In a sermon this evening, our bishop made a distinction between personal and private--he meant it on the faith level, eg, that one's faith in God is deeply personal but it can never be private. And that faith was meant to be shared and shaped in community.
For the purpose of this blog, I'd argue the same is true if you are a person of faith or not. Despite the American notion of the rugged individualist (which he also mentioned), we can never really go it alone. We might think we can. It is a terribly romantic idea--that we are strong in and of ourselves and don't need anyone. But the truth is, we are stronger when we're part of a community. That can mean a marriage or a church or one or two good friends or a business support group or AA, or what have you.
There's also a danger, too--that TOO MUCH community can make one whacky. Think of the cults (or cult-like groups) you have known, where a group of individuals, in an effort to belong, sign on then lose their souls. Sometimes we don't know who we are, apart from one person or group of people.
Seems that there can be a healthy swing of a pendulum in which you are willing to stand apart from the community if you have to, but also to recognize the real need of one, or at least a healthy one.
(All of which reminds me of an engagement party some friends threw for us in 2003. Near the end, my mom read a poem in front of the group. Its message was that in order to be strong together we had to be strong apart. "Maintain your separateness," or some such. It seemed to put a lot of stock in standing apart. Then Michael asked a pertinent question: "OK, but can she move in with me?")
Internet, what do you think of all this?
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