Old Man #12

Community and the Red-Billed Buffalo Weaver...

I am not your old man, but if I were…I would talk with you about community. An odd rather boring topic, you might say to yourself, but so essential in life. None of us is singularly sustainable. I know there are the stories of Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks’ Fed Ex man stranded on an island, however even he was sustained by Wilson the volleyball. That old grump who lives alone in the house down the block and yells at the kids to get off his lawn is still sustained by the community surrounding him. Even if the only benefit is to get his agita up.

Today I learned about the red-billed buffalo weaver. A fascinating bird with beautiful plumage of shiny black feathers and streaks of speckled white and a crimson beak. They live in community. They build complicated nests that can weigh over 100 pounds and fill tree limbs like a bird condominium. They are called weavers because they construct and tend to the nests for generations tying reeds of grass into the nest, caring for their own space and the larger world. In symbiosis, the nest and its hundreds of residents provide warmth and protection from the elements. Each pair has its own entrance and room, but the large construction serves them all. As new ones are sent into the world they construct their own space in the warren, with the help of the group. They don’t fight over space they are accommodating and malleable.

Would our world was so accommodating. We squabble for space. We take ownership and often consume more than we need so we can puff out our chests and declare, “Look what I have accomplished,” not only taking pride of place but setting up comparisons. While we make ourselves feel more important through largesse, the consequence is others feel or are diminished.

I had a dear friend ask recently what I thought about a line from Tolstoy’s Brothers Karamazov, which says “without faith we lack the wherewithal to behave with conscience and care for others.” He also noted the concept from CS Lewis of the “hollow chested man” – the one with no heart, so no capacity to act with compassion. I am also struck by a quote from James Baldwin, “I do not mean to be sentimental about suffering … but people who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they really are.”

I believe much depends on whether you see man as inherently bad or good. I see man as inherently good. We built communities and safe-guarded children and families long before the growth of the codified faiths. Yet, some of us do not offer a hand or help but declare others should lift themselves up and prove themselves capable. They should not require assistance or support. I cry bullshit.

No one has ever elevated alone. Some have been born into privilege or stood on the shoulders of their family and wealth or grown rich on the backs of those working diligently and hard or have stolen from those who can’t protect themselves. We have had access to education as a communal lift. We have benefitted from the supports of the community, which kept us safe from crime, pestilence, and war, often at the price of the lives of others. Young men and women killed in defense of people they don’t even know. Isn’t that like the buffalo weaver, making a place for themselves while supporting the community?

In the United States these days there is much wrangling about the issue of immigrants – demonized or lauded. One side of the political spectrum identifies them as pariahs, the other as beneficial contributors to our greater good. Have we have lost sight that whatever your faith it rests on some insistence we make room at the table for the stranger and care for the less fortunate. Like the red-billed buffalo weaver we need to provide accommodation, warmth, and sustenance, spiritual and literal. We all benefit when we make room.