A 747 Community

A 747 COMMUNITY

The search for “Community” has been a major religious theme for at least the past twenty years. We have read of this quest in all manner of religious tracts, books, sermons, essays and TV programs, with a common denominator of a “hunger” for relationships, connections, support fellowships. There seems to be a search for something that will provide meaning, people support, company in the midst of impersonal giant corporations and mega-mergers and globalization. And there is a search for the metaphor that will help convey the meaning of “Community.” Here’s yet another.
Flying from Europe in a packed Boeing 747 recently I realized that my table was the back of another passenger’s seat, and that my seat was the front of someone’s table. And when I pushed my seat into a reclining position I was in another passenger’s chin space. And it further occurred to me that in the cramped, crowded, tight fitting seats of the six passenger middle section one had to be extremely polite and civil in allowing others access to the rest room. A riot could erupt if a passenger was either very demanding and impatient or if another was too slow in giving right of way to an urgent need. This is one dimension of community.
Our life today seems like a packed, fully loaded Boeing 747. We are all traveling very fast to destinations as varied as our shoe styles. We are crowded and stressed and feel the frustration of being manipulated by unseen forces much larger and more mysterious by the day. And we are at the mercy of invisible and unknown others who determine style, fad, current popularity, and, official government policies. And we seek community for support. We seek community to provide a human quality to our super highway pace. We seek community to balance the sense of being terribly alone on our journey.
To make our journey as safe as possible, within our own capabilities, it seems we need the behavior of 747 passengers: patience with one another, a tolerant, if neutral civility, basic good manners, less focus on our own immediate comfort and an acute awareness of how our movements and actions affect others; an appreciation and understanding of our immediate environment and circumstance.
One could easily interpret Jesus’ teachings as the way to endure with grace and humor the congested, sometimes hostile, fast forward style of life our time has become. We may find community when we consider the comfort of those around us as being a bit more important than our own. Remember, “if your neighbor needs a coat, give him your cloak as well,” or “if your other community member asks you to walk a mile, offer to walk two miles.” We may also remember an initial Law of God, read that, “Law of Survival,” “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself. On this hangs all the law and prophets”
Community happens, I believe, when we each and all consider the person in the seat behind us, in front of us and on the right and left sides of us, and that these persons are to be treated as we each want to be treated. Your table is someone’s seat; your seat is someone’s table; and personal space is very, very limited.

Richard E. Lake