The Equalizer of Fairview

During my wanderings I had heard of a saintly woman who lived in the distant city of Fairview on a high plateau. She was known as The Equalizer because she had devoted her life to the fair distribution of food, shelter, and other basic human needs. After many years of wandering, my path led to her city. As I gazed up from below, it seemed to float above the world amongst morning clouds that shrouded its walls and towers. I climbed the road to her aerie and traversed eons with every several strides. By the time I’d reached the city walls, the clouds had dissipated. Below me mountain ranges piled up against the horizon. I imagined them being weathered, eroded, and carried into river channels and eventually to the sea where sediments would form over millennia only to be lifted to continue the cycle. While mind-boggling, that geologic story of equilibrium was one I could fathom. In contrast, how a person had managed to make her vision of societal equilibrium a reality was a story I had to hear. I had so many questions to ask when I finally had the opportunity to sit and talk with the Equalizer of Fairview.

I asked her to start at the beginning. “As a little girl,” she began, “I would stand here by the garden wall and offer our surplus produce to passersby. My parents encouraged me because there was only so much we needed and the fields were bountiful. I always enjoyed seeing the smiles when I offered free food. When I got older and went away to university, I found myself drawn to questions of social equity and fairness. I knew in my heart that it was right for everyone to have their basic human needs met and I struggled to understand how there could be such huge disparities in modern society between the haves and the have-nots. I recognized that technologically, civilization had made huge strides, but socially, we were still in the Dark Ages. From my studies it seemed that people had forgotten that the path to sustained happiness wasn’t through the manic acquisition and hording of land, wealth, and material but through enduring acts of kindness, generosity, and cooperation. I knew that I would be attacked, criticized, and challenged by those who were afraid to holster their competitiveness, but I needed to see those smiles so I kept a low profile and went about my business. I didn’t need attention nor did I want any critics undermining my resolve in those early times – I just wanted what was fair for everyone.”  Difficult undertakings are easily and quickly achieved when no claims or boasts are made.

“How did you go from making people smile to creating a community?” “The summer after completing my studies I was working the garden when a traveler like yourself stopped right where you did this morning. I could tell she was tired and hungry so I offered her water and some food, and sure enough, the smile appeared. It made me feel so good to help another stranger that I convinced my parents to let her stay. She stayed for a couple weeks but then went on her way and I didn’t think much about it until others started to arrive. Soon, we were enjoying a steady stream of visitors, some who stayed for a couple days and others who stayed for months. Living on a farm, there was always plenty for everyone to contribute and plenty of room to spread out. We never asked for anything from our guests other than their mutual cooperation in being helpful to everyone else. Before we knew it, people were coming from all around to live and work here. The joy of living and working together amongst people who were focused solely on being helpful to one another was as contagious as a virus. Over the years we expanded the gardens, built a school, and provided meaningful work for an entire community who live together and share nearly everything. Inner modesty finds expression in one’s behavior which brings good fortune.

“How did you deal with your fame?  Your reputation has spread around the world, you must get visitors like me all the time?” “Yes, before long, the press arrived,” she laughed.  “There were interviews and documentaries. Fairview was called a new utopia and I was asked to travel and speak to large groups about what we were doing and how we had achieved such a harmonious lifestyle. But, it seemed to me that people wanted to laud and celebrate our achievements more than emulate what we were doing in their own corners of the world. I repeatedly told them that it really wasn’t anything special, we just all shared a common understanding of the value to helping each other and an addiction to that wonderful feeling of seeing the happiness that came from working together to help each other.” I asked her what it meant to have had international prizes and recognition bestowed upon her for her achievements and she replied, “I was happy to receive their gifts and share them with others but I urged them to stop obsessing with what we had done and start brightening their own corners of the world.”  Remaining modest despite recognition achieves further support for one’s continued efforts.

“But, this farm is only so big,” I thought out loud. “How have you managed to sustain so many?” “Yes, you’re correct,” she continued. “We eventually reached the capacity of my parents’ farm but people continued to arrive. We had to make a decision: would we limit the influx to a sustainable balance – effectively creating a waiting list of those who wanted to join us? Or, was there another way?  No one wanted to close the gates and simply maintain what we had created, so we got creative. We created craft guilds and engaged in commerce with the local community. As those interactions grew and strengthened, our neighbor’s recognized the merit in what we were doing and our footprint expanded. People saw the benefits of taking responsibility for each other’s happiness through cooperation and sharing in contrast to the myopic self-centered fixation on individual gain that has plagued society and harmed the environment for so many years. Eventually, what had been a collection of individual homesteads on a remote plateau became the thriving city of Fairview.” Step beyond modest individual behavior and cultivate balance in mind and duty to society.

 

I’d listened to the Equalizer’s story well into the day with admiration but something nagged at me about it all sounding too easy. My question was just that, “If it’s been so easy to achieve here, why isn’t everyone doing this?” I asked. “'Easy' is a relative term of course," she laughed and showing me her palms said, "these calluses attest to 'hard' work, not 'easy,' but I’ve thought about that a lot too,” she said. “That's the crux of the matter, right? The way I see it, the people who made up the original core of Fairview came here seeking something different and were willing to invest all of their belongings and energy to create something that they could share in with others. That’s a lot different than convincing people who are content in their individualistic bubbles of relative comfort that they should do something completely different. We’re not seeking to convert the world to this way of living, we’re simply demonstrating that it is viable, sustainable, and enjoyable. People need to discover for themselves that the value of giving and sharing happiness and cooperation is greater than material satisfaction. Unless they are forced to step out of their narrow-minded reality by a catastrophe, collapse, or other crises and find a different way of living, they may never discover the joy and contentment that is possible.” Corrective actions must be taken objectively and in fairness to all.

“I guess that brings me to my final question then,” I said. “What’s next?” “I’m old and not as energetic as I once was,” she replied. “But I will never tire of the joy of causing a smile to appear on another’s face. I face criticism from many who accuse me of subverting economic prosperity and the way of life that has put humans on the moon, harnessed the atom, and cured horrible diseases. I never cower from those debates and humbly submit that that same way of life has decimated cultures, destroyed ecosystems, eradicated species, and now threatens the survival of humanity. I submit to them that there is another way and I and those who understand that way will continue to demonstrate that it is possible. “Only through having the courage to objectively see ourselves in the mirror will meaningful change be achieved.”

 

It was a lot to take in. The next day before heading back down from the plateau, I sat on a bluff and gazed across the distant countryside. I thought of all the thousands of people going about their individual lives in their separate little homes with their separate joys and concerns. They were all parts of neighborhoods, communities, cities, counties, states, and farther beyond nations. The common threads being that they were all people, they all depended on the same earth, and we all had the same basic needs. I’d seen from The Equalizer that it was possible to achieve a productive and sustainable societal order through the sharing of material, energy, talent, and care. The common thread binding the the people of Fairview was collaboration. I wondered how many of those my eye surveyed had experienced the joy of creating something bigger than their own households. I worried that having never experienced that joy, people would never conceive of the ability to achieve anything other than personal consumption and subsistence. And, that through the struggle for that subsistence, humanity would continue to compete, fight, and harm rather than cooperative, love, and heal.  I imagined the mountains beyond eroding into a level uniform plain where extremes were equalized and a balance was achieved between all things.  Wishful thinking perhaps, but I’d seen the enthusiasm that humbleness and equity could achieve and I went in search of more.