitting.

By the way, they’re testing to see if I’m anemic. So, no, I’m neither dying nor pregnant.

Fair Trade: What to wear?

Being a woman, I think it is required that thinking about clothes take at least 2-3% of my brain space (though for some women, this number might be more like 50%). Okay, maybe I’m being stereotypical. I know some guys who think a lot about clothes too. As much as I really don’t care about clothes, I do find myself sometimes envying a friend’s cute outfit and feeling the compulsion to buy something more fashionable and trendy. This happened right before our recent trip to California. We were meeting a client, who is kind of a big name in Hollywood, and having dinner at a fancy restaurant. My self-esteem dropped instantaneously: I don’t know what to wear to a fancy restaurant! What if he thinks my dreads are gross? What if I’m not trendy or hip enough? I don’t know why it really mattered, but I gave into the “need” for new clothes and got a few pieces from Kohl’s.

I don’t know if it’s something ingrained in human nature, but it’s so easy to compare ourselves and the way we look and dress to other people. What is that old statement? Clothes make the man? My guess is that because clothing is such an important aspect of our society, and because we obviously need to have some clothes, buying clothes is something that we don’t really think about unless we are considering whether the pants make our butt look big.

It’s very easy to forget that a human being made those jeans and that that human being probably can’t afford to buy those jeans. It almost becomes a joke to say that the $3 shirt was so cheap because it was probably made in a sweatshop or by some little kid somewhere. I am so guilty of this! I realize the day before an event that I need black pants, don’t have any and only have 20 minutes in my day to get a pair. It’s easy for me to justify that I need the pants and so I just have to buy them and not think about how they were made.

My intention for writing this topic is not to guilt-trip anyone for buying clothes at Wal-Mart or any other store for that matter. I don’t think guilt-trips are going to help anything. Instead I would like to encourage people to ask this question more often: “How was this item made?” And along with asking that question to consider that every dollar we spend is a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. I am writing this for myself as much as anyone else. I have too many shirts and I can easily get suckered in to buying another shirt because it’s cute without thinking about where the shirt came from.

So obviously, one of the solutions is to buy fair trade clothes. That’s a great option, but I would also suggest that a lot of us, myself included, have more clothes than we need and we should make more of an attempt to just resist the urge to buy. Try not to use shopping as recreation or a treat on a bad day. There are other ways to cheer yourself up.

Another solution is to buy second-hand clothing as much as possible. This is something that the hubby and I have been trying to implement, but it requires a bit more work and forethought than simply running to Kohl’s on a whim. It’s important to pay attention to clothing needs that might be coming up. For example, I recently noticed that Brad might be needing more polo shirts soon. With that at the back of my mind, when I found brand new Gap and Express shirts at a garage sale for $4 a piece I knew I had to snatch them up. When buying clothes, the best advice is to not buy anything you don’t need, but when buying used clothes, sometimes you have to buy some things that you think you might need soon. And need is an important word, though there are plenty of times when I think it’s okay to buy second-hand clothes just because you like it. Watching what you buy and how those purchases affect others doesn’t mean never enjoying an item of clothing. But you also don’t want to buy a bunch of jeans just because they are $1 each and then realizing you have 20 pairs of jeans. Trust me people. Less laundry is better. Along with that thought, it’s easier to keep track of what clothes you need when you have less clothing.

One final solution is to make your own clothes. I try to make practical items when I knit, things I will actually use. But it probably isn’t possible to make all your own clothes, especially if you have lots of kids. In any case, I find it helpful to at least try to sew a few things so that I realize how much work actually goes into making my clothes.

More Resources

Fair Indigo: Lots of fair-trade clothing with stories from workers. There is also a line of fair-trade and organic clothing. Prices comparable to Macy’s.

Pristine Planet: Not the best website, but a fairly large selection of sustainable, organic, and fair trade clothing.

Philip Sawyer: Incredible shirts designed by a relative of ours, made by well-paid workers and artisans in Vietnam.

Shopping for Second Hand Clothes: Great tips on how to buy used clothing

Made in L.A.: A documentary following three women as they battle with their employer, fashion retailer Forever 21, for essential labor rights.

Kingdom-made: Community, Part One

I did a Google search on “community” the other day and found this community church, that community church, this community, that community…and on and on. There are community groups and community covenants. And it’s not only Christian’s who use this words. Lots of online forums bear the word “community” in their title. I go to a church that has the words “community” and “fellowship” in the name (that’s actually redundant, but a double-whammy plug for community, nonetheless) and I am a part of the Josiah Community. I’m in a community group and talk a lot about intentional community. So it got me thinking: why all this talk about community?

Personally, community is something that I’m still grasping at. Currently I’m a stay-at-home-well, nothing (not a mom, can I be a stay-at-home-person who cleans the house for house showings so we can sell this freaking thing and move to Chicago?). In any case, I feel very isolated, and with that comes a strong desire for what I label as “community.” I have this overwhelming sense that our relationships with others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, aren’t what they could be, or even what they should be. Why is that? Why do we live in a society of cell phones and email and still feel utterly disconnected? Why all this use of the word “community”? Is it perhaps because we are grasping for community, and using the word, putting the label on our church or group, makes us feel more like we have succeeded?

So over the next few weeks I’d like to examine this topic of community, and perhaps by writing here, discover more about what biblical community is about. Are my personal thoughts about community correct? Is something lacking? Is the church living up to a true model of community? How can we foster community?

As I was first diving into this topic, the first thing I realized is that the perfect example of community is found in the Trinity. This is a pretty common theological understanding of the Trinity: that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to each other out of the purest form of love. And this relationship has existed eternally, before the beginning of time. It is not lacking anything. Nothing in scripture makes any such statement about the Trinity (or even use the word “trinity” for that matter) but theologians from the very beginning have deduced the existence and description of the trinity from the abundance of verses in the Bible like:

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14

In a recent sermon from Rob Bell at Mars Hill entitled “Others,” Bell looks at the book of times and the numerous times the author Paul, calls us to interact with God: “share in God’s grace” (1:7) “through Jesus Christ” (1:11), “united with Christ” (2:1), “fellowship with the Spirit” (2:1). Bell states that a new reader of Philippians is likely to be confused by all these seemingly different titles for the same person, God. He concludes that Paul, who is writing about unity in Philippians, wants to point to the relationship of the Trinity as the source and model of our unity with others.

In fact, we have community with God first.

“And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3

We take communion to remind us that we are a part of the Body of Christ. We are able to join into the perfect love relationship that is the Trinity. We share in Christ’s sufferings and comfort.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” 2 Corinthians 1:5

So as I am alone more recently, I have the opportunity to develop my community with God. For me, studying and writing has been helpful as I think through what it means to have a personal relationship with God. I have also been learning to enjoy myself more and just let go and enjoy life. I can take my time preparing meals and enjoying God’s unique creations (especially my favorite, food). I can praise God for an upbeat song that fills me with joy. I can talk to Him as I wash dishes. I can show His care to others by writing letters. Of course, every relationship in this fallen world isn’t always easy. There are so many times when I am bored, distracted, or selfish. That is a part of the human community as well.

There is much more to say about this topic of community, but I will save that for next week.