We Are Touchy-Feely Creatures

Yet we are touchy-feely creatures. We are creatures of community. Those individuals, societies, and cultures who learned to take care of each other, to love each other, and to nurture relationships with each other during the past several hundred thousand years were more likely to survive than those who did not. Those people who did not learn to take care of each other often did not make it. In our culture, the idea of spending time taking care of each other and creating communities has become increasingly rare. Ignoring these ideas imperils our survival.

In short, anything that promotes a sense of isolation often leads to illness and suffering. Anything that promotes a sense of love and intimacy, connection and community, is healing.

Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy, Dean Ornish, M.D., HarperCollins, 1998

If one of the measures of social intelligence were given to random groups of Americans and Congolese, it is my belief that the Congolese group would blow the American group out of the water by leaps, bounds, and lengthy strides. Perhaps Americans should build peace education, civility, social bonding, and respect for the community into their education system- both public and private- institutional and home/family.