Well, this is something to think about in reference to The Breakfast Club.
“It is quite easy to found a community. There are always plenty of courageous people who want to be heroes…. The problem is not in getting the community started- there’s always enough energy to take-off. The problem comes when we are in orbit and going round and round the same circuit. The problem is in living with brothers and sisters whom we have not chosen but who have been given to us, and in working ever more truthfully towards the goals of the community. A community which is just an explosion of heroism is not a true community. True community implies a way of living and seeing reality; it implies above all fidelity in the daily round. And this is made up of simple things—getting meals, using and washing the dishes and using them again, going to meetings- as well as gifts, joy, and celebration. A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets.”Jean Vanier wrote these words. Hat tip to the Rev Gals for the hookup.
Looking just at the quotation you chose, I don't see any reason why achieving great things and living in the kind of community that collectively pursues its goals in a spirit of love, would be mutually exclusive.
What's the logic behind that?
Posted by: Megan at August 7, 2008 12:05 PMOoh! I get to use that word again...The quotidian is what actually defines a community and not the Exceptional Things. Thats the argument at least. And I think that there is something to it. Certainly there are Big Defining Moments. We mark Easter for a reason, for example. But a community cannot live from high to high. Real life together is found in the day to day life, the tedium and labor, and the common and simple interactions.
Posted by: Tripp at August 8, 2008 06:58 AMAgain... says who? Who gets to define "real life"? Do you? Do I?
Posted by: Megan at August 8, 2008 12:15 PMMegan,
Yes. You do. I do. And we live by our experiences benefiting if we so choose from the wisdom and experiences of others. Vanier is in many church circles well known for his founding of the L'Arche communities and his spiritual reflections on lives shared together in community. I rely on his wisdom often.
Posted by: Tripp at August 9, 2008 08:01 AMYou're also into the idea of community in a completely different way than I am.
Sorry to have offended. You sound really stiff and angry.
Posted by: megan at August 9, 2008 05:21 PMNo no...I'm sorry if I was stiff and angry. Been a long few weeks for me.
And I guess I am into community differently than you are. Maybe sometime we can talk about how you understand community.
Posted by: Tripp at August 10, 2008 06:31 AM