Since coming to the West, I have found that modern people long for the fulfilling connections that are available through a healthy community, the sense of connection and coherence that I have experienced in village life. The cry for community is everywhere. But with every gain there is a loss.
Community is a term that is so familiar to people in the West and yet so hard to achieve.
Constantly on the move from city to city, often separated from one's family by geographical distance, and commonly losing primary relationships, such as marriage, to the ravages of separation, Westerners often find themselves relying solely upon themselves, their distraction of choice, or their therapists to manage the crises of daily living. Meanwhile, their psyches crave belonging in a community with others, where they know they will find healing once and for all. The urge for community in the West is challenged by the tendency to see community as antithetical, and even a threat, to individuality. Many modern people believe that community absorbs the dignity and integrity of the individual and threatens to kill the much-cherished sense of self. The truth is that one doesn't lose one's self as a result of being part of a community.