Communities: The Magestic Beasts of Change

Do you know what you are made up of? No, no, I do not mean it from a philosophical or a motivational point of view. Do you actually know what you are made of? Yeah, that’s right, cells. Do you know your cells like you know your brother, your mother, your sister or anyone you live with? I’m pretty sure you don’t. That’s the problem that we are quite oblivious to. We may be cynical to the core, or even completely depressed because we consider ourselves not equipped enough to handle a team, or a family, or even maintain proper relations with a group of friends.

We are literally home to an entire world of organisms, living in complete harmony with each other. Each and every cell communicates with the one next to it, is completely self-sufficient yet forms a crucial part of the bigger whole, be it an organ, a tissue, an organ system, and of course, you. The various cells in your body have designated functions, each one living off the energy and the life force that you provide to them! That would be an incorrect statement, though, because their functions, their chemical conversations, their interactions with their habitat, their wars, their deaths, their sex lives, all of this makes up who you are!

What if one fine day, you gained the ability to observe everything that happens within you, down to the lives of the smallest cells? Imagine the amount of knowledge you could gain from this, by just observing the way in which these organisms go about their own survival, completely in tandem with the bigger functions that are a part of your being. Imagine being able to look at a heart cell and being able to watch periodic electrical impulses surge through it as it dances with all its neighbors together to form the mass of ever-pumping flesh that doctors use to gauge if you are alive or dead.

The journey takes you deep into the lives of the different cells in your body, as some of them wage wars against foreign creatures, while others participate in orchestral performances that power entire organs. You come out of this journey and look at the world outside. This is when you observe something, what if all this is just a reflection of what is happening within. Well, there are wars, there are symphonic orchestras, there are factories like organs churning out the essential force that drives society and there is occasional diarrhea or cholera as well, with the oil spill, the corruption, the bribe-consuming traffic police and so on!

But then again, if you are made up of so many tiny organisms that work in tandem and create an entire organism itself, can’t you create your own self-sustained organism? Imagine this; what if you try and replicate the perfect harmony that cells within you exhibit, with their intermingled lives, full of exchanges and self-sustained responsibilities that drive a larger purpose or fuel a larger mechanism. What if you could create a huge organism that has its own organ systems, its own needs, and is also fueled by an insatiable need to grow, procreate, develop and evolve into its higher form?

You are the helm of such an organism when you create a community. That’s right; a community is no different from an organism in itself. Each and every person in the community acts as a cell within the organism, with its own responsibility and its own exploratory urge to create a better environment for itself.

This week, we will be looking at some of the organisms that people have grown all over the world, by understanding its needs, giving it a purpose and helping it get the required habitat that it needs to grow. There are now incubation centers where such organisms can grow, develop and interact with other organisms that have different ways of functioning as well as different purposes.

So, venture out into the wilderness around you and observe one of these organisms in action, write about them and learn how they grow and develop. This week, we will be trying to capture the lives of some organisms that are redefining the world around, especially the world of business and social communion. So go out and go online, observe these majestic beasts as they lumber on in the digital and geographic spaces, creating and propagating vast systems of change.

Image Sources: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6].