Critical Thinking Skills

No Longer Alone

Rudolf Steiner once said "A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living," I read this over and over again feeling like he, Steiner, said the exact message of what I think a function of a community in our lives is, the point of giving 75% of ourselves to other to feel worthy of a "community." Society is no longer a choice.

To start I had an interview with my dad, David Obee. The first question I asked him was do we society have a need to belong? He replied, claiming, “Yes, just like the human attribute for love and affection; a community is the same.” I had not thought of it in this way, but David sums up exactly what Brookes explained in Our Sprawling, Supersized Utopia. I came to a conclusion that there is an unconscious or even conscious, in some, need to belong whether it is in a community as small as your group of your friends or as large as the president belonging to all of his people. Communities also surface online and the need to belong to the “social networks” and have as many friends as possible even if we haven’t talked or even will talk to half of our “friends.” In Someone to Watch Over Me by Theodora Sites in Remix, she stated, “But like many of my generation I constantly trade actual human contact for the more reliable more

emotional high of smiles on MySpace, winks on Match.com, and pokes on Face book. I live for Friendster views, profile comments, and the dodge ball messages that clog my cell phone every night.” (162). Communities have formed everywhere demonstrating the need for belonging.

            Secondly, the growth of communities has increased because of the growth of population. For example, in my hometown Lake Stevens which in 1990 only consisted of 3380 people then 10 years later in 2000 double at 6361 and the last census, in 2010, approximately 28,069 people now live in Lake Stevens. Lake Stevens which was known to be a small community with great schools and people just like you. Demonstrating what Brookes said “Americans continue to move from the north east and Midwest to the south and west. …for example, the population of metropolitan Pittsburgh has declined by 8 percent since 1980, but as people spread out, the amount of developed land in Pittsburgh area increased by nearly 43 percent. The population of Atlanta increased by 22,000 during the 1990 but the expanding suburbs expanded by 2.1 million.” (pg. 184)

            Luckily I find that communities are more of a positive impact to our world. Communities do that sense of belonging, confidence, and a safe zone for people. In many communities we have created support systems, for example if a fundraiser, a school event, or sports games there will always be people who we can count on to show up and support the occasion going on. A personal experience of mine was two years ago. At a football games for the local high school had a heart attack right there on the football field, he had technically died for a couple seconds but a parent from the stands repetitively gave him CPR until the ambulance arrived at the scene and he survived. Biggs, the football coach, had to have a heart pacer inserted into him, the problem was that he was not that well off, money wise, he volunteered at the high school, and he worked as a taxi driver nightly. So our community came together in 2 weeks and created a silent auction, live auction, and dinner fundraiser, all items in the auctions were donated and the dinner was prepared for free, and so many people chipped in. We all came together planning, preparing, and being one just for one person. Other than that in larger community’s hospitals, better schools, clinics, stores, clubs, and so much more are created that make living in a community more favorable and easy.

            Furthermore, we are lucky to have such communities, imagine trying to cure yourself without having a hospital across town, or putting out a fire without a fire department. We all would crazy talking to ourselves, and there would be no technological advance without cooperation of a team, also known as a community. Although communities have over come this once green, green planet so far it benefits us as a society quite well.