Bellah And Sennett Collective Memory Essay

In Bellah and Sennett’s essays they refer to memory, more specifically the collective memory of the community. Both of these authors mention, that a big part of this is to remember not only the good but the bad, too. As Bellah puts it, “The communities of memory that tie us to the past also turn us toward the future as communities of hope.”1 To me, this means that the good gives us hope for better, while the bad gives us hope that the good will be coming around the corner. Learning to deal with, and share the memories from a lifetime ago is important. “The communities of memory that tie us to past also turn us toward the future as communities of hope,”2 Bellah explains. By remembering the past we see the pain, the misfortune, the danger, and the list could go on and on; but we also see hope for a better tomorrow. Recalling the bad, while looking at a problem facing the present, reminds us we are stronger than we think. Just as the communities each of us live in faced hardship to get to the place they are now, they will face even more, but are stronger now than they were at the beginning. This is because, “… collective memory is a source of social strength.”3 The strength of the nation, city,
As Sennett put it, “Remembering well requires reopening wounds in a particular way, one which people cannot do by themselves.”5 This is very true. I had to reopen wounds that I know I wouldn’t have survived, both literally and figuratively, without knowing that I was not by myself. See, I was raped multiple times when I was younger. I tried my best to forget it, but I couldn’t. It is a memory “which forgetting cannot heal”6 and I needed help with getting over it. This memory, along with the pain that comes along with it, brought my family, friends, and church family closer together because they all wanted to help me deal with