People need community. It’s good to have people to watch over us, to fret about us, to love us. I think the most important work I do as a ritual maker is help make that community visible, identifiable, even to charge the crowd with that responsibility. As a minister, it’s my job to look for ways for that to happen. As a citizen in a couple different villages, it makes me happy to hear when people step up and so grateful, whether or not I’m the recipient of that generosity. When the village works, we’re all more joyful, or in some cases, just less sad.

Who is your village. It’s helpful to get clear about this. It’s sometimes delightfully surprising who steps up to be in your village when you need that support. Sometimes, discouraging, but it’s all information, and it all takes work… but it’s work well worth doing.

It is I think, the primary work of Peace. From then on, it’s about making the village bigger.