There is a great deal of talk among New Age people about ‘community.’ I have a little experience with this idea of creating a place where like-minded people could come together and live in peace and harmony. I've been involved in several attempts to establish community. What I learned from each attempt has been very instructive. I can sum it up in a few sentences.
The people who want community are often people who want to escape from the pressures of everyday reality. They want to drift into a situation where all is beautiful and light. It takes a great deal of money and work to run a community, but these are precisely the things most people are running away from. They want a boss or leader to put the community together – and they will participate. However, they will also resist in the way that they have always resisted authority. Living with other people is stressful and the old saying, “Wherever you go, there YOU are,” is doubly true in community. Squabbles, misunderstandings, and scapegoats are everywhere. I have loved the people who came to be part of our small attempts at community. Even though the community didn’t last, these were important steps on the road to wisdom, and I am very grateful for that.
In a conversation with a friend the other day, he commented that more and more people are living alone. I have noticed the same thing. We talk about community…but in actual practice we are pulling away from one another in many ways. No one wants to be under anyone else’s thumb, or even their roof. We don’t want to be stuck with someone’s mess, their spending habits, their diet, their TV programs, their snoring, or their bad moods.
As this pulling away continues, our need for connection intensifies – which is why the smartphone and social media have been so successful. I’ve heard a number of people decry the direction we are moving in as a culture, and I can’t help but think we are exactly where we need to be. In any healthy healing process it is necessary to back away a bit and get a new perspective. The gurus call it detachment. We have all backed away from one another, but we’re still connected…and that may have to be enough for now as we feel our way along to a new way of seeing and being in the world.
Comments
Bruce L Erickson
From my experience the best community growing organically, we used to call them neighborhoods where people lived and grew up. Over time they got to know their neighbors, became friends (though not always), there kids grew up together at least for a few years. I remember babysitting as I was the only teenager in the neighborhood. They helped each other, shared what they grew in the garden, or extra eggs when needed and had neighborhood picnics and barbecues. They shared celebrations like weddings and provided comfort at tragedies, loaned lawnmowers too!
So what we call creating communities should reflect what really works….
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Love this, Bruce!
July 27, 2017
Leave a comment
Also in Letters To Earth
Children are a Gift to Oneself
January 05, 2020 1 Comment
Continue reading
Money, Cryptos, Gold and a Space-based Civilization – Pt. 1
November 23, 2019 4 Comments
Continue reading
A Barry Sanders Moment...
October 29, 2019 2 Comments
A Barry Sanders Moment...
"...Barry Sanders was a little guy, only 5’8”, but he was fast, he was light on his feet, he was alert, and he was supremely flexible. It didn’t matter that the forces arrayed against him were huge, heavy, and coming from every direction, all of them ready to pile on. Each of us is a little guy compared to the forces we now face. I think it’s time to decide if you’re going to be around long enough to help build a new civilization.
Continue reading