It Takes a Village

As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.

~ Amy Poehler

At the start of the New Year, we often are relieved to see the new milestone. Runners on the marathon called Life, we are appreciative of accomplishing just one more mile that we often solely place our focus on the road or path. But how often have we taken in the scenery of the road, or take note of the landscape as we pass?  How often are we grateful for perhaps the circumstances leading to this promotion point – the cycler in front of us leading the direction all these miles or the person who took time to flag the directions so that we would not get lost?  There are even more persons who are involved: those who rose early in the morning just to serve water as you passed by, the official starter shooting the gun to signal the race’s commencement and the volunteer at the end, passing out the tee-shirt. Yes, indeed, there is far more than just ourselves involved in our successes.

We mention those surrounding our successes not to diminish the quality of our work, or our involvement in it, but to recognize the necessity of a communal experience.  To understand that for every opportunity, there is a provider and a recipient.  To realize that for every investment there is a giver and a receiver, that neither exist without the other.  There would be no blog without a computer and keyboard, or a website that allows simple creation for those who do not understand html.  There is no solitary achievement that did not come from practices and processes that predate us. 

People often overlook that Jesus referred often to history and the culture in which he grew up.  As a practicing Jew, all the major Christian events we celebrate are observed near or around the end of a major Jewish festival (Christmas is after Hanukkah; Easter after Passover).  There are many places in the bible where a story will start by identifying the time and place, so that we understand what is happening.  Jesus is, as a child, inquisitive and found questioning the priests in the temple long after is family had left, comprehending that he would go nowhere without that spiritual foundation.  He understood, as Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a reads, “9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.”  All this means is we have to be humble, sensitive and respectful of what made our dreams possible.

A record can not be broken at a marathon if there are no rules, governing bodies or scorekeepers.  As we continued our journey, let us keep in mind to reflect on the full community’s sacrifice on our decisions, for those before us made it possible for us to run in the first place.

Consider all these persons who had a hand in shaping your present.  Thank them, for even if your situation seems less than stellar, now is only a segment on the race, in the end, the miles will add up to one great overall performance.