"They have the call or the courage to leave home for an adventure of some type—not really to solve any problem, but just to go out and beyond their present comfort zone....... On this journey or adventure, they in fact find their real problem They are almost always "wounded" in some way and encounter a major dilemma, and the whole story largely pivots around the resolution of the trials that result."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
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I thought that this described myself, to some degree in my early days. However, I think I am old enough that when I went out on my adventure to French West Africa, I truly thought I could help the world with some of it's problems. I went with a huge plan, desires, goals of what I had hoped to accomplish, how, and in what time frame. That was an expected way of approaching anything born of my generation.
I soon discovered that in seeking to help others, I too was in need of them, and their healing involvement in my life too. Problems, we all have problems.
However, I think Rohr really described this generation of world traveller very well. They have no plan, and, though it's tough for a guy of my generation to understand, I am beginning to think that, in the beginning at least, the youth of today start out best. Isn't it best to observe, listen, interact, engage, and share life with a person or a people first..... for long long time, before making a plan?
I lived a paradigm that saw us making a plan, with little input from the people we wanted to serve, problem solve among. Oh, we gave lip service to the idea the plan came after observing the people, but the reality is that this plan was devised in our own head, from behind desk, formed with outsider perceptions we have, that rarely reflect any reality.
We, no I, have something to learn from how these youth seek adventure, and healing of their wounds and pain. Though it was how I was taught to approach everythingng, problem solving is probably the very worst place to start.
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