Because of the high volume of traffic on Main Street, many businesses have a hard time keeping their sidewalks clean from dirt and litter. I’ve noticed that some proprietors just give up and turn the maintenance over to Mother Nature. One of our local churches relocated to Main Street and last Saturday I watched an elderly woman sweeping the sidewalk, gutter and the parking spaces adjacent to their front door. Because of her age and the way she was dressed I assume she was a volunteer rather than the janitor. Her cleaning might easily be undone before the next day’s service and will likely go unnoticed by others as they hurry into worship, but it was not done in vain. I felt a rush of appreciation for her efforts on behalf of her church and on behalf of the Lord.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----It is hard to say if this woman took it upon herself to sweep, or if the congregation was asked for someone to do it. Either way, somebody, in the interest of maintaining a neat appearance made at least a tiny contribution to the community. If some neighboring business or citizen would have quickly done the same, the contribution would have increased. The more others would have responded likewise, the more a community spirit would have returned. Don’t mistake what I mean. The contribution was not a clean sidewalk, it was the spirit.
-----Freedom has become a confusing concept. I grew up with the “do your own thing” kids. It was difficult for me to sort out, because my childhood was spent in a culture that understood shared values and mindsets. Social norms were important then. There was no law that said you had to act within certain expected norms. People simply expected you to do it. If you didn’t, your community image suffered, and by that, your opportunities dwindled. Fair enough. So co-operative actions maintained expectations, and expectations encouraged co-operative actions. For the most part, norms benefited the community like swept sidewalks. So you’re not all that free if you have to sweep your sidewalk to get any respect around the community.
-----But then came the late 60’s tirade on social norms by the “do your own thing” kids. It amazed me how much they each diligently sorted everything into “my bag” or “not my bag”, as if nothing they did or did not do had any effect on anyone else. Fortunately, I even got caught up in it somewhat; now I see it from both an inside perspective and an outside perspective. It set a course for the replacement of humility with arrogance and social responsibility with narcissism. Community spirit and social responsibility are not dead, of course. As long as people live close enough to one another there will always be at least a low level of these extending from the simple fact most people do not want to be at continual war with everyone around them. But the delicacies of what differentiates mere common existence from the beauty of outright caring for one another have been stripped from our social norms and shredded. We are not living free when we momentarily have to abandon our own narcissism and exert extra effort to gain the trust, let alone the respect, of “what’s his name” living next door.
-----Either way, freedom is not all that free. Deep inside I wanted to yell, “Freedom is not for what you do, it is for how you do what you’re responsible to do!” at all the little “do your own thing” brats. I thank God I yelled it at myself when I was being one.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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