“Studies in England and Wales show that men who’ve lost their jobs in communities where unemployment is high, score better on mental health tests than unemployed men living in areas where unemployment is low.”
This quote, taken from “Men’s Health” newsletter, emphasizes our need to be accepted, to be a part of the community to which we belong. When we are “oddballs”, it’s a whole lot harder on our emotional, mental health.
Even when what we do is better for us, if enough people around us hold it as strange, weird, bad, it can end up doing us more harm than good. The opposite is true also: enough people holding it as a norm gives it positive status.
Conclusion, if we are to develop a new story, a way of living where we give top priority to the Earth and its people, in a society that does not value either very highly, we need support to keep us sane.
And so, we at IMAGO are attempting to do two things:
1. Develop a demonstration of how we might live out this new story in our every day life. (At one point the word “model” was used, but model implies being there. Demonstration implies getting there. When one demonstrates, one can show all the “not to dos”, and we have a lot of these to show.)
2. To develop a neighborhood community as part of the demonstration, but also for support. My definition of community – people around every day who can say, “Hey, you aren’t so weird!”; where people care and support and “be” something like what I am.
And what do I want the community where I live to be like? People who support me and vice versa. Also plants, animals, and minerals that I identify as “caring, supporting, and “being something like what I am”. They, too, are an important part of my community, whether I recognize them or not.
How does this happen? I feel in two ways. First, by “staying in place” – a phrase taken from the poet Gary Snyder. To develop community requires staying in contact in order to get to know, and love. This is true for both humans and plants and animals and minerals.
And second, by fulfilling my role as human in this community by celebrating the Earth, proclaiming its incredible mystery, beauty and sacredness; falling in love with it. And the way I do this is by being present and falling in love with this part of the Earth that I have chosen, that has chosen me.
And now you don’t have to wonder why I need a community around me. (“Hey people, this guy really is a weirdo. Where is he coming from?”) With strange ideas like these, just maybe I won’t get a whole lot of support when I walk into Kroger (God forbid. Stop that, they’ll really think I’m weird, everyone shops at Kroger, except me), see commercials or listen to the news, talk to those whose primary purpose is to consume. To sit under and fall in love with a tree is not exactly what they promote, much less relating with rocks and soil and all the other Earthy things around. And so the support can’t be there. So I am dependent on the few, who see the sacredness of Earth, to support me. I need you. You are my community that keeps me sane. And you, who I relate to daily, you help sustain the New Story blossom peeking out to see if the time has come to take the risk.
rjamesschenk.org 