The issue lies in our inability to see all that we could accomplish if we truly did work together. However, through years of social conditioning we have told ourselves we are incapable of creating true community. What we are experiencing is the decomposition of community. There are two points I’d like to make on this note.
In ancient civilizations, and even in nomadic groups every member of the community played an incredibly active role in maintaining not just survival but society, whatever that may have been. Every individual was able to see the direct need in their community for their existence. A purpose was found not just in survival but in living, so that they may reach a place of abundance to aid those they loved and others in need. A unique purpose was achieved through assisting in the direct need of their community. People were able to witness the fruits of their labor and the power in their purpose as their presence was made tangible and observable through their profession.
Although what community looks like today can almost seem incomparable to what it was then, the desire for it has certainly not declined. It is not just in human nature, but the nature of all living things to crave for and thrive in community. Every living creature is a part of an intricate ecosystem and humans are no exception. We can see this desire still shining through today in our children. Their playful innocence along with their innate curiosity of others. The lack of social barriers that they have yet to put up. This in my opinion is the purest form of our inherent desire to be connected to others.
Artists are able to provide for themselves through a means of sharing their trade, along with their unique style and story within it. What you decide to create with the time you are given is incredibly telling of who an individual is. Furthermore I think it is one of the best expressions of self an individual can participate in. Artists spend their lives reflecting and sharing their experience and observations with the world around them. The privilege of not only knowing your voice, but using it everyday in what you do, is a rare one that few are lucky enough to afford. It is the aim of my practice and this new endeavor with HOME to extend the resources and knowledge necessary for one to find their voice to anyone who’s ready to receive it. In hopes that I may offer others the same opportunity to live a life of your own fruition so we can diminish our institutional reliance and strengthen our individual selves alongside our communities.
“Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and to feel connected with others. Instead, we often contract, fear intimacy, and suffer a bewildering sense of separation. We crave love, and yet we are lonely. Our delusion of being separate from one another, of being apart from all that is around us, gives rise to all of this pain.”
~ Sharon Salzberg