The Concert of Europe

This post regards the particular events of May 17, 2014. It is suggested that, for the sake of clarity in this testimony, you listen to the following song. It adds that much needed pizazz. Thank ya, in advance.

May 17 taught me four lessons. First, it exhibited the eclectic musical tastes of Linkebeek. Secondly, it emphasized the reach of country music. But more than these, that evening explicated the nature of community and small-town living.

It was a concert. A European concert. And really, a collection of European bands playing to a pendulum crowd: Rock and Rholleken. We found interest in spacesuit men in falsettos, and the gypsy strings brought me back to somewhere between Ella Fitzgerald and the Aristocats. But both were divergent aperitifs to the main event: Smooth and the Bully Boys.

I confess that before my arrival in Linkebeek, I had not known what in the world Rockabilly was. But when these guys got up on the stage, slick haired and paisley-patched, I got a classic rock flashback to the age of Elvis. Their bass dipped and twirled. Their guitar did pirouettes and head stands. All the while, their drums rocked their way out of place, like an unbalanced washing machine you can't keep from jumping. I didn't know what Rockabilly was, but a foot tap and gyration certainly taught me. You're listening to it now, Smooth and the Bully Boys live in Georgia. A long way from home.

Community is consistent in Belgium, so I'm not going to belabor a definition for what it is. It's common characteristics are proximity, vulnerability, shared experience, and continuity. It is built, but who builds it?

The concert taught me that community in Linkebeek is largely driven by the township. The City of Linkebeek organizes events (like Rock and Rholleken). It purchases property, organizes youth programs, preserves parks, and preserves traditions like the burning of winter man. It even has a Social Council to express its solidarity to those community members who are in need of some emotional  and other support. In Linkebeek, the city is synonymous with the community.

That's not so in Grayson. We have our city traditions: Grayson Day, Blues and Brews, the tree lighting. We have a very active city, but this does not imply a community coterminous with the city. Instead, we have many--often, but not necessarily always--competing sources for community. Indeed, we might even have many communities: church communities, school, sports, work. However, the City of Grayson community is certainly not dominant. This is not worse, just different.

Linkebeek and Grayson are both small towns--less than 5,000 habitants in each. This makes for a very manageable system of governance and the potential for close community. I observed at the concert how many people knew each other. I see this every time Philippe and Beatrice walk outside. I feel this alive in Grayson, too. I meet so many people, and recognize perhaps too many in the McDonald's drive-thru.

But, for all my fellow Graysonians reading this, I must declare that I do not feel a sense of solidarity in the city. I do not see a genuine compassion, empathy, or concern among Grayson's citizens. I eagerly look forward to someone proving me wrong.