The Jerry Seinfeld show’s been on mind lately. While I watched and experienced the show on its first run, my 70-something father has adopted Seinfeld as his new favorite comedy show. Prior favorites were several British sitcoms. I’ll see Dad this weekend; I have to ask whether these have something in common for him.

Jerry’s also been on my mind as I’ve been talking with Melissa Mannon of ArchivesInfo about community. I remember a Seinfeld episode about your “circle.” That’s the immediate space around you where you spend most of your time — running your errands, shopping, going to work or school, to the bank, and to friends.  It’s larger than your neighborhood, and encompasses your nearest community members. This was before we had virtual communities.

“When we examine ourselves and consider our various communities, we evaluate ourselves. We have a purpose on this earth. We build communities to project and grow our identities. We seek “commonness” with others to secure our purpose and create written documentation to cement relationships and explain ourselves.” — ArchivesInfo, Melissa Mannon’s blog.

Melissa and I are working on a workshop idea about ways to turn our objects, our memories and stories of who we are and were into cultural history.

That’s right; it is about you and your things, but you’re also part of a larger community and of a cultural history we all need to create. And we can do that, even with our stuff!

So all about you is really all about us. That’s Melissa’s turn of phrase, such an enlightening phrase when you stop and reflect on it.

Tags: chapter, choices, let go, Memories, moving on, Next Chapter, transitions

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 9:24 am and is filed under Downsizing Dilemmas- Solved, Next Chapter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.