The Ledger

By Becky Holland

I’ve been thinking lately about what it means to be part of a community.

We use that word a lot. Community events. Community organizations. Community businesses. Community newspaper.

But a community isn’t created simply because a group of people share a ZIP code.

Community is something we build.

And one of the simplest ways we build it is by cheering for each other.

That sounds easy enough, but sometimes it isn’t.

It means celebrating when somebody else succeeds, even when we wish it were our turn. It means recommending another local business without worrying that doing so somehow takes something away from ours. It means showing up for a fundraiser, sharing someone’s good news, congratulating the kid who earned an award and recognizing the person quietly doing good work when nobody is handing out trophies.

There is room for more than one person to do well.

There is room for more than one business to succeed.

There is room for different organizations, different ideas and different personalities.

Someone else’s light does not make ours shine any less.

I get to see a lot of our community through The Ledger. I see new businesses opening their doors and longtime businesses celebrating milestones. I see students accomplishing incredible things. I see churches collecting donations, organizations planning events, volunteers giving their time and neighbors helping neighbors.

And sometimes I think we underestimate how much a simple bit of encouragement matters.

A “good job.”

A Facebook share.

A purchase from a local business.

Showing up.

Telling somebody, “I see what you’re doing, and it matters.”

None of that costs much, if anything. But collectively, those small things help determine what kind of community we become.

That doesn’t mean we will always agree. We won’t.

We don’t have to attend the same church, vote the same way, belong to the same organizations or even particularly like one another.

Community isn’t sameness.

It is recognizing that we all have a stake in this place we call home. There’s no I in TEAM.

Cochran and Bleckley County are better when our businesses thrive, when our schools succeed, when our organizations grow and when our neighbors have reasons to celebrate.

So cheer for somebody.

Share their accomplishment. Walk into the new business. Buy the fundraiser ticket. Congratulate the competitor. Tell somebody when they’re doing something good.

There is enough room in this community for all of us to succeed.

But the kind of community we want won’t build itself.

That part is up to us.