Interdependence

Two Cups of Tea

Let’s have a cup of tea or java and chat a bit.

(My apologies for the previous version. I had difficulty getting it to post and in that process some of it became totally nonsensical!)

We may attempt to isolate ourselves; yet sooner or later we need a sense of community.

In 2003, the movie The Station Agent featured the main character, a dwarf,

who is bitter after years of humiliation and torment.  He is

employed at a store that sells and repairs model trains.  When his

employer dies, the main character discovers he has inherited a piece

of property from him that has an old abandoned train station on it.

 the station is in an isolated place, but with no other obvious plan, he

moves there, in large part because the anticipated solitude appeals to

him.

              Immediately his solitude is disrupted, first by a distracted

woman who accidentally bumps him off the road with her car, and

 then by a young man who parks his mobile hot dog stand near the

 abandoned train station, which the dwarf now inhabits.  The

woman, it turns out, is in deep grief, separated from her

husband since the accidental death of their school age son.

  The young man with the mobile hot dog stand is operating the

stand for his father who has fallen into ill health.  Each of

them is struggling with personal pain of one sort or another.  but

over the course of the movie, the relationships they build with one

another and the community they develop among themselves

become the instruments of their healing. 

              What a beautiful reminder that we have this capacity for one another. 

But even in the best of times we benefit from community.  Last night, a yoga

instructor friend invited me over for her to help me with poses to strengthen

my back.  On the way back, another friend and close neighbor texted to

invite me for a visit.  Before I left, they asked if I had any plans for my

birthday, since Terry is currently out of town and won’t be back till several days

after that.  When I said, no, they offered their companionship for that day.

George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying: “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as i live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.”

Indeed it is our privilege to be part of the community and to work on behalf of all. Right on, George Bernard Shaw!