Archives for June 2018

Every craft lends itself to specific insights. Here’s one I’ve come to because of tap dancing.

Tap dancing is an odd art form in that not everyone has a frame of reference to it. Some people have seen a tap dancer perform in person, some have seen on on television, some remember the old movie musicals, while some haven’t experienced any of these things.

This puts a unique burden on the modern day tap dancer. While they are performing they are put in a position of educating members of their audience about what it is they are actually doing, their own artistic references and influences, in addition to their message. Some do this with intention, others intuitively, while others reject the responsibility altogether.

Here’s the thing: Whether we want to or not, sometimes our work demands that we teach people first. As we try to share the message we’ve been given, we also need to take care of the people listening. We need to be sure that they understand the language we are speaking, the craft we are using, and the analogies we’re drawing. Otherwise, our presentation is in vain (literally).

Right and wrong are expressions of something deeper. They express a moral code that is rooted in the imagination of a future world, a way of being that we envision that encompasses everything and everyone. Here’s the thing:

We’ve gotten so wrapped up in right and wrong that we’ve stopped talking about the future world, the way of being that we envision. I suspect that if our conversations were in the latter space, we would have more in common, and be able to explore deeper more nuanced differences.

We would begin to worry more about how we related to one another, knowing that the differences we face are not worthy of pithy answers. They demand from us the stuff of life. And the stuff of life is found in relationship. So as we walk with one another we will discover the right and wrong in the hearts of our neighbors, in the ears of our friends, and in the hands of our families. And that’s good. Only as we walk tougher will we begin to talk about the future world again.

So go. Walk. And discover.

To everyone who is out there having a go at making a change in the world, I want to say, keep going.

There are days when we all get discouraged, and this is the worst. Tired is okay. Lonely is fine. Poor is fine. But not discouraged. Discouraged hits us at the core.

Courage is the fuel of imagination. Courage is the one that says, I think this is possible. Courage undergirds the strength by which we take action. If we become discouraged we begin to take the path of least resistance, even if it is not for us.

Be encouraged. Fuel your imagination, think about the possible, discover the strength you have been given and move. Keep going. This world needs you.

Three hundred and sixty degrees takes you all the way around. It’s a complete circle. In contract language its a reference to the encompassing of all aspects of ones business. In camera’s it’s the kind of camera that sees in all directions, literally. But no human being is 360.

Very few human beings are complete. Many of us still have blind spots. And dig this: If we are complete than our individual completeness trends to loneliness (incompleteness) unless we find other complete human beings to share our completeness with.

So why, in so many other ways, do we attempt to encompass all things. We try to do everything at work, or be everything to everyone all the time. Even corporations trend towards encompassment (see: Amazon, Google, etc.).

Isn’t it enough to execute your specific role well? Or be the thing you can be for the person in front of you right now? In that way, we’ll all be filling in our part of the circle at the right time. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful image?

When tap dancers hold their breath, they rush. They dance faster than they are supposed to. The only way to fix this is to breathe. But most tap dancers can’t think about their breathing and their tap dancing at the same time. This comes with training. It is a shift in focus to make the breath more important than the dancing during training, until both are of equal importance (at least). Then, in performance the breath can be automatic while the dancing needs focus and the dancing can be automatic when the breath needs focus.

Are you trying to juggle too much without having had the training to treat everything with equal importance? Need to learn a little bit more so that you can juggle? Focus on the learning. Get that done. Then you’ll be able to breath, and you won’t rush.

Many of us have experienced times of darkness. Times when the vision of peace, love, and provision, was the furtherest thing from reality. Sometimes that darkness gets so bad that all we desire is a glimmer of light. A place to breathe in peace. A week’s worth of provision. When we make it out of the darkness we consider ourselves having entered the light. We have arrived.

The light may give us what we think we need to survive. It’s warm in the sun. We sit in peace and breathe. We feel fulfilled with a week’s worth of provision. But I think there is something more. I think life is more than just peace, and breath, and provision. Life is relationship, and healing, and reconciliation, and truth, and love.

So, what stops us from moving from pursuing light to pursuing life? Is it the risk of not having the light? Falling back into the darkness? If so, I would submit that our focus is wrong. If all we desire is the light, then we stop when we when have what we want. But what about our neighbors, the broken relationships we could do something to repair, the folks we see who need encouragement, the times when truth needs to be spoken and love needs to be shown? We have more to do than to serve ourselves. There is an entire world in need of trustworthy relationship, healing, reconciliation, truth, and love. Be encouraged, don’t stop at the light. Pursue life.

There are three spaces we all occupy. We all live. We all have set our hands to a particular work. We all interact with some industry in order to gain provision. Each of these spaces carry their own value sets that are expressed in cultural norms.

Think about the rules by which we live our lives. Now think about the norms of the community of practitioners in each of our particular craft works. Now think about the values expressed by the primary industry we might interact with. There may be some overlap, but there can be quite a bit of difference.

Think about the relationship between the three, the pressures of the industry to change your craft, the pressures of life to change your industry. Which value set are we abiding in? Which cultural norm is affecting us?

I’m taking note for myself.

I recently was on the road for a six week trip traveling around the world, literally flying east from New York, and back to New York, and was struck by a thought. In every community I entered, there seemed to be dopplegangers. Two people doing similar work in what seemed to be the similar fashion. They were like mirror images only not. I’m wondering if I’m the only one who’s witnessed this:

Person one builds institutions that function according to market forces. They contributed to the growth of members of their community through formal interaction. They are well respected and hold a position of authority. They operate more transactionally as they respond to the market.

Person two builds spaces that foster intimate relationship. They contribute to the growth of members of their community through informal relationships that may deepen over time. They are well respected and may hold positions of authority, but something is different about how they hold that space. They operate more relationally as they respond to people.

Two different ways of being, that express in similar ways, only not.

Have you seen this?