Pseudocommunity Tree

Every year at the start of advent, the managing agents for the building put big Christmas trees in the foyers of all the buildings. The tree and a box of ornaments show up on the Friday, and the staff work their way through the compound until they are all decorated, usually by the Monday. But this year something kind of cool happened. Sometime late Friday or early Saturday, someone opened the box of ornaments and placed an ornament on the tree. The next time I came by it, there was another on the tree. I didn’t witness any of it but I imagined that some residents walking past it were placing an ornament on the tree. So I joined in and placed a third ornament on the tree. I thought this was a cool little pseudocommunity activity: even though we weren’t with each other at the time, we were all contributing to a common aim in a common space. Later that evening, there were about a dozen ornaments hanging on it, which is when I took the picture above: only half the ornaments are visible in the photo as this is the approach when leaving the building, the others are visible as you enter. I imagined that additional residents' contributions were responsible for the increase. But alas, by Sunday, the staff had caught up and finish decorating… again, not witnessed, but imagined. Here is the finished tree with my honey holding her Christmas present.