COMMUNITY (Germany, Part 3)
I continue to think about what I learned and felt during the wonderful week in Berlin. One of the most interesting things I saw was the rebuilt (and still rebuilding) former East Berlin. The last time I was in Berlin was just after the Wall came down and I saw the horrible results of mismanagement and loss of freedom. This time, 13 years later, after billions of dollars in investment and massive rebuilding efforts, I saw a thriving, beautiful city. I visited wonderful restaurants and shops, saw beautiful buildings, walked among smiling, happy people. Berlin is a natural place to think about community: Berliners share a common cultural and historical heritage, share common characteristics, possess common resources yet the artificial division of Berlin temporarily interrupted the community, the sharing.
I sometimes resist the concept of community because I find it misused by politicians who want to create homogenous groups, without the diversity that is a natural result of freedom. But I don't resist the community I saw in Berlin: I felt a wonderful desire to be part of the group, the desire to share, the desire to rebuild, the joyful acceptance of reunification. And I saw the same thing among the wedding guests.
As I've mentioned before, the wedding guests were diverse in geography, education, background, hobbies, most interests, yet we all came together to form a classic community: Shortly after we met, the sense of shared love for the bride and groom turned us into a cohesive, sharing, giving group of people, united in the desire to wish the best for the married couple. Perhaps more interesting, this newly formed community seemed to me to wish the best for all the members, to want to share in meaningful ways, to want to keep in touch. I believe I made some lifelong friends during the week of the wedding parties. I think of the beautiful young woman who danced with me, I think of a wonderful couple from Capetown in South Africa, I think of the former wife of the groom, I think of a beautiful, hardworking couple from a small town in South Africa, I think of the young relatives of the groom and so many others. I feel myself part of a community with these people and I would go out of my way to help them, to show my respect and admiration. I hope and expect to see them again and I believe they feel the same way about me.
This community is the kind of community I want to be part of. It's not a community formed to exclude others but to include them, it's not formed to take but to give, it's not formed interact only with old friends but to seek to include old and new friends. In the future, I'll look at "community" in a new way: I'll think about our small community of wedding guests and, with a smile on my face, be more accepting of the whole concept of community.
8-12-02
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