Community.

[Guest]

Community.

Phil,

Excellent and thought provoking thread.

However, I may disagree with you here.

Can a community as large as this (and physically not connected) move through phases? New people are coming on line everyday, so how does the community stablise?

If you liken it to a school with 1000 pupils, there will be constant movement in all respects. As in a school, I think smaller groups form, via threads and other means of communcation, and it is these groups that may move through the phases.

Spam

[mario]

Community.

Were all here for one main reason, to keep sober & maybe if we can, to help others to keep sober,its a well know fact that helping others is a big part of keeping sober yourself, its also been proved thats its very hard to keep sober all by yourself,a lot of people have tried it & failed,Coming here is for me anyway a big part of me staying sober, and i always try and get something good out of logging on here daily ,its the old law of the more you give the more you get, you never know here when you may help somebody and helping somebody is one of the best ways of staying sober yourself.overall this community here has helped me stay alcohol free and i am very grateful to be here and to be part of this community.

[stirly-girly]

Community.

mario;812151 wrote: Were all here for one main reason, to keep sober & maybe if we can, to help others to keep sober,its a well know fact that helping others is a big part of keeping sober yourself, its also been proved thats its very hard to keep sober all by yourself,a lot of people have tried it & failed,Coming here is for me anyway a big part of me staying sober, and i always try and get something good out of logging on here daily ,its the old law of the more you give the more you get, you never know here when you may help somebody and helping somebody is one of the best ways of staying sober yourself.overall this community here has helped me stay alcohol free and i am very grateful to be here and to be part of this community.

Well said, Mario. Let's just keep it like that...plain and simple. No big words and fancy phases necessary to complicate things. All here together with one purpose in mind - to help ourselves and to help others in living a sober, healthy life. Simple as that...

[Sheepish]

Community.

Pighead

I enjoy your posts. I admit it. You have some smarts and you enjoy parading 'em around town. I think verbal sparring is an engaging and worthwhile enterprise.

However- what I think you all are discussing here is apples and oranges. And posiibly every other fruit on the planet.. You see -**FOR ME** the idea of community can only be in the mind of the person who is SEEKING it. It is different for everyone.

Hence some people are lonely in a crowd and some feel most happy than when they are solitary. Community is in one's MIND. Community only exists if one actively chooses to participate in what one perceives as a community, regardless of the format. (Starbucks, movie theatre, online forum).

If one perceives ANY type of group as being safe and nurturing, than it is a community.

I ask you Pighead- are you contributing to the feeling of safety , hence- community here?

Kind regards-
Sheep

EDIT- I would like to say to the MWO community and Hippie in particular, whose posts I value greatly- that I meant no disrespect to ANYONE by my post. i was attempting to show what MY thoughts on community can be. For myself- I find it difficult to engage in a 'group', I am simply not a joiner. However, I generally perceive this place as a safe and relatively nurturing environment- filled with folks who for the most part are interested in being true, helpful and honest. I may have expanded the discussion beyond the Peck model which was Hippie's original (and interesting) intent and for this I apologize. I have edited the above to include the words 'for me'- as that is really what I should have said.

[KatieSmiles]

Community.

Devil's advocate?

[pighead]

Community.

Ms. ksmiles ---

If you're offering, please do.

If you're accusing, pronounce he/she who is the mere provocateur, in your estimation.

I'd like to think that a proposal -- the "community" contention, in this case,-- would be taken seriously, and I'd like to be able to swirl it in my head and say, "Yes, I agree", or "No, I don't" --- or somewhere inbetween -- and assume that folks don't take the conclusion as blithe pandering.

So state your case.

If you think I'm just advocating on the devil's behalf, then say as much. But gird thyself to confute my contentions, otherwise your characterization is puffery.

And I hate puffery.

[KatieSmiles]

Community.

Mr_Pighead

My loins are tough, no need for girds. I hate puffery too.

just sayin'

[KatieSmiles]

Community.

[pighead]

Community.

The refusal to enjoin...there lies the antidote to scurrility.

Katie, a hat tip, again.

Now follow me around the forums.

[KatieSmiles]

Community.

Does that bother you?

[pighead]

Community.

Oh, you bastard, ks...

and laughing

Dip in, post, erase....

(and for you folks at home...but nevermind)

If I didn't know better (and I don't), I'd assume you're...

[Sheepish]

Community.

Pighead
I've quite respectfully given you my opinion and asked you a pointed and direct question.
Should you choose to bastardize it with an absurd argument- well, that is no surprise.
Respect has clearly never been your strong point.
As for putting words in my mouth and your inference of ridiculous and insulting scenarios , well I guess you can try.
But in the end you won't succeed.
I know what I said and what I have written.
I think it's pretty clear; so I'll just stick with that.
Please reread.
with best wishes-
-Sheep

[redhibiscus]

Community.

Well, here goes, I am sure my head will get ripped off, but I will not take it personally.

Pighead, you sound so angry. All your posts are just to argue and hurt people, stir up the pot. Angry people are usually in a place of much fear and pain. So I am sure you are hurting, as hurting people hurt people. I am sorry you have not found what you needed here, but many people have.

I know I have found community here. That is my reality.

The most important aspect of this site is the kindness that the majority of the individuals share with each other. It is not complicated, but it is real. The encouragement, support, nonjudgemental attitudes, sharing of knowlege, that is what this site is about.

Please get help for your anger and pain, it is so apparent that you are not in a good place. Emotionally stable people do not have the need to hurt others. Please seek help.

I will not respond again to any pighead posts and I advise others to just ignore him. There is clearly a mental illness going on here, there is no reasoning with a mentally ill person. So it does not matter what any of us say. This person is not rational as evidenced by his rambling posts.

[spuddleduck]

Community.

ive just woken up so my brain not quite working yet so ill make this brief. being new here i feel the word nice for me could be replaced with encouraging. maybe people are being nice (to newbies like myself) but that is because they have all been in this horrible place and are obviously gratefull for the 'nice' words recieved. when we are feeling vulnerable and just starting out it would be so easy for us to take any harshness as critisism and feel awful and turn to our crutch again.. thinking hey if these guys dont understand no one will.further along the journey maybe a good hard kicking up the backside can be taken easier but for now im just glad of the nicessnes or encouragement.
anyway so much for being brief.. i love the thought provocation, thanks, and all the replies to this post have been 'nice' tee hee. ill post again when my brain wakes up and i have something more constructive to say.

[spuddleduck]

Community.

whoops ive just read some of the later posts and theyre not all nice.. never mind. i told you my brain hadnt woken up yet. maybe a little more duvet rest be good for me