Civility: Loner of Lover

Civility is defined as courtesy, politeness; a polite act or expression. A few observations about civility:

1. The world works better with more civility.
2. Civility is something each of us can choose.
3. We can choose civility at any moment each day.

This is how Warren Buffet defined success.  “When you’re nearing your end of life, your only measure of success should be the number of people you want to have love you actually do love you.  I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them, If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.”

Everyone needs to be part of a loving community; and the more the merrier.  We weren’t meant to live in isolation.  At the end of the day everyone wants to come home to the community of family or friends who know who you really are, accept you for being yourself and who love you.

But some people are better at building community than others.  I have 7 grandchildren who live close enough to me to visit.  A number of years ago I struggled with how I wanted to shape my involvement in their lives.  I came up with an idea that turned out to be brilliant, even though I didn’t know it at the time.  I created Movie Night.  Movie Night has evolved into an amazingly rich community for me, my wife, our children and grandchildren who live close enough to attend.

And in the process, I discovered some powerful tips for building a rich and wonderful community.  Over the next few posts I would like to share some of the lessons I learned in the hope that you can use them to enrich community in your life.

Your community might be your marriage, your family, your friends at school, your neighbors.  It doesn’t matter.  Pick a group that is meaningful to you and use these tips to make it better for you and for those you care about.

Let’s start a community challenge.  I will share my tips with you.  Write back and share one tip you have used to make your community richer.