Living Life Fully’s Daily Pick-Me-Up

Being in Germany once more helps me to remember many of the things that I had once learned about community when I lived here many years ago.  The Germans have a very strong sense of responsibility towards their communities, and they’re willing to enforce laws to maintain their strong communities.  For example, the shops here close fairly early, usually by 6:30, though some now are allowed to stay open until eight p.m.  While Americans find this to be inconvenient at best, this is a system that does have some strong benefits for the community.  For example, since the stores close early, people can get home to their families earlier.  Also, since there’s no late-night commerce, there simply aren’t as many possibilities for second evening jobs that many people tend to get to help pay their bills, so the German people learn to budget their money better.  After all, if you know that you’re going to live on a certain amount of money, then you have to do so, don’t you?  So people tend to spend more time with their families and make their income stretch to fit their lives–two very positive concepts, don’t you think?

I also see a huge difference in the ways that Germans treat their neighbors.  The laws governing noise, litter, the maintenance of houses, traffic, and so on tend to be much stronger here, helping people to live their lives quite pleasantly without worrying about being bothered by their neighbors.  It isn’t a Utopia, of course, but people are able to go about their days and nights without worrying about what their neighbors may do to disturb them; they know that the law is on their side, and that people aren’t afraid to enforce the laws.

It all makes me think about our responsibilities to our own communities, to the people who live around and about us.  Do we live up to those responsibilities?  What exactly are those responsibilities?  Can we be living our lives fully if we’re disturbing other people when we’re trying to do so?  After all, if we truly are living our lives fully, doesn’t that necessarily include the idea of making the lives of others as pleasant as we can?

Contributing to community doesn’t always mean working on the school board or volunteering time to community efforts or serving in public office.  Usually, contributing to a community means keeping our yards clean, not making noise and disturbing others, not littering, or even picking up litter when we see it.  It means making an effort to be a positive member of the community, it means trying to solve community problems in ways that benefit the entire community, not just ourselves.  It means finding our where we fit in, and learning which of our own gifts–when used–can help to benefit the communities in which we live and work.  Communities exist and thrive due to the efforts of all their members, not just a few, and when we keep in mind that our efforts, too, are important, then we can truly give all we can to the other people who share our worlds with us.

Unless we give part of ourselves away, unless we can live with other people and understand them and help them, we are missing the most essential part of our own lives.

Harold Taylor