I think mankind is created to want to belong, whether to a family, a group or a community.
This can be seen even among children. Have you seen a child looking wistfully at a group of children playing, wishing that he was a part of that circle?
Then when a more sensitive child, having noted this, beckons him to join them, do you see that wonderful smile lighting up his face as he rushes over to be included?
No man is an island, however much we wish to deny that we need other people in our lives.
No one likes to be left out. Nothing is worse than being ostracized by your peers or friends. One way of punishing an errant school mate was to send her to Coventry. Everyone ignored her, as if she didn’t exist. This, my friend, is a most painful experience.
Thus we have groups, cliques, circles of friends, etc. to which we belong and this is where our gregarious nature finds sustenance. Within our groups we support one another and relationships grow and deepen with time.
Truly sad is the person who is the outsider with no place to belong to, no inner circle in which he can find a more meaningful existence.
