Building Capacity in Others

Fred was struggling to carry his load. So, believing that he might benefit from my experience and extra capacity, I offered to carry it for him.

After a while, Fred became unhappy about the way that I was carrying it.

I tried to explain that the path, both behind and ahead of us, was difficult to pass, and that maybe his expectations were a little unrealistic.

All the same, Fred took it back in search of someone who might carry it in a more satisfying way.

Fred found Jim, who, in the large print, offers to carry the loads of others. Jim is a pretty popular guy. Fred also now feels much better about the way that his load is being carried.

If he had read the small print, Fred would also know that, due to a binding covenant with Jim, most of his load is actually being carried by me.

Beginning to feel a little exhausted, and desiring to pray for neither rest nor strength, I resolve that the most worthwhile thing to do is to try and help increase Fred's capacity to carry his own load.

Although this is not the kind of help that Fred is looking for.

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Voluntary Alienation

The idea of choosing to be an alien is, paradoxically, alien.

But the notion fascinates me, primarily because it is what I have done.

I didn’t realise that this was what I was signing up for in the beginning. Being knee deep in it was fun. But further in, it seems less fun, if more rewarding.

I am not alone; there are others at various stages of realisation and exploration, but we are not the same.
From where I stand, not only am I an alien; so is everybody else.

Though there is little correlation with geographical movement, alien travel itself can be exhausting. Sometimes I am the visitor and sometimes the visited. These phenomena occur both when I am at home and away.

Sometimes I am gripped by the land formations or the climate. Occasionally I become drawn to the people. And there’s so much to learn from aliens. But layers of protocol, tradition, language and presumption are thick; taking time and energy to shed if an understandable core is to be reached.

Being misunderstood is a garment that I wear. Few see beneath it because the fastenings are complex and there are few hosts who provide adequate facility to hang it up.

Others can adorn lenses to shield themselves from undesirable barriers and boundaries, but that is not a freedom that I have. For me, all are passable. Seeing uncharted thresholds brings me hope and the varied perspectives that I experience lead me towards necessary Copernican style revolutions in my thinking.

Being in this state has so widened my view of others, deepened my understanding of myself and thickened my experience of the God that I believe in.

Looking ahead, I often wish that I wasn’t one, but looking back I wouldn’t have it any other way. For a believer, the self-admission of voluntary alienation is incredibly freeing. If you can handle freedom.

A few thoughts, stirred by James Cameron’s movie Avatar which, amongst other things, touches on the matter.

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