Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.
Interpretation
Community reflects the possibility of love and happiness beyond material wealth.
In this quote, Jean Vanier emphasizes that the existence of community demonstrates the potential for love and connection in a world often driven by materialism and conflict. He suggests that true happiness stems from relationships and communal ties rather than financial wealth, signifying that love and fulfillment can flourish even in challenging circumstances.
In practice
During a speech on community service, one might quote Jean Vanier to emphasize the importance of love and relationships over wealth.
One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.
True peace can rarely be imposed from the outside; it must be born within and between communities through meetings and dialogue and then carried outward.
In any case, community is not about perfect people. It is about people who are bonded to each other, each of whom is a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, love and hate.
We have to remind ourselves constantly that we are not saviours. We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible, that the world is not condemned to a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, that class and racial warfare is not inevitable.
When we begin to believe that there is greater joy in working with and for others, rather than just for ourselves, then our society will truly become a place of celebration.
We need better neighbors, neighbors that care about the schools in their neighborhood whether they have kids in them or not, because they know that the health and vitality of that neighborhood depends on it.
We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned, and that's who we are. This happened because of you. Thank you.
Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.
We have essentially gone from being communities that were policed by people from the communities to being communities that are policed by strangers, and that's no longer a community: that's an area that's under siege.
We figured out as a community of gay people, we have to take care of our own.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
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