My earliest memories are about my relationships. My memories, my education, my imagination, my energy, and my current experiences confirm to my satisfaction that humankind is relational. It would be the very unusual, and rare, person who would want to live in complete isolation from all others.
It is true that each of us is both private and public, both individual and communitarian. We can never be one or the other. We are always both, like the bi-metal at the heart of a thermostat. Too hot or too cold and the different coefficients of expansion pull us toward the sweet spot that is just right.
With a lifelong interest in understanding relationships, I began by exploring community, then democracy, then education. The three are integrally related. A community of well-being will be a democratic community. An educated citizenry is a pre-condition of democracy.