If you want to make a society work, then you don’t keep underscoring the places where you’re different—you underscore your shared humanity.
I finished Sebastian Junger’s book a few years back. This quote has taken up major real estate in my being since then. As he puts it, so much of our time is spent highlighting our differences while ignoring the vitality of our commonalities.
It made me think about how the word “community” is something I hear frequently, but which seems to be frequently misused. We should ask ourselves, are we intentional when we establish our communities? Do we prefer to demonize the unknown, associate only with the familiar likeness of others, the image in which we see ourselves—on our skin and in our faiths? Or do we seek out others who share the same love of a certain pursuit or interest?
I think the fullest sense of community arrives when we embrace the latter. What made my recent night at Baltimore’s Monument City Brewing Company special was that the only similarity in the room was our love of beer. We all received a similar invite to attend, yet none of us had met each other prior to the event. We stepped out on faith because of a passion for a particular theme.
The result was a roomful of daring strangers, giving hugs and toasts, validating what it means to be intentional and deliberate when building your community and your shared humanity.
