by Miranda Fix, 19, USA

There is an old folktale about a father who teaches his sons a lesson by asking them to break an individual chopstick, which they do without any trouble.

He then gathers a whole bunch of chopsticks together, and no matter how hard they try the sons are unable to break a single stick.

This story demonstrates the importance of sticking together, of fostering community.  When a group of people combines resources to work for the common good, balancing self-interest with shared interests, something magical happens.
The first time I experienced the magic of community was in high school, when I volunteered as a crew leader for Friends of Trees, a local nonprofit organization that works to restore our urban forest.  My role was to supervise volunteer work-parties and teach community members how to plant trees so that they would survive.  

Invariably at each planting, neighbors met for the first time while helping plant each other’s trees.  They were so proud, so excited, and so anxious, as if they were planting a new member of the family in their front yards.  Volunteers came back time after time, to get dirty and beautify the city, meet new people and see old friends.  Not only did we help increase the urban canopy, but the pervasive spirit of camaraderie at plantings made it like a second family to me.

This sense of kinship was also central to my recent study abroad experience.  Last winter I spent ten weeks in Mali, West Africa, where community is the fundamental unit of existence.  Children played in the streets as their elders chatted in the shade.  Neighbors called out to me as I passed them in my quartier, asking after my health and my family, and inviting me into their homes to make delicious African tea.  

At the end of my stay my host family threw a fête for the entire neighborhood, and everyone came to share in the music and dance.  When I arrived back in the US, however, the silence and solitude were overwhelming.  Where were all the people?  In this age of information overload, when web surfing has replaced telling stories on the porch, and instant messaging has taken the place of good conversation, I long for a system restore.

A Buddhist parable explains the difference between Heaven and Hell.  In both places, the story goes, there is a large table laden with food, and the people are provided with six-foot long chopsticks.  All the people in Hell are starving and miserable because they are unable to feed themselves with these giant chopsticks, but in Heaven everyone is happy and well-fed because they each feed the person sitting opposite them.  I believe that if each of us commits to building healthy communities, both locally and globally, we can feed each other’s souls and create a little Heaven on Earth.

—

Miranda: “I am a junior at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.  Community service and grassroots activism have been and continue to be an important part of my life.  This year I am part of a sustainable living community, where we grow some of our own food and regard the land as a community to which we belong and must protect.”

Popularity: 21% [?]