Sense of Community
Does it still Exist?
One of the core themes of my fictional novel ARK is ‘community’ and how good people rally round to freely help others in times of need.
A utopian, perhaps, desire for a better world but should it be? What has happened to change our society to become so self-absorbed and selfish, the predominant attitude to ask ‘what’s in it for me’ rather than ‘what can I do to help?’
Maybe I am looking at the issue the wrong way around, maybe that sense of community never really existing at all. When we hear anecdotes from elderly relatives or friends of how people pulled together during times of war or other great hardship saying ‘we were all in the same boat, everyone shared what they had’ it is hard to deny that a sense of community did exist – or is this just ‘rose-tinted’ memories, preferring to forget the awful reality of life in those times?
If it is not ‘rose-tinting’ then we need to ask, is this change generational? Maybe the younger in our society have never experienced real hardship to understand or even care? Hardship perhaps to them is having to go without what they ‘want’ rather than what they ‘need’, and what they want is often what somebody else has, the latest gadget, fashion or look.
We don’t have to look too far back to highlight how things have changed. The behaviour of many during those difficult years of the covid pandemic was disappointing, taking what they could and ignoring the guidance – their selfish acts only serving to encourage others with limited morals to follow suit, preferring to believe stories in social media of conspiracy and potentially spreading dangerous misinformation and paranoia about the vaccinations. To some extent, our own ‘leaders’ fuelled the flames of non-compliance by allegedly ignoring their own distancing guidance.
There are many examples I see in my own small-town community, across all age groups, of selfish, arrogant practices demonstrating little pride for the environment we share, which quite frankly appals me, and I despair for the generations that follow – on this trajectory, the future does not look good.
Then, there are those specks of hope brightly shining in the dark, stubbornly refusing to be extinguished by the rising tide selfishness. I recently heard about a group of ladies that had been volunteering in a local community group to provide a ‘lunch club’ for the elderly. The club gave those who attended the opportunity to meet, enjoy fun activities and entertainment either side of a hot meal. The charity that had been running the club for some years decided that they could no longer provide this service due to the cost of the employed staff members who worked at the club. In response to the dismay of the elderly group, with whom they had developed friendships, the ladies decided to maintain the club on a voluntary basis.
When I hear stories, like the one above, they lift my heart and give me hope that maybe all is not lost, and that a sense of community, giving without expecting to receive, can survive and even grow.
I would welcome the opportunity to hear other examples of how communities can and do pull together, and by spreading the word maybe we can really build the ARK.
Please contact me via email jmgeorgesson@gmail.com or reply directly to this post via comment.
