Kyle Shipe: Communitas

Although the idea of communitas can be best seen out on the open trail interacting personally with complete strangers, I feel it can also be found in society. In communitas status is stripped, and while this is perfectly portrayed on spiritual journeys I see other ways it can be obtained. A crisis provides a good example of how communitas can happen. If you are out in public having dinner with someone, and the person you are with suddenly starts choking, more than likely you will involve people you do not know in order to help the person, and especially if the "stranger" helps the person, a connection will be made. A personal example is last year I had a rough organic chemistry test that I did not know how to study for. I decided to go to the library and wander around and look for other people studying organic chemistry. Somehow I was able to find a room full of people studying. While I had never spoken to most of these people before, we all established a connection as we had a common goal...to understand organic chemistry. I feel that this was a great experience of communitas for me.