Today begins a series on the importance of community in our lives, and its relationship to finding individual freedom and fulfillment.
In today’s world we are encouraged to recognize and pursue the natural drive for individuality, independence, autonomy, personal liberation and freedom, self-development, self-fulfillment, self-determination, and personal agency and sovereignty, to “be all you can be,” “do your own thing,” “follow your bliss,” “be who you are,” and “find your answers for yourself.”
At the same time, we are inherently social, communal creatures. There is a need for community in all of us – that is our natural state. Most of us implicitly understand the importance of commitment to and relationship with other beings, and the personal and communal value of loyalty to others and/or to a cause.
We have been wrestling with the issue of how much to focus on ourselves versus our commitment to and responsibility toward others for a very long time. What, then, is the right balance between individuality and community for each of us? How do we find that balance? This will be the theme of the emails and posts entitled Community and Freedom.
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