A sense of belonging

That society is happiest which affords its members the opportunity to experience a sense of belonging. To feel that belonging is to know an embrace and a joy that is incomparable. People cannot on their own provide themselves with such an experience. 

A sense of belonging is the other, mundane side of feeling the divine gift of God's grace. It is to know oneself in a firm identity in a way that absent such self-knowledge leaves one thin and unanchored. 

To be able to live a public life and a civil society that has about it inclusion, purpose and power is to be able to be multi-dimensional in a way that fufills and satisfies deeply. The present becomes clear while the past and the future tend to recede quickly and with not too much residue.