Desk Top Puddling. It's close to occuring right here at this very desk. (Mmm, ahh, I could just put my head down for a little nap, just a little rest...) Why I am so tired, I do not know. I suppose it has to do with my lack of work to do. Brain has no stimulation. Refusal to create busywork. Another cup of coffee at this point will be my undoing.
Yesterday I got to participate in a focus group comprised of 11 Executive Directors (or close to it) of social service agencies from Athens and surrounding countie,s one mid-level person from the local DV shelter...and me. This is the perk of being the Acting Dir of Caregiving (techinically I am my own boss right now) and having the Exec Dir away for a training seminar for the week. It was a little awkward, being the obviously youngster in the group (and also the only one in jeans and sneakers--hey! At least I remembered to shave!), but it was also enjoyable. I like to watch bigwigs in their element, particularly when there's a collection of them in a peer setting. So many personalities, so many agendas. And almost all of them are good agendas, and very thoughtful, and desiring to be helpful. And yet seemingly so removed from the front-lines of what their agencies do or the people they serve. But, we did good work yesterday, brainstorming trouble spots in the local Appalachian Ohio culture and informing a local grantor of those areas. So, maybe some new money and new ideas will sprout here in the coming years.
I do not have faith or hope in the power of programs to change a person's life. Programs only work if people are already self-motivated to change, and nary but a few have the capacity for that sort of bootstrap pulling. Real change only seems to come through loving, safe, long-term relationships. People, not programs, change people.
Time for another cup of coffee.
4 comments:
People can't change people either. But me thinks sometimes God uses people to show particularly messed up people how to be more normal, more loving, more honest, more socially acceptable??? I think love changes people. A person desiring and manipulating another person into change doesn't work. But unconditional love...and sometimes consequences (maybe) within relationships change people. And sometimes people introduce people to God. And that changes everything. -jd
In response to the previous comment. I am not sure that I agree with the statement that God uses people to make other's more "normal" or "socially acceptable". It is dangerous when we start to view ourselves as normal and others as "really messed up".
I do agree that God uses people to change others, but I believe that His goal is much higher. I believe He changes people to be more in the image of Christ, which (when really focused on) is neither normal or socially acceptable. That is all.
Well I don't know what changes people, but I sure know what confuses 'em: squirrels and internal-combustion engines. Man, you put people in a room full of squirrels and V6s and see what happens. Zany fun!
Oops. I didn't edit my comment how I thought I did. That sentence is all wrong. Sorry. jd
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