To the Editor:

Indigenous wisdom says we are all connected. When one person suffers, he suffers not just personal illness. That individual also “faces” communal lack of awareness. We share a common good, so it’s courteous to learn the cause of our neighbor’s suffering. We are in this together.

Emotions are not just our own. Our private feelings interact with collective depths. Like the ecosystems we share, emotions are a collective good. You can feel a mood in the room when you walk in.

There exists a cultural mood you can feel. Care for that cultural climate is a communal responsibility. Throughout the year, it’s encouraging to come together to help each other to release burdens no longer helpful to life, to heal relationships and to open our hearts to wholeness of the future. Good work together, or ceremony, helps cultures endure for millennia.

Americans privatize the collective. Unfortunately, there are no private means capable of healing our chronic collective mood. See in the heroin epidemic, persons of tragic courage trying to face alone our collective soul needs too long denied.

F. Christopher Reynolds

Medina