My Hummingbird Cafe

What Is Community Spirit?

Let us consider embracing Community Spirit standards from the “Old Wild West”, where communities helped each other when a need arose. Do you understand what I mean by “Old West” type of Community Spirit?

I am thinking of a farmer who has been injured and cannot plow his field. If he doesn’t plow he can’t plant, and if he doesn’t plant there will be no food to eat or income from his crop. The community shows up and helps him plow his field and plant his crop.

In general, we’ve become so narcissistic in satisfying our own needs that we forget to notice the suffering of others. Indeed, our focus is on obtaining necessities and on what we want but don’t have yet. This is when we look elsewhere outside of ourselves or to others for satisfaction.

We look elsewhere because we think that we cannot do it on our own or because we recognize that really don’t have the ability to do it on our own. When we are unwilling to wait for what we want or need, we put more effort into getting help for what we want (in the form of loans or taking short-cuts) than we do in taking the right steps to get it when we can.

As a community, we need to have the same “Old Wild West Spirit” in helping people who need assistance. People often NEED something that they can’t get on their own — such as a farmer needing help with his field — and we can help them when we have the right attitude.

This is not about helping people obtain a WISH or WANT, although it is a worthy thing to do and we feel good about doing it, it’s about helping satisfy legitimate NEEDS first.

It is disheartening when we see people placing more priority on their own wishes or wants than they do on helping someone. On the other hand, though, we also see people who get very angry if they don’t get the assistance they expect or demand.

Demanding people have a bad attitude towards those who have money and expect them to help fill the void. It’s true they need help, but NO ONE is required to give assistance when it is demanded; especially when he does not try to help himself.

We were created with a brain and a body to do things for ourselves. As such, we are expected to care for our personal and family’s needs when we are able. When we are not able, those who can assist us are expected to help instead of lavishing themselves with STUFF they don’t really need. There is nothing more pathetic than an excessively wealthy person ignoring the needy. It is sickening!

An example of looking outside of our community for assistance is looking to government programs now for satisfying our basic needs. Slowly, we’ve given up own ability to be self-reliant because we think that’s what we have to do in order to get what we need from government. I understand the reasons we think this is true, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Perhaps we need to tweak our perspective a little so that we see things from a different angle. «CLICK HERE FOR PART 2»