Some Thoughts On Community
by Tom M. Saunders, PhD
Community is a network of common people working for a common cause. Uncommon people develop political structures, instead, that are driven by "wants" instead of needs. Regardless of government structure, when politics is revered over common people's needs, approximately 2% hold the wealth and administer the power. The remaining 98%, like the sheep they have become, abdicate their personal power, and do as they are told.
Whether the family system replicates the community, or community structure spawns a type of family system, the two systems tend to mirror each other's images, and reproduce the same power structure, no matter how inadequate.
Long before women organized to fight for "rights", there were women with rights who did not fight. They were exceptional women -- far ahead of their time -- who were bright, determined, and directed. They were the collective Mother behind Lincoln's throne, the Nightingales who won the wars as nurses and factory workers, and the persona who forged the nations' values while men made noise and wrote documents. The 'Princess of Tide' not only imposed order on domesticity, but had time to shape Roosevelt's presidency, and visit Hanoi, without ever losing sight of the necessary common values.
For community to function at its peak, the roles of power must be genderless and interchangeable. A Statue of Responsibility must e erected on the West coast for proper balance. Imagination and creativity must be modeled by parents and community leaders instead of a soft shelled purple dinosaur with a green underbelly.
Community is families helping other families instead of relying on the professional community. Healing must return to being a contract between God and person instead of reliance upon a medicine man and the latest antibiotic. And "The Mending Wall" must be dismantled, stone by stone, because as Frost once observed, '. . .how could the co-mingling of apples and pine cones possibly cause trouble?'
Fear, as Emerson reminded us, is not only ". . .the hobgoblin of little minds," it is the contamination of the Spirit which occurs through abdication of personal responsibility and the resulting loss of personal power. Without accepting such responsibility and power, common people become common fragments of dead weight to be carried by another -- a rudderless flotilla without direction.
Community is sharing the lessons forced by life's transitions with one another rather than wasting time to personally re-invent each wheel.
The story is told of an individual, arriving at the gates of Hell, who was quite shocked to find that instead of fire and brimstone, there was just food -- miles and miles of smorgasbord for one's choosing. However, upon taking a closer look, the new resident observed that everyone seated at these tables had their arms chained to the tables so that their forks could just reach within inches of their mouths.
"Would you mind if I were to just peek through Heaven's gates, before I am seated, to see what I will be missing?" the question was posed.
The wish having been granted, even more amazement followed. Heaven was exactly the same scene, except the residents knew, from experience, that their own chained arms which did not allow them to feed themselves, would, instead, reach the mouths of their neighbors.
When a community evolves where families provide the loving network of support for other families in transition, the family has become the "therapist." With any luck at all, a group of lonely therapists will eventually find one another, or perhaps even their own families, to form a community themselves. and address the resolution of their own issues.