This paper claims that community service-learning (CSL) projects in schools and universities, if done well, might very well take us--all of us--to important new places. Under the conception of community service and democratic education more generally, CSL projects in schools and universities can take us to "the" most important place: a new root metaphor for American Democracy--one of connection, conflict, and compromise. As with any new metaphorical understanding of the world, the shift will certainly be slow and difficult. However, it is the nature of CSL, as understood in this essay, to break down the barriers of isolation and create connections and relationships across pluralistic communities; to be a bridge-building pedagogy; and to create democratic beauty via establishing important, though contentious, relationships. Successful community service-learning grows from the understanding that our democracy cannot survive as a tossed salad while simultaneously weaving its own, new, root metaphor: that of the tapestry.