Community: (n) a group of people with common interests, goals, and policies
Common: (adj) of or relating to the community at large; belonging to or shared by two or more individuals or things or by all members of a group
Commune: (v) to communicate intimately
- Merriam Webster
I spent six months in a co-living arrangement which I felt the need to leave, in order to avoid endangering my family, clients, and the members there. Our current pandemic has thrown a wrench in my life here in United States. Many other nations have done significantly better at beating this plague. Why? I hazard a guess that this is because of a greater care for the fellow members of their communities. Or perhaps it is that they saw an impossible task, and simply did the best that they as individuals could with it.
“Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves - about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress for humanity. But what matters about problems is what one does with them. Eeyores don’t overcome problems. No it’s the other way around.” (Benjamin Hoff, The Te of Piglet, pg 58)
After I left someone came down with a fever. No other symptoms were present, so probably was not Covid-19, thankfully. Honestly if it was, the pre-symptomatic period would have ensured that everyone who interacted with this person would already be sick. And the older or less healthy people who lived there would certainly have more immediate consequences due to this sickness than the young millennials who may have long term effects and who already have had their lives stolen by multiple recessions, automation, globalization, and endless wars on terror. Some things are beyond our control, and it is just the personal actions we can take in the face of these trials that matter.
“Alive, a man is supple, soft;
In death, unbending, rigorous.
All creatures, grass and trees, alive
Are plastic but are pliant too,
And dead, are friable and dry.
‘Unbending rigor is the mate of death,
And yielding softness, company of life:
Unending soldiers get no victories;
The stiffest tree is readiest for the axe.
The strong and mighty topple from their place;
The soft and yielding rise above them all.”
(Lao Tzu, The Way of Life, poem 76)
One of the ideals that we had been striving toward is a mutually supportive community. That ideal was mine, as shocking as it may be to have come from a rabid individualist. The method by which we met as a community did not inspire that feeling of support. Instead, the limited meetings that we had were always with an external mediator to guide us. This seemed to become a performance for some of the members, as opposed to a means of voicing opinions and finding common ground. These meetings also occasionally felt like the members were attempting to manipulate each other to force their end goal upon the community as a whole, as opposed to finding a compromise that would promote the safety of all members.
This engagement in communal living presented a microcosm of some of the problems with our nation. In the United States we love our freedoms, even as they are eroded - perhaps in response to the erosion as a last cry to maintain them in the face of a monopoly on force. Was mask wearing in 1918 in response to the Spanish Flu in order to protect fellow members of the community a tyrannical overreach? I think that we were more willing to trust in our government at that time for reasons that Confucius spoke about in ages past.
“The Master said, Govern the people by regulations, keep order among them by chastisements, and they will flee from you, and lose all self-respect. Govern them by moral force, keep order among them by ritual, and they will keep their self-respect and come to you of their own accord.” (Arthur Waley, The Analects of Confucius, pg 88)
John F. Kennedy said before his life was cut tragically short, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” How can the lives of our fellow humans be extended, how can our country be maintained, and how can we ensure that people are not homeless and starving? This gets further complicated when the interest on the debt has grown to the levels that it has - although I am no economist. However, small personal actions can have a massive impact: such as wearing a mask, keeping distance, and avoiding crowds of people if possible. If one does not do these things, then one is inflicting the potential exposure of them on other members of one’s household without their consent.
Consent is sexy, as I hear frequently today. When one lives in such proximity with each other, or simply has the impact that they do in this ever shrinking world, consent is far more important. Even back in the late 19th century the phrase “my right to swing my hands ends where my fist reaches your nose,” was in use. A disease can be as violent as a vehicle run through a crowd, a burning building or landscape, or a bullet. Consent is important to consider when ones lifestyle has an impact on those of one’s community.
Common: (adj) of or relating to the community at large; belonging to or shared by two or more individuals or things or by all members of a group
Commune: (v) to communicate intimately
- Merriam Webster
I spent six months in a co-living arrangement which I felt the need to leave, in order to avoid endangering my family, clients, and the members there. Our current pandemic has thrown a wrench in my life here in United States. Many other nations have done significantly better at beating this plague. Why? I hazard a guess that this is because of a greater care for the fellow members of their communities. Or perhaps it is that they saw an impossible task, and simply did the best that they as individuals could with it.
“Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves - about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress for humanity. But what matters about problems is what one does with them. Eeyores don’t overcome problems. No it’s the other way around.” (Benjamin Hoff, The Te of Piglet, pg 58)
After I left someone came down with a fever. No other symptoms were present, so probably was not Covid-19, thankfully. Honestly if it was, the pre-symptomatic period would have ensured that everyone who interacted with this person would already be sick. And the older or less healthy people who lived there would certainly have more immediate consequences due to this sickness than the young millennials who may have long term effects and who already have had their lives stolen by multiple recessions, automation, globalization, and endless wars on terror. Some things are beyond our control, and it is just the personal actions we can take in the face of these trials that matter.
“Alive, a man is supple, soft;
In death, unbending, rigorous.
All creatures, grass and trees, alive
Are plastic but are pliant too,
And dead, are friable and dry.
‘Unbending rigor is the mate of death,
And yielding softness, company of life:
Unending soldiers get no victories;
The stiffest tree is readiest for the axe.
The strong and mighty topple from their place;
The soft and yielding rise above them all.”
(Lao Tzu, The Way of Life, poem 76)
One of the ideals that we had been striving toward is a mutually supportive community. That ideal was mine, as shocking as it may be to have come from a rabid individualist. The method by which we met as a community did not inspire that feeling of support. Instead, the limited meetings that we had were always with an external mediator to guide us. This seemed to become a performance for some of the members, as opposed to a means of voicing opinions and finding common ground. These meetings also occasionally felt like the members were attempting to manipulate each other to force their end goal upon the community as a whole, as opposed to finding a compromise that would promote the safety of all members.
This engagement in communal living presented a microcosm of some of the problems with our nation. In the United States we love our freedoms, even as they are eroded - perhaps in response to the erosion as a last cry to maintain them in the face of a monopoly on force. Was mask wearing in 1918 in response to the Spanish Flu in order to protect fellow members of the community a tyrannical overreach? I think that we were more willing to trust in our government at that time for reasons that Confucius spoke about in ages past.
“The Master said, Govern the people by regulations, keep order among them by chastisements, and they will flee from you, and lose all self-respect. Govern them by moral force, keep order among them by ritual, and they will keep their self-respect and come to you of their own accord.” (Arthur Waley, The Analects of Confucius, pg 88)
John F. Kennedy said before his life was cut tragically short, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” How can the lives of our fellow humans be extended, how can our country be maintained, and how can we ensure that people are not homeless and starving? This gets further complicated when the interest on the debt has grown to the levels that it has - although I am no economist. However, small personal actions can have a massive impact: such as wearing a mask, keeping distance, and avoiding crowds of people if possible. If one does not do these things, then one is inflicting the potential exposure of them on other members of one’s household without their consent.
Consent is sexy, as I hear frequently today. When one lives in such proximity with each other, or simply has the impact that they do in this ever shrinking world, consent is far more important. Even back in the late 19th century the phrase “my right to swing my hands ends where my fist reaches your nose,” was in use. A disease can be as violent as a vehicle run through a crowd, a burning building or landscape, or a bullet. Consent is important to consider when ones lifestyle has an impact on those of one’s community.
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