Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. . . . The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adore the lifestyle of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.

— Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

— George Dei

169 “So I believe our lives will be more fulfilling if we live together in small groups.  In intentional communities, we have more agency over many aspects of our life.  In society, governments look after our health care, education, safety, security, etc.  We outsource the care for the environment we live in to professional politicians.  Living in intentional community means taking matters into our own hands.  Building a community, we consciously craft the way we live, take care of ourselves and relate to those around us.  We try to carve out a small ecological niche where we will experience a sense of ownership over our lives.  We stop going with the masses and find our construct communities in order to better address our needs and reflect our vision.”

174 “This brings me to a next point: communities are caring.  What I mean by that is that communities promote care for our neighbor.  Communities have, to a large extent, the ability to look after their own members….We should not underestimate the amount and quality of care that communities can offer and we cannot just substitute that for institutional care.  Compassion is often difficult to provide in institutional care settings, and the lack of compassion has detrimental health effects….In a community though, relationships are naturally more loving and caring.  In community, one can be seen as equal, and can be loved and accepted as one is.  I believe there is something profoundly healing about being accepted the way you are….In community…you are not your disease or your disability, you are first and foremost a human being and as fully a member of the community as everyone else.”

75 “Accountability is the willingness to care for the well-being of the whole; commitment is the willingness to make a promise with no expectation of return.”

Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.

–– Setting the Table by Danny Meyer

Gifts, the raw material for community

Associations, the process through which the gifts are exchanged

Hospitality, what widens our inventory of gifts

Each property feed the other two. When we focus on gifts, we can create association; when we have strong association, we can offer hospitality. But it can also be said that association builds gifts, and that hospitality invites association. The point is, one doesn't necessarily come before the other. Enter anywhere you like –– the constraints of the printed page create the sequence of discussion here.

–– The Abundant Community by Peter Block and Jogn McKnight