Small boys watching the Woodrow Wilson high school cadets, 1943*
Photo by Esther Bubley
"Perhaps the community you have in view is dysfunctional, broken, embarrassing. Perhaps you have a proposal for it? A word of criticism? Come forth with your critique, but you should know, you can't fix what you won't join. There's no healing a community of which you in no way see yourself a part. Maybe criticism and hospitality can be joined at the hip. Maybe they have to be for a conversation to occur. There are so many ways to weave a common life, to hold together that which is in danger of being dismembered. To remember, in this sense, is to no longer stand alone and to aid others in no longer doing so. A critique can be a gift, but it need never be confused for a call to abandon the human circle. Are you bewildered? Others have been here before. And at the heart of bewilderment there can be a seed of compassion."
~ David Dark, from Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious
*Image found at Photos of The Great Depression blog
2 comments:
Ok, pal, is there some kind of Vulcan mind meld going on here? Or do see no relation between this and my rambling FB post? I swear I had not read this when I posted.
Zeitgeist. :-) I think you might find D. Dark's book interesting.
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