When you think of the word community, what comes to mind? It might be the popular NBC sitcom starring Joel McHale and Ken Jeong, or perhaps you imagine a housing development filled to the brim with middle class families, featuring enough well-maintained yards and generic but undeniably enticing houses to go around. The word can be used in a variety of ways, but the one that is most applicable to the topic at hand is the current focal point: I am referencing “community” in the sense of existing in some kind of commonly shared, physical location.
The 24 hours that compromises a day is a fairly sizable amount of time, in which a number of tasks can be accomplished. But for many -- especially those with exceedingly busy schedules -- it can feel as though there are not nearly as many hours in the day as there should be, for the sake of personal convenience. This lack of time results in some carrying out their days in a way that places one’s own priorities on a pedestal, sometimes at the expense of others.
Having your priorities in line should serve as a source of pride, but is also important to make an active effort to be considerate. Are my chosen means of reaching an end directly impacting someone in a negative way? That is a question worth frequently asking yourself. Imagine you’re a college-student, and instead of remaining in your bedroom, you decide to venture to the library in hopes of completing a few assignments that have impending due dates. You reach the library, and after finding a comfortable place to sit, begin to take out your assignments. Before beginning to work on the assignments, you decide that the process would be made more enjoyable if you listen to music. Naturally, you take out your headphones so as to not inconvenience others in the library by distracting them from their work.
Generally speaking, a good amount of libraries have specific noise-policy related rules in place, so it is fair to say that there might be people who only use headphones in public because they are required to. However, it is also fair to assume that many people would probably use headphones even without definitive rules because they are aware of what is expected of them socially within that context.
Why not apply that mindset of consideration to private settings as well? It might be easier to bend to social expectations when it feels as though there are a higher number of chastising opinions that will rain down if there is a failure to comply, that said, the amount of consideration that you have for someone should be the same regardless of whether there are one hundred people present or two. Ideally, once you adopt a mindset that values communally based actions, your behavior should begin to reflect that mindset, and in return, others will (hopefully) take notice and also want to think more frequently about how they can be as supportive as possible toward others, rather than serving as a complication.
Being communally minded works for the benefit of all of those who choose to actively participate in the lifestyle. The thought that the individuals around you are consciously thinking of ways that they can act in a manner that seeks mutual convenience should be appealing enough to modify primarily selfish habits. Should you always go out of your way for someone convenience? The answer is of course not, the unique details of a situation should be taken account before making a decision, but if making an insignificant change in what you’re doing could significantly help someone else, it very well might be worth sacrificing your own preference. Do not just be a community that exists amongst each-other and that is where it ends. A community that is connected on a level much deeper than merely residing in the same location is a community that will flourish.
