Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 20 : Spring 2014 | Page 11

Some People Have
Money and Some
People are Rich:
The Magic of the Dunbar Number
By Catherine Shaw Bowker

Gabrielle, Coco, Chanel once said,
“There are people who have money and people
who are rich.” Whether Chanel saw herself as
the former or the latter, I do not know, but her
life seems rather lamentable to me. Beginning
life an impoverished orphan, she eventually
pulled herself out of poverty to become an
affluent woman; but her life was not rich. Never
married, Chanel was the paramour of many
powerful men and suffered such relationships
over and over throughout her life. This does
not strike me as a rich life.

So, what is a rich life? Is life in a small,
poor, rural area richer than life in a wealthy
urban area?

In the early seventies, Dr. Robert Bechtel
compared community involvement in urban
areas with community involvement in rural
areas. His research revealed that even though
a city neighborhood has more activities than a
small town, the majority of urban citizens are
bystanders at these activities – they pay their
entrance fee and observe. In the small town,
most of the citizens are either members of the
sponsoring group, or they know members of
said group and pitch in when needed. Bechtel
attributes these differences not just to the
numbers of citizens, but more importantly, to
the need for citizens to be active participants.

According to Bechtel, the city environment
“makes too few demands on its residents which
creates apathy.”

Think about Bechtel’s conclusions for
a moment. In a small town we have to rely
on each other to be successful. When our
neighbor is ill and needs his driveway plowed
or his lawn mown, we plow his yard or mow
his lawn. When a town experiences a loss, such
as the numerous house fires Aroostook County
experienced this past winter, we do not shrug
our shoulders and think, the Red Cross will
take care of them. When we are concerned
about the out migration of our youth, we
step up to take action. While it is true, many
agencies do step in, community members also
help. From taking neighbors into their homes
to holding spaghetti dinners to raise monies,
or creating foundations to attack the issue,
small towns take care of their own.

This is not to say urban neighborhoods
lack empathy. I am sure their citizens contribute
to fundraisers, donate to food pantries and
homeless shelters, and serve on committees,
but the odds th