Where's My Community?
Or This One Is Not Really About MMA At All
Welcome to the latest C’mon Now newsletter. This is the place where I’ll share my thoughts on all the goings-on in MMA. Those thoughts could range from media criticism to advice for folks looking to get into MMA writing to why certain fighters or managers are not good for the sport.
Today I wonder if I’ll ever find another community.
Before we dig into things, please subscribe to the newsletter if you haven’t done so. If you have subscribed, please share it with someone who you think might enjoy reading my ramblings.
Finally, if you like what you read here, hit that little heart button at the top of the page.
Also, please check out the daily C’mon Now MMA Podcast (latest episode) in the archives and add it to your podcast app of choice. Please like it, rate it and review it. That’ll help me out some.
When I was younger I had a community. Sure, it was a community of fuck-ups, misfits, punk rockers and drug addicts. It was also a bunch of people willing to take chances, create and learn. Sometimes it was good. Sometimes it was bad. But it was still a community. I no longer have that. Sometimes I miss it.
I think what I miss is how free it was and how anxious it was to hear of new or unknown things and absorb and share them. That community taught me so much and showed me more of the world in just a few years than I’ve had in the past 20 or so years. I think I’m still the same person, but I no longer have a group of folks to share that and grow with.
Everyone seems to be so comfortable to fit into a specific group these days and it’s unsettling. Is that because most people want comfort or ease? I’m not sure. I know I don’t want those things. Comfort is not a good thing in my book. It’s feels like a sort of death.
Would I like a community now? Like I said above, sometimes I would, but only if that community is eager to learn, to share ideas and to not dismiss them.
Sure, I make a living writing about MMA, but that’s not what defines me or makes me tick. Where’s the community of MMA folks that wants to discuss things outside of the sport? People who want to explore difficult and uncomfortable subjects, whatever they may be — maybe books, maybe films, maybe science, maybe politics, maybe ideas totally opposed to what they stand for. Does that community exist? I’m not sure, but if it does, I think I’d like to find it.