On community and individuality.

They both might just be dead.

The concept of both community and individuality are very important in keeping society balanced. But what happens when community and individual expectations drop, and both meanings are lost along the way?

Your vibe is your tribe….

We weren't made to be alone as human beings all the days of our lives. We were made to grow in community, loving each other and succeeding in life while still maintaining a sense of self and mastering solitude.

There is a need for a balance between independence and companionship, but looking around, I don't think we understood the assignment because we have lost track of what community truly means and the importance of individuality.

In our society today, people are too scared to be without community but are also too selfish to commit to creating a safe environment for true community to grow, and that leaves us in the desert without water because we're neither truly in community nor in the individual train; rather, an illusion has been created.

On community:

To build a community, a lot of things are required, and among them is a deep sense of knowing oneself and the ability to truly accept others.

True acceptance is very vital, but when we look at the communities we have around us now, they suffer from a lack of acceptance.

Community by mouth and no real actions is no community.

Last two weeks, it was mother's day, a holiday set aside to celebrate mothers, and the women at church were hosting a little get-together where they planned on just having fun and entertaining us too.

This is an organization of women, so of course, it is a community that women were even encouraged to join on a daily basis, meaning it is supposed to be a safe space for women to exist freely. But what happens when that safe space is not provided?

I watched the women do their thing with childlike excitement, which soon dissipated quickly when some women who were part of this community started throwing jabs at another one because of the way she was marching during their march past.

These weren't random people but people who she identified with as members of her community, her own people. How do you think she would feel if she had heard them say all the vile things they said?

It would hurt if it came from strangers, but coming from people she considered to be her allies, it was going to hurt even worse.

One core reason why people seek out a community to join is because they want to have a sense of belonging. But when a community that is supposed to offer that singles out its members and makes fun of them for wanting to belong, what does that say about them?

While you might think that people who are treated terribly in one community should simply find another to join, I want you to know that it's not always that easy.

A person would have to work through the pain gotten from the previous community before they even decide if they want to join another, and in cases where working through it is too difficult, hyper individuality might become the result.

Also, imagine if they had already joined more than one or two, and the same thing is the case.

When existing communities promise to offer a sense of belonging and love just to do the exact opposite, that is when community starts to die because no one is putting in the effort to nurture and grow it, and when community dies, hyper individuality takes its place.

On individuality:

Shared values and similar goals do not mean to be or act the exact same.

If we all do the exact same things, then the essence of community will be lost.

To be in community does not mean to do the same thing that a fellow community member is doing because from what we can see in our day-to-day lives, that has become the norm.

True community does not require you to lose your own unique identity; instead, it creates safe spaces for you to be yourself wholly without judgment.

The thing is, people who lack a strong sense of self can't build communities. We should learn to work on ourselves both individually and in community because without a balance between both, we can't go far positively as a society.

The message here is to be unique, yes. But the catch is to be unique in community <true community>.