Community.

Tonight I attended the birthday party of one of my best friends, a man whom I love, respect, and am honored to be associated with. While I'm a certain special kind of stubborn when it comes to my opinions, when this man talks, I listen. I've watched him develop as a leader and as a man. I've watched him talk to his children, both the ones that live in his house and those that he adopts and brings into his life. I've been proud the times when I was his friend, and humble the times that he has mentored me. He's changed my life in many ways, all for the better, and I couldn't be more grateful to him. This blog post isn't about how much he means to me, he knows that, rather I'd like to discuss what I saw tonight at his party.

Tonight at a small gathering of friends and family, I got to look at my friend in another way, through the eyes of those gathered to celebrate with him. There were people from all walks of life, some that I knew well, and others that I didn't, the one thing that we all had in common was my friend, and our mutual love and respect for him. We all gathered around this one social nexus and in doing so not only enriched his life, we were able to enrich our own lives simply by congregating with one simple purpose.

I was able to step back tonight and observe for a few moments what community really looks like, to see people gathering for a reason, interacting and coming together for a common goal. There's something incredible about community, something incredible about mutual love and respect overlapping, all coming together. While some might define a community as a geographic area that folks live in, I know that I witnessed the true meaning tonight.