I often think of community as a group of people who care for each other. Who help each other flourish. And while I love thinking about groups of people interdependently flourishing, I think this definition of community is a little human-centric. After all, our lives are a complete miracle that actually have very little to do with us as individuals. We exist because the sun exists, because water exists, because our mothers have existed, because there’s oxygen in our atmosphere, because the plants and animals exist, because the microbes exist in our guts, because carbon exists, because… [insert myriad causes and conditions throughout time and space that led up to us experiencing this moment together]. There is not a single human without all of these things (or without all other humans for that matter). I think that a less human-centric definition of community is the vast web of interdependence that includes every thing - every blade of grass, every pebble, every fish, every microbe, every plastic bag, every human being. We all exist together, interdependently. There is no “I” without “us”. Literally. There is no version of reality that does not contain all of these things. Because all of it together is precisely what is exists in this moment. No thing is separate. This is as true for our physical forms as it is for our thoughts and behavior.
Why is it important to re-define the concept of community and to make it so incomprehensively large? Because when we forget to examine the extent of our interconnectedness with all things, we fail to understand why we matter. And when we feel like things don’t matter, we make destructive choices. The reality is that everything we say and do and even think influences our community. This statement could inspire significant disagreement. One could argue that our thoughts are private and do not appreciably contribute to the collective dynamics of human civilization and its environment. But this is only a partial view. On the surface, our thoughts feel private because we are not sharing them with others the same way that we would share a story. However, the way we behave is a direct reflection of our thoughts. For example, say I am a business owner who is not in the habit of thinking about the streams and the fishes as part of my community. When the time comes for me to dye my fabric, I dump the wastewater into the streams. Maybe I know it’s bad, but I’m not in the habit of thinking that what I do matters very much. Other people are doing it. Dumping the wastewater somewhere else is very expensive and will cause the clothes that I sell to be more expensive than my competitors. I don’t eat the fish in that stream, so I feel confident that I’m not poisoning my family’s food source. I’m not in the habit of thinking about the other beings that do eat the fish in the streams so I’m reasonably confident that my behavior doesn’t matter so much.
How we think about our community is reflected in our actions. Our thoughts are indeed not private at all. In a community, no thing is separate (not even a thought). And I would argue that the key to realizing human potential and for repairing our relationship with our wonderful planet (our community) is rooted squarely in that fact.