My recent readings include mostly scholastic works centered around communication and leadership... working towards a masters degree will do that to your bookshelf. Today I read a few chapters in our next book, one that focuses on multicultural leadership. I want to share a pretty hefty quote with you and explore where it took my mind:
"Author M. Scott Peck, after searching for the keys to human fulfillment in his classic best seller The Road Less Traveled, turned his attention to the role community plays in people's well-being. Peck found that people thirst for a sense of place and belonging. He envisioned a world in which a 'soft individualism' acknowledges our interdependence. Rugged individualism demands that we always put our best foot forward, hide our weaknesses and insecurities, and don a mask of self-sufficiency. This leaves people feeling inadequate, exhausted, and alone. Peck believed that humanity stands on the brink of annihilation if community and interdependence are not rewoven, stating 'In and through community lies the salvation of the world.'"The author goes on to explain how cultures embodying Peck's opinion value generosity and taking care of one another. Finally, claiming that this type of orientation can heal much of the social malaise that unbridled individualism, overwork and materialism have spawn. To paraphrase Alexis de Tocqueville, balancing individualism with the collective good will reinforce the social context and fabric of community because unchecked individualism has lead to emotional isolation and fragmentation.
As I was reading on my couch this rainy morning, I caught a glimpse of something probably eight feet away on a shelf: a wooden, hand-carved "Peace on Earth" that my mother gave me for Christmas this year. That's it. I'm not sure if Mom knew what she was giving me, but it embodies my desire for this life and what I believe to be a universal desire that gets clouded. If you were to ask anyone, a random stranger, if they desire peace on Earth, don't you think they'd say yes? I do. Wouldn't you say yes?
We are lacking peace. Not only do we inflict a lack of peace on others through our actions and words daily, but look at the world news today... it's not about one person causing harm to another, it's about natural disasters striking the nations one after the other. In the last three days, a major volcanic eruption in Chile and the largest earthquake of record to hit Nepal in the past 81 years are causing chaos across the globe. We are lacking peace. These natural disasters took over the news after over a week of stories surrounding the world's views on what the Ottoman Empire did to Armenian Christians in Turkey from 1915 to 1917. We are lacking peace, but maybe effort is and can be made to restore it?
Reading Peck's words about 'rugged individualism' makes me cringe a little bit. I recognize those tendencies in myself even as I attempt to extract myself from the U.S. individualism lifestyle everyday. I have felt the negative effects of living an individualistic life and I want to leave that behind. I want us, as a people, to drop our false-perfections in order to live realistically with people who come alongside one another through love and compassion as they encourage each other towards growth. We are a people created to be in relationship. Relationship with one another, with our Creator and with creation.
Ok, let's think metaphor. Fragmentation, as mentioned by de Tocqueville in relation to what will happen if we continue to live a life of unchecked individualism, still has the same definition now as it did then: "The process or state of breaking or being broken into small or separate parts." Who would admit to wanting that? Fragmentation happens when marriages end, when families are split, when bones are broken, the list continues... None of these events have positive connotations in our society, yet we continue to involve ourselves in lifestyles that lead to them. The change won't happen over night, but it takes individuals willing to sacrifice their individualism for community every day.
I moved back and forth with the above-mentioned reading and Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire. In his introduction, Abbey cautions readers, "Do not jump in your automobile next June and rush out to the Canyon country hoping to see some of that which I have attempted to evoke in these pages." He goes on to explain that most of what he includes in the following pages no longer exists. This book, that dives into the Canyon country and the mystery within, is a memorial to what used to be. We have the chance every day to let what used to be lie and to see what is for the first time. We must walk into that. We must appreciate and learn from what was, and let it launch us forward into what is to come. There are days that I find myself afraid of what is to come because the outlook seems so grim. There are other days where I am elated with the thought of a distant or not-so-distant future that seems hopeful. As someone striving to live as a 'little Christ' in this life, I'm called to choose hope. To pray for peace. To walk boldly into this artistic creation that has been tainted by its inhabitants and still call it 'good.'
--With all do respect, E. Abbey, I will jump in my car and drive to the Canyon country. I will heed your careful advice, though. I will not expect to find the lands you describe. Nor will I expect to see perfection. That's where my understanding will shift and grow and morph. I will see it for the first time, knowing that it was different yesterday and will be different tomorrow, but trusting that God, in all God's glory, will show God's self to me within it. We may be really great destroyers, but somehow God sustains us and God's creation. I pray that I will always have my eyes open to see what the Lord has made.
Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age by Juana Bordas
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
