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galeriececilefakhoury · 4 years ago

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communalism

so…in short, what will get us all through whatever it is that we need to survive…is communalism, connection, community, togetherness.

i just read this book Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Eric Klinenberg for one of my classes. it’s about the 1995 heat wave in Chicago that killed a couple hundred people. one thing he found, and focused the whole first chapter on is the large number of people - largely elderly - who died who were isolated, lonely, recluses. the overwhelming majority of people who died during that disaster were lonely, isolated, recluses who had no community ties to help them through the ordeal. the people who were recluses (who rarely left their homes, sometimes because they were physically disabled, who talked to very few people, if anyone) had to rely on the city/state’s recourses - which were stretched to their limits during that time. cars were buckling on the roads due to the heat, and therefore fire trucks and ambulances took even longer to get to people in need; people in the streets opened the fire hydrants (trying to cool themselves off), and it lowered the water pressure in the homes surrounding the hydrants - making it difficult for the recluses to get water during the heat wave. and so, many of them died.

it was those who has strong connections with multiple people - be that family or other - who survived. even when a person may have been vulnerable physically (such as, with an existing health condition or a disability), they were likely to survive if they had strong social ties.

people pull together when they need to. when people come together…energy, resources, food, abilities, experience, knowledge, and strength become fortified and abundant. for humans, there has always been safety in numbers - every statistic concerning elderly, disabled people and info on every natural disaster has shown us that. a human cannot survive on their own - even with all the technology and access to certain things that we have in 2020 cannot change that. furthermore, there’s a whole plethora of knowledge on how social community and just being physically around other humans is vital to one’s emotional, mental, (spiritual), and ultimately, one’s physical wellbeing.

so i said all that to say…keep in touch with as many people as you can right now. check in on the elderly folks you know especially, but keep in touch with everyone you care to keep in touch with. i’m an introvert and i have very few close friends (literally 2), but i have a lot of acquaintances, classmates and colleagues, spiritual family, and my blood family that are my community. i’ve been linked up with some of the other mothers in my apartment complex, and we’re already checking in on each other and pooling our resources together.

when we have each other, and can come together and work together - our wellbeing, our health, our emotional stability, and ultimately, our survival become infinitely better. stay connected.

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galeriececilefakhoury · 7 years ago

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Crédits: @lauramel | Retour sur le spectacle #MaVieEnRose de la #chorégraphe #JennyMezile et de la compagnie #LesPiedsDansLaMare à la #GalerieCecileFakhoury #Abidjan #dancecontemporaine #artcontemporain #galeriedart (à Galerie Cécile Fakhoury - Abidjan)

#lespiedsdanslamare #galeriececilefakhoury #mavieenrose #galeriedart #abidjan #jennymezile #dancecontemporaine #chorégraphe #artcontemporain

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