The old days

I liked it once upon a time when an organization would make all the arrangements for its members for a convention. The members paid one price for travel and hotel and the local members would travel as a group. We even had clothes that identified who we were so you could tell there were a lot of us, kinda like wearing Kimberly shirts. Man, those were the days. There is nothing like that kind of collectivism to boost morale and forge strong bonds of fellowship. Kinda like the Boy Scout Jamboree, except this was Japanese Buddhism.

Fixing a broken life

Is it possible to fix a broken life?
I asked that in 1992.
I finally understand the answer.
It is not the life that is broken, but its connections to other life:
family, friends, community.
To be alone and isolated without regular contact with others can bring a terrible loneliness.
Solitary confinement is cruel and inhumane.
One does not need to be in prison to experience this.
Many people experience this in our society all the time, especially the elderly.
The only remedy is to rebuild community by reclaiming and restoring the commons.
To break down the enclosures of privatization and bring down the walls of privacy to find and share our common humanity is the way to fix a broken a life.