Community

Out of curiosity, I recently looked up the origin of the word “community”. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it comes from the Latin word COMMUNITAS which in turn is composed of two other Latin words: COM which translates as “with or together”, and MUNUS meaning “gift”. I think it’s quite appropriate that the concept of being part of a community carries with it the very positive connotation of being a gift.

Just as we humans tend to seek out a mate, we also seem to find comfort and strength in the larger benefits of community membership. I suppose that as Homo sapiens evolved we eventually discovered the survival advantage of safety in numbers. But today, there’s a lot more to it than the simple security of a herding or flocking instinct. Unlike most other species, being part of something much larger than just ourselves offers an opportunity to enjoy the elusively defined yet undeniable warmth in a feeling of togetherness. As a practical bonus, our community membership also offers us the ability to experience the productive synergy of working together to accomplish shared goals.

I cannot claim that participation in a community is a universally positive notion, however. The history of the human race shows innumerable examples of factions within a community working at cross purposes to each other, and of entire communities setting themselves against other communities when waging war. On an evolutionary scale there may be some benefit gained from the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest. Nevertheless, the idea of community isn’t necessarily a perfect one, at least not at the current stage of human development.

In spite of our shortcomings though, I prefer to remain focused on the plus side of interacting with other members of a community, and with outside communities as well. It doesn’t seem to matter whether a community is composed of a herd of wildebeest, a flock of birds, or the human members of a church group, political party, city, state or nation. I find significant value in knowing that I am a member of larger groups, ones that for the most part share an affinity for achieving a common purpose. That purpose may be as simple as generating a feeling of fellowship among the members, or it may have more serious goals such as promoting good political governance for the overall population. Regardless of any particular community’s intent, I’d like to hope that as we evolve further our communities will be used to promote the general good for all of their members and for all of the other communities with whom they interact.

Yes, that’s a lofty goal and at least immediately one that would seem unachievable given the frequently contentious nature of our species. But we’ve been intelligent enough to have learned how to form communities. I’m convinced that we are also bright enough to learn how to increase our use of them to benefit all of us.

Perhaps that’s the “sapiens” part of what we call ourselves.

Note:
I intend to update this blog each week and I do hope you’ll re-visit it often. Since I thrive on your comments, I’d really love to hear from you. Please feel free to email me using the blue email link on the HOME PAGE for this site to send me any questions or comments you might have...or just to say hello. Thank you.

John Carroll

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