Community

There’s a willow tree I planted in a pot near the fence in my back yard.  It’s grown well for a couple years, but the clear, hot days of July seem to be baking its roots.  I soaked it but realized that the sun would still play havoc, heating the dirt in the pot beyond reasonably healthy temperatures.  So I dragged a couple other potted plants over, creating a bunch, protecting the willow and at least one side of each of the protectors. 

   We’re made to run in bunches, packs if you will.  Like wolves we are built to protect and help each other.  Our instincts all lead us toward each other, give us empathy and reward us with the advantages of civilization, art, philosophy, science, technology, architecture, and baseball, not to mention families, education, medical care, love songs, and the Super Bowl.  We’re tied together by more than choices or ought’s or should’s.  Deep within us is a magnet that pulls us toward each other, leads us to make friends, build families, and communities.

   I find it ludicrous if not a bit dangerous for us to preach individualism.  We just aren’t built that way.  And alone we are likely to fall to the vicissitudes of day to day living.  Just ask the willow tree in my back yard.  Besides, the geraniums and sunflowers make the whole thing more colorful.