By Lauren Henry '99 - The Taft School

E N D N O T Eknowing why, they began to come back tothe monastery to picnic, to play, to pray.They began to bring their friends to showthem this special place. And their friendsbrought their friends.Then it happened that some of theyounger men who came to visit the monasterystarted to talk more and more withthe old monks. Then one day, one askedif he could join them. Then another.And another. So once again, within a fewyears, the monastery began to thrive.Thanks to the rabbi’s gift, it became avibrant center of light and spiritualitythroughout the land.• • •This is a good story. And I think thatmost importantly it’s a story about twomain things: community and character.A story about how a community that wasdying was healed and made whole becausethose five old monks realized thatthey were special and blessed and capableof more than they had ever thought.What is community? We hear thisword tossed around an awful lot. Butwhat exactly is community? When do weknow we are in a community? What’sthe difference between a “good” communityand a “bad” one?According to Webster’s dictionary,community is simply “a unified body ofindividuals sharing a common interest.”There is no moral weight attached tocommunity. Whether a community isgood or bad depends on us. JohnWinthrop, the first governor of the MassachusettsBay colony, offered a betterdefinition than the one we find inWebster’s. Winthrop spoke to the colonistsin 1630, aboard the ship Arrabella,shortly before they set foot on the newland. In his sermon, he told them, “Wemust delight in each other, make other’sconditions our own, rejoice together,mourn together, labor and suffer together,always having before our eyes our Communityas members of the same body.” 2Winthrop says that members of a communitystick together not only to celebrateand play and socialize, but even more so tomourn and cry and face difficult times.When one member of the body gets sick, thecommunity reaches out to help. When onemember stumbles, the others reach out topick them up. Good communities workbecause people care about each other andknow that others care about them.Good community is rare today, andI often wonder why that is. Why domany communities feel the sadness andisolation that the five old monks in themonastery felt? It could be their ownfault; maybe they are not open to change,not open to listening. Maybe. Maybethere’s another reason.Two hundred years after JohnWinthrop offered his words of encouragement,a French scholar by the name ofAlexis de Tocqueville visited the UnitedStates and in 1835 published a classicwork on America which many of you mayread at some point or another. His Democracyin America outlined the centraltraits that made up the new Americancharacter. Of all of these, de Tocquevillewas most impressed by American individualism.He admired this characteristicgreatly. And yet, de Tocqueville alsowarned that this great characteristic couldalso lead to America’s greatest downfall.One hundred and fifty years after deTocqueville issued his commentary onAmerican character, the noted New Englandpsychiatrist and novelist M. ScottPeck reiterated the Frenchman’s words.Commenting on the importance of communityin his book The Different Drum,published in 1987, Peck points out thatde Tocqueville warned us early on that ifindividualism was not balanced by otherhabits, it would inevitably lead to a fragmentationof society and the social isolationof its citizens.Isolation and fragmentation. Are wein any better shape today? As our technologicalability to surf the web and coverthe globe in virtual reality increases, Ifear that our ability to look into oneanother’s eyes has taken a pretty big hit.It is rare to find the friendly neighborhoodsof Leave it to Beaver or The Brady“We must delight in each other, make other’sconditions our own, rejoice together, mourntogether, labor and suffer together, alwayshaving before our eyes our Community asmembers of the same body.” 2Bunch, where families live near one another,know one another, and are concernedabout one another. We hear muchabout the need for community becausewe are painfully aware of its absence.In the midst of this world of fragmentationand isolation, we find ourselveshere. And we may sometimes wonderhow good a community this is. Ibelieve it is a good community. I believeTaft Bulletin 29