I talked with Rich about the essence of community. We dive deep into what defines a community, the importance of community in personal and societal development, and practical ways to foster a sense of belonging and solidarity. Rich shares personal anecdotes and experiences from his journey in community building, touching on topics like emotional maturity, hierarchy, and the impact of hospitality.Here are my favorite quotes from our conversation:

• “Community is the people that bring you soup when you’re sick.”
• “Consistent repetition, orchestrates attention and builds shared identity.”
• A key aspect for creating connection within a community is hospitality.
• “When a community is really alive  it is like a super organism. Whatever is the issue, someone is at hand. Whatever is the need, someone is there with the skill or the resources. Whatever you need is gonna get met immediately”
• “ When a community is really alive  it is like being accepted in a transformative way.”
•  “That internal polarization, is like a knot that just keeps getting tighter and tighter.”
•  “It’s my belief, my orientation in the world, my understanding that all of the challenges that we face as a civilization are solved by better coordination, better collaboration, namely more community, more shared identity, more investment in each other, more care for each other, and that we need an enormous number of people to be taking responsibility for weaving the social fabric for constructing shared identities.