Essays From West of 98: The First Law of Community
What does thermodynamics have to do with community? You might be surprised
Have you ever heard of the first law of thermodynamics? Thermodynamics is the study of heat, temperature, and energy, and their relationship to one another, as an offshoot of physics. There are four general laws of thermodynamics that explain the basic principles.
The first law of thermodynamics is a relatively famous principle. It states that energy can neither be created or destroyed, it can only change form. All the energy that exists in the universe is constant and it merely changes form. For example, energy is transferred by the Sun to the Earth in the form of sunlight. Plants use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into plant mass. Grazing animals eat that plant mass and transfer its energy into their own motion. Humans eat the animals and convert their meat into energy, which then transfers into human work, exercise, and other forms of energy usage. No new energy was ever created. The same energy transferred from Sun to plant to animal to human.
This likely makes logical sense to you, even if you never thought about it in these terms and even if you have never uttered the phrase “first law of thermodynamics.”
So what does this have to do with community?
As I was thinking more about the essential nature of friendship within a community, I thought about the nature of collective energy within a community. Recently, folks here in Stamford have made a voluntary effort to share gratitude, good news, and all-around positivity within some of Stamford’s community-oriented circles on Facebook. They see good things happening and they want others to know about it. I appreciate it, because we are all susceptible to the social media algorithms that feed us negativity and drama and keep us hooked to it. This is referred to as “doomscrolling” for a reason.
Positivity and negativity each have a tendency to be contagious. One person shared some positive news on Facebook and it inspired others to join in. I think this has something to do with the first law of thermodynamics. Each of us only has so much time and energy in a day. We cannot add a 25th hour to a day, nor can we summon more mental or physical energy than we are physically capable of. Simply put, we are limited by our human frailty in the same manner that the universe is limited to a constant amount of energy that exists. When we encounter others (in person, on the phone, or through a screen), there’s a transfer that occurs. Call it energy, a vibe, a mood, whatever it is, but it exists. We all know those people who make your day more positive whenever you see them and you walk away a little happier. We also know the people that we dread encountering, because they are usually full of doom and gloom. So how are we spending our limited time and energy? Are we spending it well?
To be clear, this is not a call to engage in something called “toxic positivity.” That’s where you pretend to be positive in a kind of deceitful manner. You mask over problems or pretend they don’t exist, which can be harmful to your relationships and to your own mental health. We can be hopeful and encouraging without being toxic about it.
When living within a community, we cannot extricate ourselves from the web of relationships with others. That is a good and important thing. But we should remember what I am experimentally dubbing the First Law of Community: we all project a certain amount of energy into a community and it impacts people and place around us.
I’ve quoted it before, because it’s one of my favorite lines ever written, but in his short story “The Wild Birds,” Wendell Berry illustrates this principle: “The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us. Everything. The difference ain’t in who is a member and who is not, but in who knows it and who don’t.”
When you are part of the membership, you influence the rest of the membership. May we remember the First Law of Community and project our energy in the right ways!
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found.
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