Living In a World of Community by greggechols

We are individuals in this culture, almost to the exclusion of community and brotherhood. Reading about the Aborigines people has reminded me of the beauty of cultures that value and honor community. I'm ready to make begin making my own change towards community!

I have the feeling this morning of looking at my relationship with the idea of community—of being able to share and live and commune with others. Certainly, our American society today isn’t designed for that way of living. Living in Southern California, too, is a reminder of this: traveling down any freeway, the 2-person HOV lanes are generally empty here in Los Angeles.

Reading the classic Mutant Message from Down Under has been a real treat for me the last couple of days. That book is an amazing reminder of, essentially, the teachings of the Red Path, although from a different culture. This is the story of a white woman who was “called” to go on a walkabout with this 500,000-year-old ancient tribe of nomadic Australian Aborigines people. This woman lived with this group for months, learning the “ancient ways.” What an amazing and humbling experience!

In reading this story, I realize this ancient way of being: to be at one with the Universe and Nature means being not only at one with ourselves, but, also being at one with Creation. That, I feel, is the goal of all of this: to be able to manifest a life filled with abundance and joy, done so in partnership with Creation. What an amazing gift that is!

We’ve forgotten that, haven’t we? We have been born into a society that has prided itself on the ability of people to create things on their own. I am the worst. If someone asks me if I need help, I instinctively respond, no! Why wouldn’t I need help? Why wouldn’t I seek the enjoyment of a companion on my road, whenever a volunteer comes along? I know the answer(s):

Like many of my fellow citizens of this country, I am very proud of the ability to do things on my own. It is a disease, really, this narcissistic desire to do everything by myself, or via my own powers. It is as though it is a crime and a sin to enlist the aid of anyone else in order to do something. It is as though I was raised with an Eleventh Commandment in the Bible: “Thou Shalt Not Have Help When Doing Something.”

It’s the ego at work, too. My ego is as large as any ego west of Washington, D.C. I am from Texas and learned how important a Big Ego is in order to get things done. However, I’ve had a change of heart in recent years, but that hasn’t meant that my ego still isn’t the size of Australia. Our ego tells us that we must not falter, lose ourselves, or flounder into enlisting the aid of anyone else when completing a task. “They’ll think you’re weak.” There are all kinds of voices that raise their heads within my psyche whenever I’m challenged like that. But really, it’s pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?

And then there’s fear. We in America have created this “I Can Do It” attitude that borders on paranoia. Cuba and Venezuela want to help our hurricane victims, but we tell them no because of their political beliefs. Our people are suffering and nations that have suffered because of us want to help our people—but, no, we won’t let them. Individually, we kind of have that attitude, too. I’m sure we tend to deny help from others because there’s something about them that we don’t completely trust in the situation, and, therefore, decline their help. We may feel insecurity about ourselves. That person wanting to help might be a co-worker, and we might feel as though they’re trying to take our job from us. Or it might be a stranger asking us if we need help, and we have no idea what their motive might be. So we turn them down.

What if we taught our children the joy and beauty of giving help to others, instead of creating fear and anxiety in them? What if children experienced that one-ness with others that is truly felt whenever two or more hold a task together? What if we backed away from pride, fear, and our ego, and simply allowed ourselves to be vulnerable enough to share in a task with another human being? It might change us a little, perhaps; it might even cause us to like it.

I am going to challenge myself to begin allowing people to help me. Instead of going along with that first NO! that pops into my head, I’m going to easily and comfortably slide into a Yes! I am going to allow myself to share the experience of being helped, and the joy of allowing myself the freedom of sharing with another person. Perhaps it might change me, or, at least, give me the experience of wanting to do it again. Who knows—I might be a little freer in my own movement to help others.

Now wouldn’t that be something?