"The Neighborly Culture"

Helping Hands

“The alternative to the free market culture is a set of covenants that supports neighborly disciplines, rather than free market disciplines, as a producer of culture. These non-market disciplines have to do with the common good and abundance as opposed to self-interest and scarcity. This neighborly culture is held together by its depth of relatedness, its capacity to hold mystery, its willingness to stretch time and endure silence.”

Walter Brueggemann (An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture)

Carl Jung said, “Man needs difficulties; they are necessary to health.” If that is the case, the folks in Texas today are one healthy bunch. With half the state, as large as a continent, under water from Hurricane Harvey, people are scrambling to survive. And survive they will. The reason being, that they will put into practice what Brueggemann calls the neighborly disciplines. They will help each other; in fact, they already are. It's incredible what happens when people are stressed beyond the point of panic and paranoia—calm ensues, and then they wax creative. Pictures on the news show people rescuing others not only in fishing boats, high-water vehicles and helicopters, but in kayaks, rubber swimming pool floats, and even inflatable mattresses! In devastation, we acquire the heart and humility to extend a hand to perfect strangers.

Relatedness is something that as mammals, specifically, as homo sapiens, we need for basic security. We know instinctively that we will not survive in isolation regardless of our material circumstance. We typically band together with people who are like us. But, in times of great duress, the boundaries come down, and we extend ourselves to others who are not within our circle of comfort. All the external props of modern life fall away—our concern for our appearance, our need to impress, in essence, our egotism. It boils down to a single fact: human relationships alone are essential to survival. And, we will take the hand that's extended.

Wonder why we find that so hard to do when times are not troubled? The neighborly culture used to be the standard for living a good life. We gave what we had, and accepted what we needed. I remember many a summer morning in my parents house, opening the kitchen door to find a bushel of corn and a basket of peaches sitting outside. Neighbors made food when someone was sick, or had surgery, or when there was a death in the family. We still do some of that here in the South, but these days, we typically buy the food and have it delivered. We take the neighborly part out, and put the consumer part in.

Major catastrophes can teach us something about human life. That we are not separate and cannot operate as free agents. That our neighbor may not look like us. That we are here, not to impress one another, but to help one another. We don't have to wait for a natural disaster to strike; we can reach out a hand in kindness today. The more we depart the consumer culture, and adopt a neighborly culture, the happier and more satisfying our lives will be.

                                                              In the Spirit,

                                                                     Jane