We might also ask, did Adam love the garden? Did he love the animals? The trees? Did he love his God? I don’t believe the concept of love existed until the arrival of Eve, until the arrival of a community. \u00a0Love, like sin, requires community. \u00a0Love is an aspect of community healthiness. As is hate.\u00a0In the garden of Eden, without a community, it was not possible for Adam to love.<\/p>\n
When Eve arrived, Adam became part of a community. It was possible to sin, it was possible to be virtuous, and it was possible to love.<\/p>\n
Every community creates demands on individuals. \u00a0Even with only two individuals – maybe one wants to be in the sunshine, when the other wants to be in the shade. But both want to be together. Conflicts arise naturally, and because there is a community – these conflicts can be dealt with, or not, can grow, or fade. The serpent arrives, and makes suggestions, which create more conflict. The community has grown. God, Adam, Eve, and the serpent. So far, only one rule, in theory, one ‘restriction of freedom’. Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge.<\/p>\n
Once Adam and Eve ate from the tree, their families, and their communities grew. It wasn’t long before Cain killed Abel. \u00a0Murder, is a symptom of community illness, not possible when Adam was alone in the garden. Murder is only possible in a community.<\/p>\n
As an aside, we can also see that, until there was a community, Adam had no concept of ‘freedom’, because there was no community to constrain him. Is it possible to have ‘freedom’ without the existence of constraints? As our communities grow, and grow more complex, the line between sins and virtues is not so simple. Is it possible to experience freedom, if it is not possible to make our own judgments, decisions, and choices between sins and virtues?<\/p>\n
How can we tell if a community is ‘healthy’?\u00a0Extroverts can be very involved, well connected to their communities. Introverts might be less involved socially, but might provide support in other ways, more to their nature. Psychopaths and sociopaths have very poor connections to their communities.<\/p>\n
Some communities are very well connected, others poorly connected to their members – and to other communities. Some communities are very rich, complex, complete and healthy. \u00a0Some communities are very hierarchical, others are more egalitarian. Others are very thin or poorly connected. \u00a0This is the nature of communities.<\/p>\n What are the dimensions of community healthiness? In the book:\u00a0The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business<\/strong>, by Patrick Lencioni provides a very interesting set of concepts that might be applied to the measurement of healthiness of communities.\u00a0Organizational health, according to Patrick, is about integrity. \u201cAn organization has integrity \u2013 is healthy \u2013 when it is whole, consistent and complete<\/strong><\/em>\u2026\u201d \u00a0Patrick also noted that some conflict is healthy (no conflict is unhealthy), as is some confusion, and also some turnover in membership.<\/p>\n Is this how we can measure community healthiness? Communities, in healthicine, are a much broader concept that Patrick Lencioni’s organizations. \u00a0Patrick’s interest is in helping organizations – companies and corporations, to be healthier and thus more profitable. But this view does not consider the interactions between organizations – which are often unhealthy by design. Companies and corporations are often in competition. Communities are sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing.<\/p>\n What is community healthiness? When we look at the hierarchy of healthicine<\/a>, it’s not difficult to imagine measures of healthiness for our diet, our organs, our bodies, even our minds. \u00a0But how can we recognize healthy communities? How might we identify, and work to improve, the healthiness of our communities?<\/p>\n Every community also has ‘community’ aspects. \u00a0Some communities might be very inclusive, others, very exclusive. This defines the communities link back to individual members. \u00a0When we look at Patrick Lencioni’s measurements – some communities might be very sound, whole, consistent and complete – others might \u00a0be unsound, inconsistent and incomplete.<\/p>\n Sins, and virtues are dimensions of community healthiness, at the individual level, and at the level of community. Individuals can sin. \u00a0Individuals can be virtuous. \u00a0Communities can sin, and can be virtuous.<\/p>\n In the garden, communities were very simple – families, and then tribes. \u00a0But today, we have communities, of communities, of communities. Our communities, and many layers of communities interact, and some communities (corporations) are ‘legally’ recognized as persons. \u00a0But today, these are persons who cannot ‘sin’. \u00a0If we are to improve the healthiness of our communities, we need to recognize that communities can sin, and that communities must strive to be virtuous. The openly displayed goals of many of our communities – corporations – include greed, envy, pride, wrath, and gluttony. This is an unhealthy shame. Maybe it’s time to expand the confessional? We know that communities can tout their virtues. But can a community speak? Can a community confess its sins?<\/p>\n to your health, tracy<\/p>\n I read a beautiful quote on Quora the other day, from a five year old. \u00a0Her father had asked “How do we show someone we love them?”, and she responded “We play with them.” \u00a0I love it! \u00a0We sing, dance, … Continue reading ![\"CommunityNetworks\"](\"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/CommunityNetworks.jpg\")
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