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                   %RITUALS OF COMMUNAL INTEGRATION 870215

     The integrity of a community depends upon the rituals
by  which  it affirms the significance and  importance  of
those   realities  and  relationships  which  its  members
consider to be significant and important.

     There may exist conflicts among those ideals, values,
realities,   relationships,   etc.  defined  as  important
through affirmation in communal rituals on  the  one hand;
and as represented by private relationships on  the  other
hand.   To the extent that the community as a  whole fails
to resolve  such  conflicts  there  exist in the community
tendencies for disintegration.

     The failure to resolve private/communal conflicts may
entail  neglect through diversion of attention, as well as
overt violent conflict in various forms.   The failure  to
affirm integrative private realities and relationships  in
any  communal  rituals  may  indicate a  conflict  between
communal values and private values.   The communal failure
to   work  for  the  resolution  of  such  conflicts   can
ultimately undermine both personal and communal integrity.
There  is  a  need  for  rituals in  support  of  conflict
resolution;   rituals  for the integration of private  and
communal living.

     A  community  lacks integrity if being private  means
being  hidden  due to conflicts among private and communal
values.   This is  especially the case when such conflicts
are  neglected  and/or  abetted  by  communally   affirmed
rituals.  Privacy is essential to communal health; yet the
need  for privacy should not be heightened  by  neglecting
and/or  abetting  conflicts  among personal  and  communal
values.   It is far more integrative to enrich  privacy by
resolving the conflicts  which  do exist among private and
communal values through communal rituals.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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