… I have been part of intentional community, lived alone, and supported a sibling through a tragic family loss.  Each experience has put life and the value of friendships in solid perspective.  People are not solitary animals.  Yet we live in a society that asks us to be islands.  To this, I say: NO. In my experience, people of all faiths need to connect, but there are few opportunities outside of church or schooling. “If you build it they will come” has remarkable truth in it, and so this is my e …