Community (Or "No, Not the Television Show, Silly")

 We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.

- Lucretius

Good morning friends. (I say friends, but in actuality, I think only Jaime really reads this..) Today my blog post will focus on this awesome quote that I discovered today. I think that what I love so much about this particular quote is that it illustrates the importance of building community with one another. And I think that in our time period, one of the biggest downfalls of our society is that when we face issues, instead of going to others and opening up to them about our problems, we shut ourselves off. And in doing so, we isolate ourselves from the very people we need.

I think that we do this because of our prideful nature. We don't want people to see our flaws. There's a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem called "We Wear the Mask," and it truly sums up this point:

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
    It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
    This debt we pay to human guile;
    With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
    And mouth with myriad subtleties.
    Why should the world be over-wise,
    In counting all our tears and sighs?
    Nay, let them only see us, while
            We wear the mask.
    We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
    To thee from tortured souls arise.
    We sing, but oh the clay is vile
    Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
    But let the world dream otherwise,
            We wear the mask!

So I have to wonder, exactly: what would our society look like if we were all transparent, all the time? What if we could see one another - truly see them? If nothing was hidden, if there were no secrets and shames and guilt and insecurity, what kind of a world would that be?

My answer, simply, is that it would be a world full of community. We would see people help one another, genuinely. Empathy and sincerity would be the core of our very existence. We wouldn't be ashamed of our failures or our pitfalls. We wouldn't think "If they only knew the true me, they would run the other way," because people would be running to us with outstretched arms - friends, family members, and complete strangers would form communities of support.

As human beings, we desperately need one another. We were not created to exist in solitude. We need relationships, and acceptance, and love. We can survive on our own, sure, but is that really life? Or is it merely existing? We need to have others around when we break down to let us know that we are not alone in this world. Tragically, I believe that this is why so many suicides occur - there is a desperation, a need for another "angel" to fly alongside someone and carry them. But we fail to do so, sometimes. We fail to fly alongside those who need us the most.

So here is my challenge today: someone in your life needs you, right now. Be that angel to them, and embrace them. Because they can't do it alone, and - for that matter - neither can you.