What if the real homeostasis in our lives isn’t change, but the deeper underlying patterns? We talk endlessly about change, but the idea never seems to change. Perhaps the only thing that remains consistent for us is forgetting what binds us together.
Heraclitus is a philosopher of change who is famous for saying, “Everything flows.” But he is also under constant change, logoa rational principle or pattern that governs all transformations. Stability lived in movement. Even though the river’s water never stops flowing, the river maintains itself.
Augustine extended this philosophical inquiry into the civic and communal realm. in city of godhe addresses how earthly cities rise and fall (fundamental change) while divine order persists (underlying pattern). Rome itself collapses. Earthly cities are not permanent, but human community patterns are.
Ritual and memory provide a means for people to maintain their identity across generations. For Heraclitus, history was rhythm. For Augustine, it was a story, a journey toward a destination, and getting rid of the unbearable.
Lessons about both rhythm and destination were learned in a home repair debacle that was serious enough for the time. A leaky faucet caused a light flood, and then I frantically searched for the stop valve buried behind the paint can I was about to throw away. Pure Heraclitus: There is water everywhere and everything is in motion. When the plumber arrived, he took in the mess and said with a wry smile, “There’s always something in the water that doesn’t belong there.” Augustine would have smiled, saying that nothing that gets in the way lasts long. In my case, it was a can of paint.
Consider Athens in 403 B.C.E. Democracy barely survived the brutal oligarchic takeover, but two hostile groups remained. Those who remained in the city under the 30 tyrants and those who reunited in Piraeus to fight for the restoration of democracy. Their reconciliation required more than new laws. We had to relearn how to live in a shared world.
Athens has long understood that democracy is sustained not just by voting and debate, but by the rituals that make people feel like they are a people. Citizens encountered politics through the choir. Literally, it means moving and singing together at the festival. Rival factions entered from opposite sides, like halves of the same performance, each keeping their own rhythm until a common rhythm emerged. The chorus was not a metaphor. It was civic glue.
After the civil war, Athenians rebuilt their political life through small but determined practices such as public oaths sworn together, common sacrifice, and reading the law in unison. These were small actions, but they shaped a future that no one believed in yet. In performing these rituals, the Athenians did not just imagine a community, they enacted one.
When these rhythms were disrupted, factions hardened and trust collapsed. Once reopened, the city recovered. Democracy is based on practices that shape citizens long before they agree on policies. A functioning democracy begins not with consensus, but with a willingness to live in the same world.
American life today resembles Athens at its most vulnerable. Factions have hardened, trust has eroded and the choir is out of sync. Heraclitus would say the rhythm was broken. Augustine would say we have forgotten our destination. They both warn that the people will lose themselves before they lose their institutions. A sense of belonging comes before beliefs are formed..
Athens 403 offers a final lesson: Democracy will survive only if we continue to implement practices that preserve our shared world. A city that stops rehearsing ceases to exist.
As Augustine saw, what begins in the garden ends in the city. From the innocence of Eden to the city of God, the New Jerusalem. Its arc sustains hope even in dark times, believing that mercy and justice will make the final decision. It also gives citizens the confidence to live in civic space with stability rather than fear, allowing them to not only live in hope but also to live true to who they are meant to be.
In this auspicious age of “no king,” many Christians today celebrate Christ the King on Sunday while looking forward to Advent and Christmas. The birth of a man who has put aside the privileges of God and taken the form of a servant, one of us for whom human limitations are no obstacle.
Heraclitus found order in opposing forces. Luther was more direct: “God can carve rotten wood or ride a lame horse.”
The task of building community and restoring a sense of belonging is not an ideal situation. It starts with what we have, where we are, and who will show up. It is proof that community can be found in everyday life and that the important “kingdom” comes to us not as domination but as love and justice.
notes and reading
Heraclitus (Heraclitus of Ephesus): See the writings of Matthew R. Blaine Fragments of Heraclitus: Greek text with vocabulary, grammar, and commentary (2023), especially fragments B1, B12, B30, and B51 regarding flux, logo, and patterned conflict.
Augustine (Augustine of Hippo): City of Godespecially books XI-XIV and XIX. Augustine’s discussion of the Incarnation, or God becoming human, appears in Sermons 184 and 191. Sermon on the Gospel of JohnHomily 1.
Martin Luther: “God can carve rotten wood and ride a lame horse.” These words are often attributed to the 16th century religious reformer Luther. Similar themes and statements table talka posthumous collection of his informal conversations.
Regarding the “chorus” metaphor: After Athens was defeated by Sparta at the end of the 5th century BC, a committee of 30 temporarily dissolved democracy and plunged the city into civil war. By 403, democracy was restored. The civic power of the choir was also harnessed in part, and the choir’s ritual performances made plurality visible and helped the fallen polis imagine itself whole again. Athens in 403 BC: Democracy in crisis? (Azoulay & Ismard, 2025) explores how rhythm, polyphony, and public ritual supported democratic life in moments of collapse. Classical Athenian education included not only reading, writing and Homeric recitation, but also musical and choral training, practices that cultivated the social awareness and moral character essential to citizenship.
“Decline of choral dance”– In a memorable 1952 essay, mathematician Paul Halmos argued that ancient group dancing, once a universal expression of our “collective orientation” and “biological sociability,” is disappearing in modern industrial life. Its disappearance is a grim judgment, he wrote, as it signals “the decline of our biosocial life.” – Quoted by Barbara Ehrenreich, Dancing in the streets: A history of collective joy.
Rebuilding democracy: Ritual as a cultural resourceJoan Salomonsen, editor (2022). Open access. This book resulted from a four-year (2013-2017) project funded by the Norwegian Research Council. A team of 18 international scholars met regularly to discuss:temporary Case studies from selected communities.
What Nietzsche got right
Meaning without illusion
About 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
