Tim Smit talks of the gift of community

"The word community comes from two Latin words com "together"- munos "in gift".  A community describes a culture of transaction that accepts and encourages the sharing of resources. This is distinct from the financial transactions associated with giving all acts, services and products a monetary value.  It is in the thousands of acts of kindness, generosity and courtesy that a community is forged.  The ties that bind are like a debt whose sum can never be known, thus never repaid, but whose servicing requires ongoing acts of contribution. It is not about liking or love, though some would argue it is. It is nothing less than the definition of a healthy society. We, as social beings know that the fractures of intimacy that see us unrooted from any community make us the poorer. The World Wide We is about providing helping hands to foster and strengthen community in all its forms. It does so in the understanding that community is based on sharing and that in sharing resources of all kinds a community and the individuals that make it so have access to so much more and will need to own so much less which is a form of growth we can all buy into - sustainable growth. This is a future for us to make as we learn to work within the boundaries the earth allows."

Tim Smit KBE (CEO and Co-Founder of the Eden Project)