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     Yesterday I went to the Arsenal Mall in Watertown.  The
vulgarity was impressive, was almost overwhelming, startling
in contrast with the urbanity and sophistication of Harvard
Square. I walked into a store that sold DVD disks to look for
opera and drama. Among hundreds or thousands of discs there
was literally nothing I would want to see or listen to; and
it occurred to me how accurately this circumstance reflected
difference between the mentality at least of the customers of
the Arsenal Mall and my own.

     Beyond that, it raises for me the question of the
identity, location and size of the community in this world,
where I belong.  That this should be a modern, a contemporary
issue is an illusion.  "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." (Genesis
12:1) When Abraham arrived in Canaan, he was, except for his
family, alone. To assume that at some time in the past, men
lived harmoniously integrated into their societies is a
fantasy, a fiction, a falsehood, and, when declared with a
purpose, a lie.  Arguably, the fable of Abraham suggests that
isolation from a social context was the prerequisite of at
least the Judeo-Christian relationship to God.  The religious
tradition that began with Abraham's loneliness in Canaan,
ended with the loneliness of John on Patmos, not to mention
the loneliness of Joseph, of Moses, of David, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Daniel and Jesus.

     One is tempted to postulate, as did some Stoics, a life
of absolute self-sufficiency to be the goal of human
existence. But the absurdity of such dogma become evident as
soon as it is expressed: because man is dependent on his
fellows both physically and and mentally. Language being the
most obvious indispensable bond among men. Human life is in
this regard like a pendulum, swinging from community to
individuality and back. Consequently, depending on his
disposition, a man may be contented or he may be discontented
with whatever his state of integration or isolation might be.

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Copyright 2005, Ernst Jochen Meyer
