There is so much about this that resounded with me. The I-Thou vs. I-It contrast makes me wonder about this very activity I’m engaging with: online community. It’s kind of a mix of both, isn’t it? It takes me away from the persons around me directly (whether my family or the people in line at the grocery) so in that sense it makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, especially in this generous substack context, I feel as if I’m I-Thouing sometimes! Often with total strangers who are not strange at all because of how much we have in common.
I loved this piece. I recently touched on the concept of main character energy too, suggesting we need more “collective character energy” to make life more meaningful.
Thank you very much for this. I encountered a line in Amy Tan's novel The Kitchen God's Wife where she writes about "the lifelines of her mother and father meeting in a market and then becoming entangled" (not an exact quotation) just before these lines from Primo Levi's poem 'To my friends':
Provided that between us, for at least a moment,
A line has been stretched,
A well-defined bond.
The two ways of thinking about threads and connections live in me. I am a retired Family Doctor.
Yes. Thank you. (Again!) I have been returning to /Made for Good/ by Desmond and Mpho Tutu in hopes of strengthening my “there is no me without you” muscles.
It is the clamouring ego that we must subdue and constantly cut back like an unruly parasitic ivy, demanding our attention and consuming our energies. It is only in the company of another do I learn self-forgetfulness, whereby for a brief moment I attempt to make that person feel like the most interesting, gloriously unique, loveable person on God’s good earth, by attending deeply to another. And in so doing would ask that ‘As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend,’ (Proverbs 27:17) becomes true and every encounter God uses to shape / hew / sandblast me into something slightly more recognisably Christlike. Your piece prompted this reflection, so thank you, Rob (once of Bible Soc / Christian Research)
There is so much about this that resounded with me. The I-Thou vs. I-It contrast makes me wonder about this very activity I’m engaging with: online community. It’s kind of a mix of both, isn’t it? It takes me away from the persons around me directly (whether my family or the people in line at the grocery) so in that sense it makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, especially in this generous substack context, I feel as if I’m I-Thouing sometimes! Often with total strangers who are not strange at all because of how much we have in common.
So, so , good. thank you , Liz.
i'm going to find a copy of Buber.
I loved this piece. I recently touched on the concept of main character energy too, suggesting we need more “collective character energy” to make life more meaningful.
https://thebreakoutroom.substack.com/p/lets-talk-main-character-energy
Thank you Joanna
How about “ensemble energy”
Thank you very much for this. I encountered a line in Amy Tan's novel The Kitchen God's Wife where she writes about "the lifelines of her mother and father meeting in a market and then becoming entangled" (not an exact quotation) just before these lines from Primo Levi's poem 'To my friends':
Provided that between us, for at least a moment,
A line has been stretched,
A well-defined bond.
The two ways of thinking about threads and connections live in me. I am a retired Family Doctor.
This poem has consent from the people mentioned.
'Threads in Tapestries'
An older man walking a dog spoke
on a cold, clear winter day at the gate
to the woods as I waited for my family.
“Thank you for saving the life of our
granddaughter. You knew that she was ill.
You sent her to hospital
in time. We will never forget”
A conversation to treasure.
Later that week, I visited a friend.
The coincidence struck:
her only son might have died if
I had not checked, in case.
I feared missing Addison’s;
I always tested. His kidneys were
failing; they were caught in time.
A transplant has saved him.
Collecting for charity at Christmas
in the town centre,
two sisters approach,
now in their seventies.
I looked after their mum and dad
thirty years ago, at the end.
I looked after them,
their children and their grandchildren.
Threads from my tapestry of life
woven into theirs: being ‘their’ doctor.
Yarn from their lives knotted into mine
building relationships,
finding doors and new directions. A working
life meeting people, touching, glancing,
becoming entangled for a time.
Wefts compacted into patterns.
On both sides.
For ever.
This is beautiful thank you
Yes. Thank you. (Again!) I have been returning to /Made for Good/ by Desmond and Mpho Tutu in hopes of strengthening my “there is no me without you” muscles.
It is the clamouring ego that we must subdue and constantly cut back like an unruly parasitic ivy, demanding our attention and consuming our energies. It is only in the company of another do I learn self-forgetfulness, whereby for a brief moment I attempt to make that person feel like the most interesting, gloriously unique, loveable person on God’s good earth, by attending deeply to another. And in so doing would ask that ‘As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend,’ (Proverbs 27:17) becomes true and every encounter God uses to shape / hew / sandblast me into something slightly more recognisably Christlike. Your piece prompted this reflection, so thank you, Rob (once of Bible Soc / Christian Research)
Isn’t “All Life is Meeting” a title or tagline in That Hideous Strength? Was Lewis quoting him?