《孟子•万章下》
Mencius said to Wan-zhang, "A good shi in one small community will befriend the other good shi of that community. The good shi of a single state will befriend the other good shi of that state. The good shi of the whole world will befriend the other good shi of the whole world. But if befriending the good shi of the whole world is not enough, then one may go further to consider the ancients. Yet is it acceptable to recite their poems and read their books without knowing what kind of persons they were? Therefore one considers the age in which they lived. This is 'going on further to make friends.'"
--Mencius V.B.8.ii
I've been thinking about communities all day. As I rode the bus to tutoring I realized that it might be something I lack at the moment, and in a different bus on the way back I remembered what it felt like to be a part of one, albeit rather unknowingly. Walking around campus I thought back to the groups I had been in growing up. From church groups to choir, the full weight of their influence and routine perhaps finally hit me.
What community do I belong to here? With my realization came a wave of alone-ness as well as another wave of realizations. For better or worse, I am what the above quote refers to as "shi" 【士】, someone who is neither peasant nor royalty, neither predisposed to hardships nor immune to them. Also, I have the added benefit of having had the opportunity for an education, and a unique one at that. According to Mencius, this makes it possible for me to 'go on further to make friends,' which I have done and continue to do. If I belong to any community at the moment it is the ever-shifting, international community at large.
Yet, on days like today, one would really like to just come across that "other good shi."
Before coming home, I took my "shi" self to the market to buy bread. I plugged in some music and after a Cher soul-jam I entered the small street where the evening market is held daily. The soundtrack in my ears gave me an opportunity to just watch life around me, and more importantly, to be a part of it. After all, we all stood in line for honey-pumpkin muffins and sampled fresh strawberries. We all bargained and were given a little extra kimchi. We all watched small children ride their toy cars in the street and excused ourselves as elderly people passed by. It wasn't just me who was tempted to buy that soy milk being so desperately hawked, and it certainly serves us all to find out what perilla seed is.
Communities are always changing and that's because people change. To put a new spin on Mencius' wise words, to know who we are we have to consider the age we live in now. To put it simply, more for myself than anyone, we have to remain present.
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