What’s a Wolf Without its Pack
There is so much that goes between an individual and a community. If one wants to know whether the individual is greater than the community from me, I would say that the community is greater. I’m not trying to say that the individual isn’t great, it’s just that the community just has more to it than an individual would. Like in a wolf pack, they survive by being in that pack, they work as a community to thrive in nature. Most would find themselves to be a part of a community, whether its online or offline. Although the term lone wolf is thrown around quite a bit, how often would it be to see a real one?
Thinking about this left me questioning what makes communities greater than the individual. Many people find strengths that only can be found in an individual or a group, yet it’s still difficult to say which one has more of an impact. For people who yet to find themselves, communities may help them find who they truly are. Within the book Catfish and Mandala, I found the main character to be quite similar to me. An, the protagonist of the story, was a Vietnamese American like myself. An is different though, he has a story where he leaves his safe community in America and goes alone on his journey to satisfy his curiosity. Even though he leaves his community in America, he finds himself in different communities in Vietnam.
As An takes his biking journey through Vietnam, he discovers many things about himself and Vietnam. One of his realizations really changed how I saw myself as an individual. “I was her. She, me. She was Trieu. Could be my sister Chi. Could be my own daughter. Random.” (Pham 107). He realized that this girl who was begging for money could have been him. He understood how he was fortunate enough to make it to America and how he had a community that helped him. Reading this made me think back to all the times I took a luxury that not everyone has for granted. It makes me appreciate my family and friends for giving me this luxury. Knowing this also reminds me how communities are important and affect our lives without us even noticing at times.
Communities can be found everywhere. Your family is a community, the people you work with are a community, your country as a whole is a community. People may admit that they are all alone and have nobody but in reality they most likely are still in a community despite what they believe. The definition of a community now has grown from just being people who have similar skills. Communities hold many definitions that fit how the word makes people feel. People who who want to join a community want to join because the people there make them feel more comfortable and protected from the outside and unknown dangers. People within a community will trust one another more than they would with a stranger, this would make it more beneficial to be a part of a community. There’s almost no downside to being a part of a community. It mainly gives benefits for being a part of the community. Data from the Bureau of Economic and Business Research has seen through statistics that people who are strongly connected to communities are happier than people who are not connected. Because the community is happy, they do things that improve relations with each other and then brings further benefits.
Individuals are the most important components to communities. Without the individuals, communities cannot even be formed, so would this not make individuals greater than communities? In theory, yes, it wouldn’t be possible for communities to exist if there are no individuals there to form it. But, in the grand spectrum of things, when you just look at an individual by themselves and a community, its clear which one is greater. There are things that only an individual can do but there are many more things that only a community would be able to do. Within a community, its members will support each other and work through their problems while an individual would be stuck having to work through their hardships alone. There still needs to be balance between the individual and the community though however. Each person has something to bring to the table and every person is different, so that makes individuality quite important. It’s especially important to know self importance and who you are as an individual without your community. In The Language of Composition textbook, they stress the meaning of community. They want us to know that being a part of a community is not just about a gathering of people who have similar ideologies but instead is more on how an individual contributes to the community then also has their own things they do by themselves. A community is like a symbiotic relationship where the individuals can give or receive help from the other individuals within that community.
At the end of the day, I know communities will always be there just like how I know when I look up I will always see the sky. Humans are just not a species who are meant to be isolated. We work, live, and overcome better in groups and that’s why communities are formed. Truth be told communities are greater than individuals. There’s so much to gain when becoming a part of a community. Being a lone wolf just doesn’t give back as much as being a part of a community.