"The term community is often used to describe those living in a specific location or having something in common such as a profession, activity, or ethnic background. But in modern urban environments, people can live in the same building yet still have no real connection to one another. Commenting on the widespread lack of social cohesion in Western society, psychiatrist M. Scott Peck describes his experience of growing up in a New York apartment block:
This building was the compact home for twenty-two families. I knew the last name of the family across the foyer. i never knew the first names of their children. I stepped fo in their apartment once in those seventeen years. I knew the last names of two other families in the biulding. I could not even address the remaining eighteen.
The danger of being too comfortable, too self-sufficient, is that we lose any sense of needing one another. If each family has its own washing machine, electronic entertainment, and adequate supplies of food, what reason do we have to knock on our neighbors' doors? Experiencing need prompts people to reach out and make contact." [The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, Scott Peck]
Where do we look to meet our needs for security and a satisfying life?"
This is an excerpt from Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
Where do we look to meet our needs for security and a satisfying life? We (I) too often look inward, and then I wonder why I worry and feel unsafe or unsatisfied. Things would work better if I worked to offer life to others and looked to God for my own security and satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteEd, the gentle balance is that God works through our inner selves to guide and direct. Telling the difference between God's voice and my own is the lifelong work of discernment we are called to. I think maybe the tell tale sign of God's direction is whether it fits within the commandment(s): Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself. It seems like these are two commandments, but perhaps they are three...Love God, Love Self, Love neighbor. Very Trinitarian.
ReplyDeleteMy boys still come to me when they scrape a knee. They seek someone else's care when they are hurt or scared. This behavior was likely taught when they were smaller, but it almost seems instinctual. When they come to me, I feel loved and needed. I want to nurture them and provide them with a sense of security. When we choose not to do it all/have it all for our selves, when we seek help and companionship from our neighbors, perhaps this is one way we can extend love toward our neighbor and uplift our unifying Creator.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter doesn't come to me with injuries - her mom's more compassionate about that stuff; when she's sad, she'll go to her mom or friends, but she comes to me about Math and football and with stories and for a laugh. It's great to be needed and to have that relationship, but it's just as important that she have relationship with others and with God - I try not to hog one of God's great creations. :)
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