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I’m Lucky; I’ll Reach Out, and Celebrate

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I've been thinking . . .

about helping each other.

I’ve noticed something about the people who know me as a blogger and those who have known me longer, but don’t know the blogosphere.

Over the past few months, many blogger friends — friends I have known less than two years — have asked for help and offered help. In fact, I told someone yesterday that it’s hard to talk to a blogger without hearing, “How can I help you? or Thank you for reaching out.” In the past few days, blogger friends and I have found work for each other, worked together on projects, and when someone was in trouble people immediately rallied around to help.

Helping is a bloggerly thing. So is blogger synchronicity.

Friends I know from the 3-D world — friends that I’ve known longer, much longer — are having the same kinds of problems. Yet, they don’t call me or each other. I hear about their troubles when I call to see how they are. They struggle alone or with one friend who helps them. It’s not that they think I won’t help. They don’t think about me at all. They think they must walk alone through paved streets.

Asking for help seems to be not a worldly thing. Neither does letting many people too close seem to be.

I wonder at how small a big city seems when the world is our community.

I can reach out to people across the country. People of so many skills and gifts have taught me incredible things. I have learned to believe in the power of people and dreams.

I introduced a friend from the world of brick and mortar to a friend in the world of blogging today. She said she believed that when the learner is ready, the teacher appears.

Another blogger friend brought a nonblogger in trouble to me for help.

This weekend I’ll celebrate blogger generosity by looking for ways to give help away.

How could anyone how has received so much, do any less?

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Gosh, Aren’t We Supposed to Be . . .

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Some Days

Cell phones and computers aren’t as fun as . . .

crayons.

crayons

If we’re working
for a living, aren’t we
supposed to be

living?

Life is supposed to be

fun and inspiring.

I’m not confused about this one.
Sometimes we’re supposed to be

playing.

I’m sure about that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Traditions: Who We Are and What We Value

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Identity and Relationships

relationships button

I think about how my world has changed since I was a child. Family traditions, traditions with friends, were liberally scattered throughout my life. Those handed down were savored and serious. Silly ones came about doing something spontaneous. The simple, soft, and sentimental still make me smile. They weave together the relationships and interactions that formed who I am.

But times change. Traditions seem harder to hold onto.

Once extended families held us closer to home, closer together. Now we are more isolated from each other. We change jobs. We move houses. We marry later. We have smaller families. As a culture, we are alone more often and longer.

We leave behind some traditions. National traditions are being questioned or hidden in respect for those who don’t feel reflected within them or who find fault with the values of a given tradition.

Who We Are and What We Value

Traditions take time and investment. Their very nature requires a buy-in at some level. They are a critical cultural benchmark of who we are and what we value.

In the script to “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye explains the importance of tradition to a culture.

A fiddler on the roof…
Sounds crazy, no?
But here, in our little village of Anatevka,
you might say
every one of us is a fiddler on the roof.
Trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune
without breaking his neck.
It isn’t easy.
You may ask,
why do we stay up there
if it’s so dangerous?
Well, we stay because
Anatevka is our home.
And how do we keep our balance?
That I can tell you in one word!
Tradition!
[snip]
Because of our traditions,
we’ve kept our balance for many, many years.
Here in Anatevka,
we have traditions for everything.
How to sleep.
How to eat.
How to work.
How to wear clothes. . . .
For instance,
we always keep our heads covered,
and always wear a little prayer shawl.
This shows our constant devotion to God.
You may ask,
how did this tradition get started?
I’ll tell you.
I don’t know.
But it’s a tradition.
And because of our traditions,
every one of us knows who he is
and what God expects him to do. . . .
[snip]
Without our traditions,
our lives would be as shaky as
As…
As a fiddler on the roof!

Are we leaving behind traditions without replacing them? Are we leaving behind our sense of self with them? Are we losing track of what we value? What traditions hold us together still?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Personal Identity: Selfless Giving and Giving Ourselves Away

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Can we talk about . . .

giving.

In a conversation about humility, Zakman commented on a comment I made.

“I don’t think a lot about humility. I try to think about other folks always and try to always make room for them.”

with a question

“Isn’t that more like a people pleasing attitude? Which, again, indicates vaguely towards a lack of personal conviction?”

We’re taught that “It’s better to give than to receive.”

Giving — giving love, giving space, giving money, giving something always wished for, or giving time together — as Zackman points out, is more than merely handing over what one has to another.

Still, the act of selflessly giving — freely offering all that one is or can give — looks the same as the act of giving ourselves away to gain acceptance.

We might call one who does the first a hero or a saint. We might call the second a victim, a person with no self-worth. How do we tell one from the other when we see someone giving so much? How do we know which one we are when we do the same?

What determines the difference between selfless giving and giving ourselves away?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Change the World: Truth and Humility
Personal Identity: What Is Humility?

A Virtual Tour of Yourself

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Four Rooms of My Own

A friend sent this quote to me a few days ago.

There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.” – Rumer Godden

I’ve been thinking about the rooms that I spend the most time in.

A good airing out is as easy as a walk through my house.

What might you do to take a virtual tour of yourself?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Something about Bloggers and a Chocolate Bar

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I've been thinking . . .

It’s not every day that i meet for dinner people that I’ve never met before. But it was a blogger’s blind date of sorts that brought Ann and me to a restuarant where we found CK, Sean, and Matt.

We were bloggers every one.

Ann, CK, Liz, Sean

. . .
What is it about bloggers that makes conversation so natural? . . . Have you noticed?

Have you seen what happens when we meet? . . . a hug — even the shy ones, the I’m not Kumbayah ones seem to have that part down.

A lack of small talk seems to be the hallmark of wuch a grand event.

Like a first date, after dinner, we went walking, and picking up a detail said in passing ealier, Sean pointed out an Internet Cocoa Bar. We inside for an after dinner conversation about the world, each other, and how telephones work.

At one point we remarked that the little shop would be perfect place to take a first date to extend as evening — just the right amount of intimate, casual, and romantic.

It was exactly what we had done.

Blogger relationships seem to come easy . . . like talking over real hot chocolate in a fabulous chocolate bar?

Sweet.

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