Emmy Johnson's Blog
June Newsletter / 06.11.08, 05:13 PM
THOUGHTS AS OF LATE…
One thing I love about this year is the reading I’ve been able to do. A favorite from some of my latest reads was Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Morrie, a college professor in the Boston area for the last couple of decades or so, is diagnosed with Lou Gherig’s disease and given a short amount of time left to live. Through a couple of letters and calls he lands a spot on Nightline with Ted Koppel, to talk about what it’s like to know you’re dying. One of his former students, Mitch, catches the show and decides to visit his former, and favorite, professor from college. They pick up right where they left off almost 20 years before and forge a beautiful relationship towards the end of Morrie’s life. Mitch visits Morrie every Tuesday to catch up and make up for lost time. They talk about everything under the sun and record their conversations as they work on their “final thesis” together – the book.
The following excerpt is my favorite from the book. It seems Morrie has had many of life’s wisdoms imparted to him, and he is able to leave this knowledge with Mitch, and consequently the rest of the world who reads their book. (If you haven’t picked this up by now…I would highly suggest reading it to those of you who have not. It’s the first book I’ve legitimately shed a tear while reading.)
“ ‘Look, no matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don’t see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves in to everything we can become. But if you’re surrounded by people who say “ I want mine now,” you end up with a few people with everything and a military to keep the poor ones from rising up and stealing it.’
Morrie looked over my shoulder to the far window. Sometimes you could hear a passing truck or a whip of the wind. He gazed for a moment at his neighbors’ houses then continued.
‘The problem, Mitch, is that we don’t believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.
‘But believe me, when you are dying, you see it is true. We all have the same beginning – birth – and we all have the same end – death. So how different can we be?
‘Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you.’
He squeezed my hand gently. I squeezed back harder. And like that carnival contest where you bang a hammer and watch the disk rise up the pole, I could almost see my body heat rise up Morrie’s chest and neck into his cheeks and eyes. He smiled.
‘In the beginning of life, when we are infants we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?’
His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘But here’s the secret: in between, we need others as well.’
This passage got me thinking. What is it about American culture that has us convinced we have “arrived” once we are completely independent? Our collective mentality seems to be that to have any sort of dependence on anyone or anything is a sign of weakness. Whether that dependence is in the work place, in our neighborhoods, or in our friendships and/or families, we have convinced others that we don’t need them, and even worse, we have convinced ourselves. This can end up leaving us feeling lonely, depressed, and worst of all empty because we think we should have this feeling of “making it,” but turns out making it alone isn’t such an amazing feeling.
Luckily for us, God gives us a bit of an advantage through the truth of the Bible. Those pages are filled with directives to be in relationship. With God. With others. But it seems to me that many of us still seem to be missing the point. In today’s culture, even if one believes in the God of the Bible, it’s easy to lose the relationships of faith to the morality of religion.
I hope I am not coming across as trying to look like I have it all figured out, because I certainly do not. But Morrie certainly seems to be on to something here… and his words bring me back to this idea of community. Relationships. Neighbors.
It is not always easy to pour oneself into and invest in others. That is definitely one thing I have learned this year. It is not always convenient, and you do not always have the energy it takes. I have an extra “shove” to get out and attempt to pour into others because this is one of the main components of my program, but I also wanted to learn what it truly means to love others. And one thing I can say for sure: truly loving others means taking risks. Especially when you may not have much in common with the people you are trying to get to know. You can’t be sure your efforts will be well received or the person will appreciate you for who you are. It can be a bit scary to put yourself out there like that. However, when I think back on the last 9+ months and look at all the friendships I have formed, from roommates to neighbors alike, I wonder if risks were not taken, would there be much to show for those relationships now?
I can’t say for sure. And I know there are definitely times that I could have risked more. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself, it’s how guarded I can be when it comes to building relationships, but I think realizing this about myself is half the battle. And even though I’m not sure what realizing this fact means for my life, I know I want to take risks, as difficult as that might be at times. I don’t want to “play it safe” and miss out on relationships from which I can learn and grow.
Morrie had this figured out. He said it was because he knew he was dying and had the chance “to come to peace with living.” But no matter what the reasoning behind his insights, I wish more people would read this book and start to take risks of their own. Then maybe we could get closer to being “one big human family” and stop focusing so much on ourselves. There’s no denying our world is globalizing, but I hope one day it will be for more than the sake of making an extra dollar.
After all (and I think Morrie would agree) :
“It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.”
~C.S. Lewis
PRAISES *We continue to get closer to our financial goal. *The first week of the S.A.Y. Yes! summer program went really well! *New Life started the community garden last week. (pictures to come)
PRAYER REQUESTS *Continue to pray for our team (and city) to be fully funded by the end of our year. *Pray my roommates and I would have energy despite the heat and business. *Pray for my roommates and I as we continue to make decisions about our lives after Mission Year is over.
TEAM FINANCIAL UPDATE
Amount Raised: $54,208
Amount Still Needed: $5,792
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