Community, Sociability, and Attachments

A little something to ponder...

“…community is not built by man, it is built by God. It is God’s work and the basis of community is not just sociability but faith. This is what we need to see very clearly, because it is very important.“ “… what really starts fighting is possessions. And people get into fights by preferring things to people. This is well developed in Christian theology, and therefore, for us, the importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things we might prefer to people. You can extend that to any limits you like – wherever things become more important than people we are in trouble. That is the crux of the whole matter. Figure it out for yourself!”

From Thomas Merton in Alaska, by Thomas Merton. New Directions, 1989. p. 97.

The advertising amd commercial industry is based on the premise and principle that they can and should convince consumersnsummers, that we cannot live without their products. They spend inordinate amounts of time, money, and resources to train us to think that we are something less than fulfilled if we go without the very thing that promises increased joy, productivity, or livelihood. How does the above quote from Merton strike you? How would you respond to him? How might this change the way you envision your own liconsumeronsummer or as a person bound with others in community? Or, answer some othe question that I haven't asked.