There is no community spirit anymore.
Community spirit is not the responsibility of others to provide. If you want to feel a cohesive community spirit in your city, town, village or hamlet then take some personal responsibility for providing it.
I guarantee you 100% that you will get more out than you put in.
I don't speak here from on a pedestal but from personal experience. I now live in a town I didn't grow up in, I moved here as it is half way is between my wife's family and my own. I lived here for three years before I became part of the community and it happened for no other reason than I made it so.
For the first three years of living here I made a point of speaking to my neighbour etc. but that was pretty much as far as my social contact went. During that period I started working with a guy based in another town about 15 miles down the motorway who told me all about how when he had returned from the merchant navy many years earlier joining the local Round Table had really given him a social outlet that he would be eternally grateful for. He pointed out to me that my small town still had a Round Table and I should really consider going along.
After about 18 months of mentioning it and me realising that his very full social life all seemed to stem back to his Round Table I agreed to go to a meeting, so he took me a long to my local Round Table. At the first meeting I have to admit I was taken a back by the level of formality - suits and chains etc. But I went back on my own to the next meeting just to give it a try. I was lucky I think in that I sat next to one of the funniest men I have ever met who provided a comedic commentary throughout the meeting.
I found in my Round Table a unique organisation because of their focus on young members (to be a full member you have to be aged 18-45) who were very keen to have me on board I joined within a couple for months and within a few months I had passed a motion to abandon the wearing of suits to meetings. (we still wear clothes just of a less formal nature)
We meet generally twice a month once to organise stuff and once to do stuff. We do a lot for the community, Santa Sleigh collections, fireworks night, charity beet festival and a local parade. But we also do a lot for ourselves with our social events ranging from a night out seeing a comedian to bike rides, canal boat trips, off road segway events and numerous other things.
In the space of a year I went from knowing nobody in the town to having people I don't know stop me in the street to tell me what a great job we do with the community events etc.
What perplexes and worries me though is the lack of new members organisations like our are receiving. Everyone loves the community events we do in fact their was Facebook outrage recently when someone complained about the Santa Sleigh, but we get very few volunteers to help with event other than retired members and their families. The usual feedback we get is that people don't have time with their busy lives etc. yet the average Brit watches 4 hours of TV every night. The total commitment to an organisation like ours is to give up 2 nights TV a month! It'll enrich your life, your community and expand the horizons of your whole family.
If I could teach the world one thing it would be that getting involved with other human beings that you are not related to and don't happen to work with will enrich your life beyond measure! Just give it a try.
Obviously I would love to have you along to the greatest branch of the greatest young man's club in the world Houghton le Spring and District Round Table 589 but I understand that you may not exactly live near by so why not check out the Club finder on the national website.
If you don't have a Table in your town you could start on a neighbouring table or area will help you if not or you don't qualify for membership due to age or gender then why not try some other fantastic local organisation to get involved with, to name just a few - Ladies Circle, Rotary, Lions or local sports clubs.
Get out there and have some fun while doing some good!
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