26
Jun
2008
i dont like PEOPLE magazine, never did. even worse, i hate talking with people about the people stories in PEOPLE magazine. i DO think PEOPLE magazine is smart and respect everything about the business. it’s just not of interest to me to talk about hollywood stars as if i really knew them. i also bet that if i had a hollywood star friend, she would feel the same way.
yet it seems like i am often stuck working my way out of such conversations, long ones about people we will never can really know. and PEOPLE magazine sells better than anything ive done. i write this blog and everyone knows what PEOPLE magazine is. because we people love to talk about lives that we dont live. ive pondered this since i was a child. why do we tend to lean towards spending time and energy on things that do not really produce anything? anything for now or anything for later. anything for us or another. seems illogical.and it then feeds a machine that leaves us hungry.
hungry for real relationships some say.
hm. true.
but. we often talk and write about relationships and community the same way, talk without action. loving of a life we dont actually live.
i hear a lot lately coming out of a conversations that i do believe come from a real desire for this thing called “community”:
“the beauty of community” “the power of community” “the life and love of community” the joy of community”online community
i agree. i am a full on believer of the words and a full advocate of such community.
which is why i have such a desire to share about the agony of community.
i am not a negative person, trust me..
love is honest, however.
the real “community or relationship” picture has:
joy from struggle
power from individual emptiness
friendship from persistent sacrifice
unity from humility
individual growth from internal pruning
healing from personal authenticity
forgiveness from given grace
balance from shared effort
plurality of leaders from multiple responsibility carriers
high accomlishment thru lots of hard work
burdens shared by entering each others pains
its like falling in love. only pre teens “fall in love” with only the feel good parts of someone they think they see. we chuckle at the naiveté of one month jr high anniversaries and little heart shaped gifts. yet sometimes still live this way when you think about it.
later, we learn of real love being as intense in agony as ecstasy, and that self centric jr high thing is infatuation, just less mature.
and sometimes in this knowledge we arent sure its all worth it, and will give up love if it means pain. been there.
its the same with being a parent. at some point we move from caring for toddlers to building a family, which assumes a sharing and shifting of responsibilities all the way into the aging of the parent.
community of real relationships is the same.
there is a cost to count.
to say that you see the beauty of community without sacrificing painfully for it is like reading PEOPLE magazine. fair weathered fans i guess.
now-with this amazing endorsement, why, would i of all things lead the fostering of community?
its where all those longings for “real” life are found. i dont live to just buy stuff and die.
and we leaders must actually partake in the love of the life we speak of.
join me?
Jun
2008
Tags: change, love, relationships
