Like all forms of life, from microbes to ecosystems, we need to be together. We cannot exist in isolation. Nothing living lives alone. And we see this need for each other even in the West where we've revered independence and individualism. It's important to remember that every time we join an organization, community or group effort that we do so in order to accomplish more.
People never join together to accomplish less.
We want to create, to find more meaning, to contribute, to belong, and we know we can only achieve this by joining with others. So every act of joining, every organizing effort, has powerful and positive energies present at the inception. Aquinas' dictum has led me to look at my own experience in organizations, to notice where I see people changed not by fear but by love. And once I began looking, I realized that there were many examples testifying to the truth of his statement. I have witnessed the great possibilities that surface whenever two or more people are willing to listen to one another, to be present to one another.