The Spirituality of Community: Multimedia Resources
Spirituality includes recognizing and responding to the variety of communities that we are part of. Take a moment and surf through some of these links and recognize yourself as integrated to all creation.
Listen to some sounds of our larger community.
Gustav Holts, a composer of serious music, even created music depicting how he imagines that the planets might sound.
Look at these images of family. Notice that there are lots of arrangements of family.
- Unknown artist's Empress Shoshi and Son
- Diego Velzquez de Silva's Las Meninas
- Branwell Brontë's The Brontë sisters
- Edward S. Curtis' Little Plume with His Son Yellow Kidney
- Grant Wood's American Gothic
- Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath
Look at these images of social community.
- George Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
- Edward Hopper's Nighthawks
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge
- Eugéne Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)
Notice how the social community attempts to determine who is included or who and what are important. Notice the surface appearance of equality in Seurat's painting, the excitement of noble sacrifice in Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. the feeling of isolation in Hopper's Nighthawks, the frenetic almost drugged excitement in At the Moulin Rouge?
Compare these newspapers with their reports of today's news. Which headlines are more significant, and to whom?
- Alice Springs News, Alice Springs, Australia
- Buenos Aires Herald, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- The Jerusalem Post Jerusalem, Israel
- Kashmir Times, Kashmir, India
- The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda
- The Moscow Times, Moscow, Russia
- The Rio Times, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, China
- The Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon
- The Times, London, UK
- The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., USA
Whose news is more important? Sometimes these papers will agree and sometimes they will differ. Whose perspective is more correct? Do you think the same story would be reported the same way in each paper? Should it be?
Reproving the evil that has become intertwined with a given community is the work of a prophet. This is a presentation by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on truth and reconciliation. Can you imagine what it would have taken to become a peacemaker in this situation?
Religious communities have often offered support, and I'm afraid almost as often have driven people away from community. If you are interested in finding a religious community that might fit you and your journey I suggest you start looking here.
Finally, just for fun, listen to the music that is one of the hallmarks of the Cajun culture that has developed in Louisiana, USA. It's worth remembering even when we are frustrated with the limitations and failings of the various cultures we have grown up in that practically everything we enjoy is the fruit of some culture or another. Pizza didn't just come from Italy it came from the Italians. The next time you eat something that you enjoy, take a moment to be thankful for the culture that brought it to you. Music, art, food, language, values, they are all the fruits of community.
