Where there is no human connection, there is no compassion. Without compassion, then community, commitment, loving-kindness, human understanding, and peace all shrivel. Individuals become isolated, the isolated turn cruel, and the tragic hovers in the forms of domestic and civil violence. Art and literature are antidotes to that.
Interpretation
Human connection breeds compassion, which is essential for a healthy community.
This quote emphasizes the vital role of human connection in fostering compassion among individuals. Without compassion, essential elements of community such as commitment, understanding, and peace deteriorate, leading to isolation and potential cruelty. Vreeland suggests that art and literature serve as remedies to combat this isolation and promote empathetic connections within society.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of community service.
When I think how art education is eliminated whenever we get a budget crunch in the schools, I have to stand up and say that even when there was dire poverty ten blocks away from Tiffany Studios in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, there was art and creativity within.
What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.
Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don't talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live.
One of the pleasant things about small town life is that everyone, whether rich or poor, liked or disliked, has some kind of a role and place in the community. I never felt that living in a city - as I once did for a couple of years.
We see community organizations as major service providers and economic drivers rather than as recipients or distributors of charity, and coordinators of volunteers. Today they constitute what's referred to as 'the social economy'.
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
We're all in this together. I learned that lesson growing up in West Philly. When I shoveled the sidewalk my parents didn't let me stop with our house. They told me to keep shoveling all the way to the corner. I had a responsibility to my community.
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