Community

Thinking about the entirety of human history, from our prehistoric beginnings through today, getting from where we began to where we are now was no small feat. There were many problems and obstacles to overcome. But, in the end, it seems we almost always found a breakthrough and progressed into the next stage of advancement.

Like humanity as a whole, we go through similar evolutions on an individual level. We first learn how to interact with our environments, and as we learn and grow, we develop into who we’re to become, or who we want to become. That, too, is no small feat.

Unlike the struggles of collective humanity, the struggles of an individual are mostly dealt with in solitude. The rewards are individual gains, and not much emphasis goes toward the community around us. It is this that we should try and modify – we should try to advance our communities, along with ourselves, as much as possible.

The reason for this is, if you look at the various stages of our history, every effort toward getting better and surviving was a collective one. One or more individuals may have led the pack, but it wasn’t without the intention of helping everyone else in the tribe.

Becoming successful is a great achievement, but what does it all mean if you keep it to yourself? It’s true that we can’t solve all the problems around us, but we can certainly contribute. Our special gifts aren’t meant for individual gain alone, their greater purpose is to be used in some way to build others up, to help our tribe get from where we are today to where we’re headed tomorrow.

This, I think, is an unspoken requirement of each one of us, especially those of us in this day and age with a voice and a platform. Keeping it all to ourselves is wasteful in the long run. Not using our gifts to better others as well in some way holds everyone back. As individuals, we will certainly die, but the group lives on, almost forever.

Volunteer your skills for a community event, donate to charity, or give back in some kind of significant way. End each day feeling, not only that you grew a little, but that you helped your community grow too.

Humans have a long of history of working together to make it to where we are today. There’s no doubt that if we continue to work together, the future will look even better than the present.