Much of what my family & neighbors experienced as a rich community experience WAS wonderful, but it was handed to us. Literally. We were encouraged to be generous & kind, but there wasn't an urgent need to put our shoulder to the wheel, to create community-nurturing events. They were all around us, ready made.
In many ways, that history provides a great jumping off point to a renaissance of rich community experience. We can describe how it felt doing certain things, a good starting point for figuring what we can do to achieve a similar sense of connection.
Stewardship is the polar opposite of patriarchy. It is easy to see the importance of stewardship, but the lure of patriarchy is hard to recognize & resist.
To me, stewardship is making opportunities available & seeing when others point to them. It means speaking up, then stepping back, letting people embrace the opportunity or shie away from it. That is HARD, at least for me. Every fiber in my being wants to pursue, cajole, persuade. That is not stewardship.
Maybe it's not everyone's definition of the word, but for me stewardship is about helping people be themselves, whether I like it or not. It means leaving myself open for others to help me do the same. It is not about striving to control outcomes.
How does a town steeped in patriarchy recognize where its positive & negative impact on our culture, how it still influences us individually & within groups, and explore ways to become a steward-based community? Challenging, yet exciting. It won't take leadership or the outpourings of committees & charts, but the engagement of human hearts & hands.
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