Communion

Having been a devout Catholic at one point in my life, there are concepts that pop into my head I still find meaningful, even if it's just in parts. One of them is called the Communion of Saints. It's the belief that everyone, past, present, and future, is actively connected. (Buddhism even teaches something similar.) Though I’m not religious anymore, and even tend towards atheism, I think it exposes a truth about human nature. That we have a longing for an unhindered connection with all of humanity. One where we completely know and are known by others. It's within this state that love and peace are actualized.

Maybe this yearning comes from the fact that we are social animals and we depend on a network of others for survival. Or, in a Freudian view, maybe it's a result of us wanting to return to the peaceful relationship we had with our mothers as infants. Whatever the reason, communion, for me, is a word that indicates our longing for a perfect interconnectedness. Something I believe all of us are looking for despite its impossibility.

If communion is an elemental desire all of us share, what can we do as individuals to help move things in that direction?