This is a guest post by Peter Buttenheim

In this world of climate change, income inequality, too many guns, rampant commercialism, selfishness, and greed, it is easy for people to become angry, depressed, and negative. The current political crowd of authoritarians, sycophants, enablers, and the un-educated only enhance this feeling of a crumbling society.

What has been lacking has been a sense of empathy among diverse people. What we have not had for way too long has been what Victor Turner calls “communitas” — a fabulous Latin word that we moderns might define as human kindness. Communitas might also mean fellowship or public spirit.

How do people get beyond the mundane and the scary? It is by exhibiting the concept of communitas. At the macro level, we have seen this concept most recently all over North America. I speak of the inestimable positive energy that people from 48 countries worldwide have brought to Canada, Mexico, and the United States to support their national teams. We have seen thousands of spirited fans’ cheering on their sides from Paraguay and Japan, the Netherlands and Ivory Coast, and Germany and Turkey — to name just a few of the teams. These fans create an amazing egalitarian community in the stands as they share this amazing experience of the World Cup. 

Closer to home, we saw communitas in both Greater New York City and across the country as the New York Knicks won their first National Basketball Association championship in 53 years. The usually “stranger” mentality in NYC became an attitude of equality among strangers as delirious fans shared the experience of a winning team.

Communitas exists here at Kendal as well — only at a more micro level. Our sense of communitas or human kindness is on display 24/7/365 here. Some of this comes from the unique qualities of living in a Quaker community. Many other instances of communitas happen every day, and most are unplanned. These moments make our community unique even as many of them go un-noticed or un-heralded:

  • The residents who push wheelchairs to meals;
  • The residents who arrange flowers in The Center;
  • The residents who tend the incredible number of gardens at their cottages;
  • The staff member who calls residents to tell them that their favorite flavor of ice cream has arrived;
  • The residents who brush off other people’s cars when it snows;
  • The residents who plan our concerts, films, and lectures;
  • The groundskeeper who picks up a heavy brown bag of weeds and carts it off for a resident;
  • The residents who hang art exhibits and fill the Lower Hall cases with treasures to observe;
  • The extra mile that many of our young culinary staff go to make our meals a fine experience;
  • The nurses and medical professionals who always have a kind word of support for each of us;
  • The maintenance staff as they tend to our 500+ acres of extraordinary land

I could go on, but I believe that these signs of communitas and countless others are exactly what we need to get beyond the doldrums and malaise of today’s fractured society. Please look around as I know you will see communitas — if you look carefully….

Peter Buttenheim

Kendal #133