communitas

(assuming I have accurately interpreted the meaning...)

by Alice Mulford

I like the idea of communitas. Without knowing the word, it has actually been something I have picked up on a lot throughout my life – that strong, unspoken connection between people.

I have felt it while driving. I’ll be singing along to a song and look over at the car beside me and see that the driver is singing along to the same song. We’ll make eye contact and realize it, and for some reason, I have this strong urge to signal that the person pull over so I can – I don’t know, hug him? Talk to him?

I have felt it in the movie theatre – everyone laughing at the same time, applauding after an emotional moment. Maybe that seems silly, but I still find it intense.

Live shows, when there is a cohesive audience, have that same sense – where you know that everyone could jump up and dance at the same time and no one would think it was anything unacceptable.

Also, I’m not sure if this is the same thing, but, I attend Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on Thursday nights. I know maybe ten out of probably three hundred people. Still, after my first night of praising and worshipping God, I felt the Spirit flowing through all of us, and I knew there was this unbreakable bond between me and the hundreds of other people there, and I loved them. I get the same feeling when I see someone with a Christian bumper sticker, or when I am in a restaurant and am not the only person bowing my head to pray over my food.

It happens in classrooms, as well, I think. There are people that I never talk to in a class, but when I hear something that I find utterly ridiculous or unbelievable, I look around to search for someone else who is mirroring my face of astonishment. If I don’t find it, I feel alone, but if I am able to make eye contact with someone else, it’s a complete relief, and our looks that signal, “Ohhh, my gosh. What the hell?” make us smile at each other. It’s comforting.