“The community, in its fullest sense: a place and all its creatures, is the smallest unit of real Health” ~ Wendell Berry

 

 

As times change, they bring with them challenges ever more potent, and therefore ever more frightening.  These days the average citizen is no longer only afraid of random acts of violence or infrequent acts of crime, but must also be reasonably concerned with forces far more insidious.  Indeed, all over the world, injustice has infested our courtrooms, corruption has infected our governments, brutality has contaminated our police forces, hatred has polluted our religions, greed has poisoned our planet, and lust for power has transformed militaries originally created to defend into tools of mass destruction and empire-building.

 

 

And how do most of us respond to these reasonable dangers?  Well, with reasonable measures of self-defense, of course.  We respond to our fears with actions ever more fearful …

*We build fences around our homes to keep out “those criminals”. 

*We close our curtains to thwart the potential peepings of “those perverts”.

*We teach our very young children that the world is filled with “very bad people”.

*We adopt religious beliefs that teach us to distance ourselves from “the damned” or convert “the lost”.

*We worship gurus who tell us to establish “healthy boundaries” between ourselves & our enemies.

*We listen to those who tell us to reap our own share of the “abundance” that is rightfully ours to take.

*We place locks on our doors in order to keep safe that which we have earned and is “rightfully ours”.

*We look away from strangers, avoid those who are “weird”, & turn away from the downtrodden.

*We are constantly on the lookout for “potential intruders” — keeping strangers away from our homes; thereby pushing our neighbors away as well.

 

Ironically, such a perversely intensified focus on securing our “right to privacy” has banished from our lives the only possession worth having:  namely, the ability to intimately commune with others – the ability to live lives filled with Love instead of fear.  Indeed, in succumbing to our most primitive yearnings for the hollow illusion of safety, we have sacrificed all the things in our lives actually worth protecting … In striving to live a “long & healthy” life, we have destroyed the quality of that living.

 

 

AND YET, all is not lost. We need not succumb to the shadows of distrust and despair. There is a freedom within us all that, without our consent, cannot ever be lessened or removed.  This is the Freedom of Community, and this is the freedom that I wish for you all with my sixth “last breath”.

 

And by “Community-building” I do not mean merely helping those who think or believe or act like you do, and I do not mean merely helping in times when it is convenient.  I mean reaching out to everyone you encounter in every moment you encounter them … I mean purposefully & consciously making your Community your number one priority – and including everyone in your neighborhood in that re-Union … I mean expanding your own Circle of Compassion to include every single sentient being that lives within a mile (or two, or three) of your own home, and I mean doing so actively, in one form or another, every single day of your lives.

*I mean tearing down fences between your yards (or at least opening up pathways between them) …

*I mean opening up your curtains & sitting with a smile & a wave on your front porch …

*I mean visiting your neighbors on a regular basis, especially those neighbors you like the least …

*I mean helping to found, and then helping to maintain, a community garden …

*I mean openly offering your talents to your neighbors for free;

 

… and smiling at strangers when you pass them by;

 

… and giving away whatever excess food or possessions you happen to have on hand;

 

… and cleaning up a neighbor’s yard while they are on vacation;

 

… and sprucing up your local park or vacant lot or Rec Center;

 

… and coming together in small groups to go forth & serve your local poor;

 

… and engaging in frequent & radical (& anonymous) “Random Acts of Kindness”.

 

 

Yes, it is true that real & intimate Community still seems to be dying, and yet it is definitely far from dead.  Indeed, nothing — no matter how influential or callous the person, no matter how strict or unjust the law, and no matter how corrupt or ineffective the government — can ever stop you from exercising & enlivening your innate Right to live in a community overflowing with Harmony & Happiness.

 

 

And yet if you want to have such a fulfilling life, then you are the one who must do its rebuilding … and it is my sixth “Final Wish” that you commence doing so today.

 

 

 “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that, and then I realized:  I am somebody.” ~ Lilly Tomlin

 

 

“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between himself and other men, and between his values and other cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight — part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.” ~ inspired by Gene Roddenberry

 

 

Filed under: Eleven Last Wishes by Scaughdt