Cooperation

The Bible teaches us that it is not good for us to be alone, we need others. Researchers now know that we are wired to be with and interact with others.

Our culture teaches us to focus on personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level we barely exist as individual organisms. Our brains are built to help us function as members of a tribe. We are part of that tribe even when we are by ourselves, whether listening to music (that other people created), watching a basketball game on television (our own muscles tensing as the players run and jump), or preparing a spreadsheet for a sales meeting (anticipating the boss’s reactions). Most of our energy is devoted to connecting with others.

Marvin Gaye, one of the most legendary soul singers of the 20th century, produced a series of hit recordings before his untimely death in 1984 from gun violence. But now, 40 years later, the world may experience a new set of never-heard recordings from the singer. “We can open a time capsule here and share the music of Marvin with the world," says Belgian lawyer Alex Trappeniers.

Assuming, of course, that ongoing legal proceedings can resolve their legal ownership. Trappeniers is the attorney for the family of Charles Dumolin, with whom Gaye once lived. Gaye moved to Belgium in 1981, to escape a cocaine habit he’d picked up living in London. While living with Dumolin, Gaye regained his health, and returned to recording. Some of the recordings he made during that time have never been released, and their potential value has only skyrocketed in the decades since his death.

And since Gaye gave them to the family, Trappeniers says, they should remain the family’s estate. He said, “They belong to [the family] because they were left in Belgium 42 years ago. Marvin gave it to them and said, 'Do whatever you want with it' and he never came back.”

The problem is, the Belgian law that would support the family’s custodianship of the physical tapes does not necessarily apply to intellectual property contained therein. If the heirs of the Gaye estate lay a claim to his music, the family could possess the recordings without a legal right to release them commercially. The Gaye family could legally own the music, but have no access to the tapes that contain them. Without a resolution, a legal stalemate would result.

Trappeniers says some kind of compromise and collaboration is necessary to bring Gaye’s new music to life. “I think we both benefit, the family of Marvin and the collection in the hands of [Dumolin's heirs]. If we put our hands together and find the right people in the world, the Mark Ronsons, or the Bruno Mars. ... Let's listen to this and let's make the next album.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Cooperation; Partnership; Teamwork; Unity – Much can be accomplished in any area of society where there is collaboration instead of competitiveness. This is what Paul told the Corinthian church, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction” (1 Cor. 1:10-17).

The unheralded Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team made it all the way to the 2023 NCAA Final Four. How did they make it that far, especially considering they had no superstars? They relied on teamwork. Nine players on this Owls team averaged 15-plus minutes during the season, and the starting rotation has changed several times.

"We really don't care who starts as long as you just impact the game," said sophomore guard Alijah Martin, who started 20 games that season. Another starter said, "It's probably the first team I've been on where really nobody cares about their stats. I feel like across the board, any game it's just a whole bunch of selfless guys just trying to get a win."

"If you feel like it could do better for the team, why not serve and make that happen?" another player said. "There's been many opportunities and many times when guys offered up their spot for somebody else. I feel like that just reflects on the type of people we are as humans, and it shows on the court."

This selfless team spirit was exemplified early in the season between a fifth-year senior named Boyd and Michael Forrest, who lost his starting job to Boyd because of an injury. When Forrest returned, Boyd offered to give up his starting role. May declined to make the change. Where that might have affected the dynamics of some teams, FAU continued to win. Forrest said, "It doesn't really matter who starts, who finishes, it just matters about what you do on the court. Everyone's just playing to win. Everyone's playing for each other. So that's really what the difference is."

In 2020, the world came to a screeching halt in a sweeping act of human solidarity against COVID-19. It became clear that seniors were among the highest risk from the disease. Unfortunately, protecting our elders meant staying away from them. Older folks are already more prone to loneliness than other age groups, and sadly the pandemic exacerbated the feeling of isolation many seniors experience.

Sisters Shreya and Saffron Patel, 16 and 18 at the time, recognized the issue with their own grandparents early in the pandemic. So, they made a point of calling them frequently. But when their grandmother shared how “ecstatic” she was at receiving a handwritten letter from a friend one day, they got an idea. “This small gesture of connection meant the world to her. We realized that many other seniors may also be feeling disconnected, and that they may appreciate a letter.”

Shreya and Saffron reached out to local assisted living facilities and care homes in the Boston area to ask if it would be okay if they sent residents letters. The responses were enthusiastically positive. Demand quickly outpaced their own ability to write letters, so they decided to organize and invite others to join them.

They dubbed their collective letter-writing effort Letters Against Isolation (LAI), and the idea quickly took off. What started as two sisters writing letters has now grown into an award-winning non-profit organization. In just over two years, LAI’s 28,000 volunteers have written more than 460,000 letters to seniors at assisted living homes and care facilities in seven countries—the US, Canada, Ireland, England, Australia, South Africa, and Israel.

The feedback from those who work in care facilities speaks to the power of these letters. Christine, activities director at Shepherd’s Care Foundation said, “It is such a pleasure to deliver your letters to our residents. The honor of being on the receiving end of their surprise and delight when we get to say to each of them, ‘You have mail!’ Their faces are priceless, and their hearts are so warmed by your kindness … on their behalf, my most deep and sincere gratitude."

Senior recipients have also expressed joy at getting the handwritten notes. “They really made my day,” said Florence after receiving her letters. “I keep them and I read them every day. The letters took me back to when I was a teenager receiving love letters!"

Possible Preaching Angle:

Shreya and Saffron have helped thousands spread thoughtfulness and kindness to fight the pandemic of loneliness. What a beautiful way to connect people and for younger generations to let older folks know they are not forgotten.

As Nadia Abdullah and Judith Allonby recently found out, online matchmaking is not just for finding romance. After passing the background checks, the two were recently paired on the platform Nesterly, which matches compatible residents for mutually beneficial intergenerational housing arrangements.

Abdullah, 25, found the site during her attempts to find affordable housing prior to her graduation from Tufts University. She said, “It was a little frustrating because I couldn’t find anything in my budget.”

Allonby, 64, was looking for some companionship in her family home after both parents had passed away. Through their pairing on Nesterly, Abdullah began paying a modest rent for the first floor of the house in exchange for helping out with housework and errands.

Abdullah said, “It was perfect. Judith has become like my family.” And Allonby agrees. “It’s really nice to have somebody else around. Nadia brings a different atmosphere and energy than I had with my 88-year-old mother.”

According to Pew Research Center, multigenerational households are on the rise, having quadrupled in scope since the 1970s. According to a recent study, more than 60 million American adults live with other adults from a different generation--about 18% of Americans overall.

Donna Butts is executive director of Generations United. She said, “Sometimes, just having somebody around to walk the dog and have a meal with a few times a week can make a huge difference for an older adult.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In a similar way, the family of God has no age boundaries. God calls us to love and welcome those who come across our paths.

In an issue of CT magazine, author and musician Sandra McCracken writes:

I played softball in a community league when I was a teenager. We didn’t know each other the first time we stepped out under the lights together. We were strangers in gray polyester uniforms and orange baseball caps.

At the start of our opening game, there was a palpable feeling of possibility. My teammates were talented, and the coach was tough. As he invested time watching us throughout the season, he positioned and repositioned us in different roles, playing to our individual strengths. As each player lived into her giftedness, there was more synergy and success.

Today, instead of feeling like a single team with diversely gifted players, we find ourselves in a cultural moment where it often feels we’re on different teams altogether. This is true in society at large, and sadly, it seems just as true inside the church.

But there was a time when the church was like a brand-new softball team, stepping out onto fresh-cut grass in late summer, individual differences obscured by what they were as a whole: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit ... All the believers were together and had everything in common” (Acts 2:4, 42, 44). God is so committed to this unity that Jesus prayed specifically for us, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you … so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).

Jesus was not naive. He knew that finding unity is patient, slow work.

Let’s open up our echo chambers and build bridges instead of moats. Let’s listen for the still, small voice of the Spirit and attend to what he may ask of us. These are heavy times, but there is kingdom work to be done.

More and more, we can’t help but live in a globalized world. Almost every aspect of our everyday life relies on global supply chains. If you have an iPhone, you’re using a product made with hundreds of parts from 43 countries. If you use a Samsung phone, chances are it was assembled in Vietnam or India with a similarly complex supply chain process. The ever-reliable Toyota Corolla has 30,000 parts from a far-flung supply chain stretching the globe. BMW works with 12,000 suppliers in 70 countries. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine includes 280 different components, manufactured in 86 different sites across 19 countries, driven partly by the research of a son and daughter of Turkish migrants to Germany.

But the commercial airplane has been called the “mother of all global supply chains.” A single Boeing airplane is made of more than three million parts, which means the company’s supply chain is a massive, global operation. More than 150,000 people are employed in more than 65 countries, not to mention the hundreds of thousands more working for Boeing suppliers across the globe.

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) The church is also called to be a global movement, including men and women from every tribe and nation and tongue. (2) Global missions—God loves the whole world and desires to draw all men and women to himself through believers working together although scattered around the world.

In his novel Remembering, Wendell Berry tells the story of a Kentucky farmer named Andy Catlett. One warm summer evening, Andy and a group of neighbors are helping a younger farmer bring in a harvest of corn. Andy himself mans the corn harvesting machine.

At one point, the machine jams up and ends up drawing Andy’s right hand into its gears. In the confusion of the moment, Andy describes how he felt that he also had given his right hand to the corn harvester. Later, his wife asks him “What have you done to yourself?” With deep shame he replied: “I’ve ruined my hand.” Andy feels defective, and pushes away the very people that could help him heal and rebuild his life.

Andy Catlett eventually shared the shame of his hand injury with his fellow farmer Danny Branch. Berry's novel describes their relationship: “They learned how to work together, the one-handed old man and the two-handed. They know as one what the next move needs to be. They are not swift, but they don’t fumble. 'Between us,' says Danny Branch, 'we’ve got three hands. Everybody needs at least three. Nobody ever needed more.'"

Possible Preaching Angle:

In one way or another, many of us can relate with Andy’s battle with shame. We have our own version of the phrase “I’ve ruined my hand,” our own way of feeling defective, and our own community to hide from.

Genesis 3 tells us that Adam and Eve, after eating the forbidden fruit, “knew that they were naked.” As a result, they hid behind fig leaves to avoid the God who could heal them. But in his grace, God calls them out from their hiding, covers their shame with custom-made clothes, and restores them to community.

In Christ, our shame can be covered by Christ’s glory. We no longer need to keep up appearances, and therefore, no longer need to hide from our community. In fact, our vulnerability becomes a blessing to others.

Over the course of several months, Peter Skillman conducted a study pitting the skill of elite university students against that of the average kindergartner. Groups of four built structures using 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string, and 1 marshmallow. The only rule, the marshmallow had to end up on top.

Business students began by diagnosing the task, formulating a solution, and assigning roles. The kindergarteners, by contrast, got right to work, trying, failing, and trying again. Author Daniel Coyle explains the outcome, “We presume skilled individuals will combine to produce skilled performance.” But this assumption is wrong. In dozens of trials, the kindergartners built structures that averaged 26 inches tall, while the business school students built structures that averaged less than 10 inches.

We see smart, experienced business school students, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a poor performance. We see unsophisticated, inexperienced kindergartners, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a successful performance . . . individual skills are not what matters. What matters is the interaction.

The kindergartners succeed not because they are smarter but because they work together in a smarter way. They are tapping into a simple and powerful method in which a group of ordinary people can create a performance far beyond the sum of their parts.

The "marshmallow test" is a classic research project that illustrates our lack of self-control and delayed gratification. For the study, the researcher would give a child a marshmallow, and tell them that they could eat the marshmallow OR they could wait until the researcher would return several minutes later, at which time they would get a second marshmallow. Videos abound on YouTube featuring kids, in successive versions of the original experiment, waiting, playing with, and sometimes eating the first marshmallow, forgoing their chances of a second marshmallow.

In January 2020, the results of a new version of the experiment were released. In this new version, kids were paired up, played a game together, and then were sent to a room and given a cookie with the promise of another if they could wait for it by not eating the first cookie. However, some of the kids were put in what researches called an "interdependent" situation in which they were told they would only get the second cookie if both they and their partner could wait and refrain from eating. The results showed that the kids who were depending on each other waited for the second cookie significantly more often.

According to researcher Rebecca Koomen, "In this study, children may have been motivated to delay gratification because they felt they shouldn't let their partner down, and that if they did, their partner would have had the right to hold them accountable."

Possible Preaching Angle:

This research suggests that indeed we are better together than we are in isolation.

Ethan Crispo hit a local Waffle House looking for a late-night snack. What he got instead, was so much more valuable. Crispo entered the Waffle House on his way home from a birthday party, and immediately noticed a problem. The store was full of “hungry, heavily imbibed customers,” and only one person working, a man named Ben.

Crispo said, “I’ve just sat down at my table and it’s becoming clear I’ll be going home with an empty stomach. From the blue, a man stands up. Asks Ben for an apron, and begins to work behind the counter. It was a transition so smooth I initially assumed it was a staff member returning to their shift. It wasn’t. It was a kind stranger. A man who answered the call. Bussed tables, did dishes, stacked plates.”

When Ben came over to take Ethan’s order, he gratefully confirmed the man’s mysterious heroism. “‘Who’s that guy? Does he work here?’ ‘No.’ ‘Does he work at any Waffle House?’ ‘Nope.’” Apparently, this man, identified only by a blue shirt he was wearing at the time, so inspired a spirit of cooperation that others joined in to help—including a lady in a dress and high heels.

Pat Warner, a PR director for Waffle House confirmed that there had been a scheduling miscue at this store. He said it wasn’t the first time customers had been seen helping out in adverse circumstances, citing a similar situation during an ice storm in Atlanta. Warner said, “That’s the great thing we have with our customers, the sense of community.” Crispo agreed, “It was just one of the most wild instances of really, really cool people just coming together… humanity isn’t just good, it’s great.”

Possible Preaching Angle: We live out the call of Christ when we sacrificially give expecting nothing in return.

Termites may be hard to love, but they’re easy to admire. Termite mounds can reach as high as thirty feet. Based on their tiny size, that’s the equivalent of humans building something twice as tall as the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. The interior of a termite mound is an intricate structure of interweaving tunnels and passageways, radiating chambers, galleries, archways, and spiral staircases.

To build a mound, termites move vast quantities of mud and water. In the course of a year, eleven pounds of termites can move about three hundred and sixty-four pounds of dirt and thirty-three hundred pounds of water. The point of all this construction is not to have a place to dwell—the colony lives in a nest six to seven feet below the mound—but to be able to breathe. The mound acts as a lung for the colony, managing the exchange of gases, leveraging small changes in wind speed to inhale and exhale.

Termites appear to do all this without any centralized planning: there are no architects, engineers, or blueprints. The termite mound isn’t just a building. It’s much more like a body, a self-regulating organic process that always reacts to its changing environment. Scientists claim that individual termites are not very intelligent. They lack memory and the ability to learn. Put a few termites into a Petri dish and they wander around aimlessly. But put enough termites together, in the right conditions, and they will build you a cathedral.

Possible Preaching Angles: 1) Creation; Creator; Evolution – Humble termites unmistakably show evidence of intelligent design by our omniscient God. 2) Body of Christ; Church; Unity – Great things can be accomplished when God’s people, weak though we are individually, work together in unity.

While Ben Watson was considering retirement, a new opportunity appeared. Staying true to his aggressive playing style, he jumped on it. As a former tight end for the New Orleans Saints, Watson was disturbed about what appeared to be an intentional burning of three different historical black churches in and around Louisiana. So the NFL veteran used his sizable social media following to spread the news and to help assist in the fundraising to rebuild.

He also tweeted the following: "It is imperative that we show this community and the entire country that these types of acts do not represent who we are. And most importantly as the body of Christ, we suffer alongside our brothers and sisters whenever tragedy, persecution, or loss happens.”

St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas, and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas were all burned in a ten-day span. Police have since arrested Holden Matthews, 21, in connection with the fires.

Watson spoke on the phone with pastors from all three Louisiana churches and he marveled at their demeanor:

In speaking with these pastors, I am in awe and inspired by their faith and courage, comforting their congregations and family members. Through sadness and shock they spoke of forgiveness for the arsonist and grace for tomorrow. Most importantly, they spoke of being overwhelmed by support from people of goodwill and all religions from around the country. And they were humbled by what God has already done through this series of events.

Potential Preaching Angles: If a problem offends you deeply on a heart and soul level, that might be part of God’s invitation to for you to participate in its solution. Persecution also gives the Christian community opportunity to model forgiveness to the offender and support for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

After NASA Apollo 11's incredible feat of three men on the moon in June of 1969, astronaut Michael Collins said, "All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of thousands of people… All you see are the three of us, but underneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others." According to author Catherine Thimmesh there were about 400,000 others who helped with the Apollo 11 mission.

In her book Team Moon, Thimmesh shares stories of these hidden heroes—spacesuit seamstresses, radio telescope operators, parachute designers and others who made it possible to get men to the moon, get them home, and let the rest of the world watch while it happened. At Kennedy Space Center, some 17,000 engineers, mechanics, soldiers, contractors and other workers set up the enormous missile for the launch. Then there were the "Two Bobs"—the guys in Houston monitoring just how little fuel was left in the lunar module during its descent to the surface. Team Moon also included a 24-year-old "computer whiz kid Jack Garman" who helped work through worrisome computer glitches during the Eagle 's landing. The computer code that ran all the systems was developed by a team of software engineers at MIT' led by Margaret Hamilton. Roughly 500 people worked on the space suit, including one seamstress who commented, "We didn't worry too much until the guys on the moon started jumping up and down. And that gave us a little bit of an eyebrow twitch."

No wonder astronaut Neil Armstrong would later say that as he took his first step on the moon he immediately thought about all those 400,000 people who had given him the opportunity to make that first step.

John Ortberg shares what he learned about civic duty and enthusiasm from being called to jury duty:

It was 9:00 on a Monday morning and I was one of 150 unhappy campers sitting on plastic chairs crammed into a sterile basement room in the San Mateo County Courthouse, reporting for jury duty. We all had one thing in common: We wanted to be somewhere else.

Until Larry happened.

Larry works for the government, and however much we pay him, it's not enough. In a few short minutes, he won over the crowd of prospective jurors and infused us with a sense of honor and purpose. "I know you're all busy people," he said. "But I want to say thank you. I want to tell you, on behalf of the judges and our legal system and the county of San Mateo and, really, our nation, we're grateful for your service."

Although almost no one is happy about getting a summons to jury duty, Larry said, it's actually incredibly meaningful, and it's the foundation of a justice system in which people have a right to trial by a jury of their peers. He told us a story about a ninety-five-year-old woman who was no longer able to drive, but who took three buses to get to the courthouse so she could serve. When she arrived, Larry asked her, "Did you call ahead like you're supposed to, to find out if you're even needed for jury duty?" She said, "I couldn't. I don't have one of those push-button phones." Turns out, she still had a rotary dial phone.

Larry reminded us of the nobility of justice, and the long centuries of struggle for it, and how, even now, people around the world were fighting, and in some cases dying, for the right to exercise this privilege. As he spoke, people stopped texting; they sat up straight; they nudged each other and seemed inspired. By the time my number was called, I was so excited to serve that when the judge asked me whether I could pronounce someone guilty, I told him I was a pastor and that, according to the Bible, everybody was guilty. I said, "I could even pronounce you guilty!"

I wasn't selected to serve on a jury that time, but the point is that a room full of sullen, silent, phone-checking, self-important draftees had been transformed into a community of joyful patriots in a matter of minutes. When people left the courthouse that day, they were talking and laughing like old friends.

In an audacious display of teamwork, 58 Indian Army Service Corp (ASC) soldiers set a world record when they collectively rode one motorcycle in excess of 1200 meters. On a runway of Yelehanka Air Force Station outside Bengaluru, driver Subedar Rampal Yadav piloted a 500 cc Royal Enfield specially engineered with a massive platform to accommodate Major Bunny Sharma and his platoon, bedecked in the national colors of saffron, white and green.

Nicknamed the Tornadoes, this ASC stunt team is internationally known for their feats of derring-do. They currently hold 19 different world and national records, and with this latest ride they broke their own previous record of 56 men, set back in 2010. It was formed in 1982, for the purpose of touring to promote national integration and adventurism.

The combination of balance, coordination and cohesion required for such an endeavor does not necessarily come easily. Only after twice wiping out — in spectacular fashion, no less - did the team make a successful third attempt.

Potential Preaching Angles: It's amazing what you can accomplish when you work together, true teamwork requires humility (like sacrificing desires or like personal space), future-oriented leadership requires a higher point of view

In their book, Known, Dick and Ruth Foth write that:

During the Great Depression, nine ordinary young men from the University of Washington accomplished had an extraordinary dream. They labored together in effort and accountability, as an embryonic rowing team, to take on much stronger rowing programs like Cal Berkeley and Harvard and Yale. And they won.

In his magnificent book The Boys in the Boat. Daniel James Brown describes what the boys' coach saw as they worked with and for each other: "He … heard them declare their dreams and confess their shortcomings. … He learned to see hope where a boy thought there was no hope. … He observed the fragility of confidence and the redemptive power of trust."

Brown details the grueling training schedules, early mornings and late nights, the lack of money, and the desire to quit. He examines the lives and the challenges of each of the young athletes and their years-long striving for victory. Then he tells what the coach discovered as nine friends fought for their dream:

He came to understand how those almost mystical bonds of trust and affection, if nurtured correctly, might lift a crew above the ordinary sphere, transport it to a place where nine boys somehow became one thing—a thing that could not quite be defined, a thing that was so in tune with the water and the earth and the sky above that, as they rowed, effort was replaced by ecstasy. It was a rare thing, a sacred thing, a thing devoutly to be hoped for.

In 1936, those nine young men took their rowing shell, the Husky Clipper, to Hitler's Germany to take on the world in the Olympics. And they brought home the gold. Shared dreams push us to excel.

High up in a tree in British Columbia's Shoal Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuary, six birds are sharing a nest: specifically, two bald eagles, their three eaglets, and a baby red-tailed hawk.

Sure, birds of different species sharing the same nest may sound rather strange, but for those bird aficionados out there, this will sound especially strange—because most of the time, bald eagles and red-tailed hawks are enemies, "known to fight each other to the death."

Bird experts have been theorizing about how this "unexpected interspecies family" came to be. According to NPR, "[T]he two options essentially boil down to a timeless question—which came to the nest first: the chicken (ahem, hawk) or the egg?"

The Hancock Wildlife Foundation's David Hancock pointed out that "[t]his little red-tailed chick is sharing the nest with three fast-growing, usually aggressive siblings … Sibling rivalry and fratricide is not uncommon in eagles."

For now, however, Sanctuary caretaker Kerry Finley has described the eagles as attentive caregivers: "It's quite something to see the way [the red-tailed hawk] is treated. The parents are quite attentive."

Potential Preaching Angles: Our world is fraught with divisions and enemy lines—from the animal kingdom to our churches. But for now, in their own small way, these birds are modeling the kind of upside-down world that we long for, a day in which God "will judge between the nations / and will settle disputes for many peoples" (Isa. 2:4).

For the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, more than a hundred artists submitted plans to design the centerpiece, the masterpiece of the Exposition Universelle. The winner was an engineer named Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who proposed a 984-foot tower, the tallest building in the world at that time. Skeptics scoffed at his design, calling it useless and artless. Eiffel called her La Dame De Fer—the Iron Lady. Gustave Eiffel's name was on his tower, but Eiffel himself thanked seventy-two scientists, engineers, and mathematicians on whose shoulders he stood. Their names are inscribed on the tower.

The Tower also relied on 300 riveters, hammermen, and carpenters who put together the 18,038-piece jigsaw puzzle of wrought iron in two years, two months, and five days. Oh, and don't forget the acrobatic team Eiffel hired to help his workers maintain balance on very thin beams during strong gusts of wind. We have each of them to thank—as well as the Paris city council that voted in 1909 not to tear down the tower despite the fact that its twenty-year permit had expired. The tower's longevity also depends on each councilmember and to each of the voters who put them in office.

Dr. Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology and the scientific adviser for Pixar's film Inside Out, claims that human touch is the "the foundations of human relationships." He explains, "Skin to skin, parent to child, touch is the social language of our social life … The foundation of all human relationship is touch. There are four years of touch exchanged between mother and baby … In the social realm, our social awareness is profoundly tactile."

Keltner was one of the co-authors for a study that looked at "celebratory touches" of pro basketball players, including "fist bumps, high-fives, chest bumps, leaping shoulder bumps, chest punches, head slaps, head grabs, low fives, high tens, full hugs, half hugs, and team huddles." The researchers discovered that teams who players touched one another a lot did better than those teams whose players didn't. Keltner has concluded that touch lowers stress, builds morale, and produces triumphs—a chest bump instructs us in cooperation, a half-hug in compassion.