Sunday, July 08, 2007

Communication
Chance? Work? A Miracle?


I have been blessed in my life so far to have been impacted an mentored by many people I now cherish. I didn't necessarily appreciate and/or enjoy all of the relationships with some of them during the moment, but I now see how I have been formed and shaped (for good and bad) by them. One of them is an older woman who lived a long fruitful life of many relationships. She was the wife of a pastor who sought to sharpen other people and mature future leaders by basically taking the role of a devil's advocate. Granted many times I wanted to half-nelson her (which would have been totally inappropriate as I was in my 20s and she in her 70s when I first met her - but it sure what have felt good - until I would have had to call 911)...but I digress. The point of the matter is that she taught me a lot. One of the sayings she often repeated was a truism I learned to experience only through her consistent dronings.


"Communication is a miracle."


In my flippant reponses I thought it was stupid, so obvious, too trite to matter...yet on further relfection through life experience, theological wondering, and hopefully personal maturation through social interaction and work experience, I find Isabelle's comment to be so true that it's a bit frightening.


I've thought much about her in the past week or so. I recently posted a blog article entitled "Shop Farmer Joe's". Since then I've heard and recieved several comments by email and phone call about my words/response to the continuing and emerging situation around the unionization debate and spoiled-food-claim-debacle swiming around the Farmer Joe's store in the Dimond and the deep shared desire for meaningful and meaning-making community within the larger context of East Oakland, and specifically the Dimond District (in which I primarily work as serve as pastor of a neighborhood church). Divided between pro-union and pro-business (as we always like to spin our various and diverse positions in a positive light) they all expressed that first and foremost they are pro-neighborhood...excited about the Dimond, proud to live in East Oakland...to have stayed, to have not fled to Piedmont, Orinda, or other safer places through the Caldecot or with a different zip code. They're proud and hopeful that the emergence and opening of Farmer Joe's in the Dimond (after the oringinal store in the Laurel) is a big sign and continuing catalyst of deep, systemic and organizational transformation within our neighborhood seeking to articulate, affirm and embrace the identity - both historic and emerging - of the place in which we move and live and have our being.


In some brief and rapid online reading tonight, I ran across a hot-off-the-keyboard-presses blog entry from Kristine Dang on her Dimondites site entitled "garbage" in which she shares a bit about some of the mis-communication and dis-communication directed towards her in terms of her response and blogging on the whole Farmer Joe's situation. I'm not meaning to take sides, nor taking the easy solution of seeking to be Switzerland. But I can say I deeply appreciate her Dimondites Blog and echo her desire for community and organic, inclusive and participatory dialogue/community within the larger Dimond Context.


Why is it that communication has to be a miracle? In the past week I've had several conversations that went no where. There was no connection. There was no listening because there were either too many elephants in the room or unclaimed baggage needing to be unpacked. I'm not saying I was in the right all the time. Yet the sadness of these multiple encounters were that they weren't encounters or dialogues...they were more like ships passing in the night with horns blowing, or sermonettes preached to another person, or cacaphonic noise. There was no encounter, only failed manipulation, propaganda dissimenation, and endoctrination efforts. Communication is more than just getting a message across. It's more about encounter and dialogue, about two subjects talking with - not just to - each other, in a way that invites and nurtures relationships, births community, and creates initiative towards shared, joint and mutually participatory action. More and more I suspect that there is indeed something sacred about communication. Maybe it is only possible by God's presence, purpose or passion. Maybe a theologian (John V. Taylor) I once read is correct in asserting that the Spirit of God is the "Go Between God" who makes all relationships, inter-personal encounters, and community not only meaningful and meaning-making but also possible. Without something present other than just our will-to-power, or egos, or desires wether spoken or unspoken...no communicaiton, no encounter, can happen.

Reminds me of the words of the apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of his first letter written to the early Christian church community in ancient Corinth

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as
to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all
my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not
have love, I gain nothing.

Words are cheap - as the saying goes...yet Love is the thing that seems most absent in my recent non-encounters and refelections. I'm struck by Kristine's words tonight...and so many others of the past days. Maybe they're brief encounters that leave me longing for more, deeper discussion and thoughtufl dialogue, pointing towards an emerging initiative for shared action in the context of community, instilling in me a desire for love like Paul writes of or the Indigo Girls sing of when they say "love is just like breathing when it's true."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

By publishing anonymous attacks against the union on her blog, Kristine does not demonstrate "her desire for community and organic, inclusive and participatory dialogue/community within the larger Dimond Context."

The anonymous attacks against the union were OK, but when an anonymous poster displeased her she wrote on her blog: "I will kick your ass."

Anonymous said...

This is amazing - a pastor with no sense of social justice, a pastor who thinks the way to grow a community is to support a business built on substandard wages and disrespectful working conditions. At least Jerry Falwell was candid about his basic values. --Charles Pine

Monte said...

I appreciate Tim's continued dialogue with me around our shared Dimond Community and the struggle around the relationships between the union and Farmer Joe's. In our phone calls, emails and blog exchanges we encounter each other, seeking to dream and work together for the good of everyone in our community. Charles. I don't know you and haven't had the chance to meet you yet at the many community events in and around East Oakland. Obviously by your comments you don't know me or the church community in which I'm a part and how we interact and care for the diverse people of the Dimond District. If you want to talk with me about these things, you'll find my basic values both quite transparent and public.

Monte

Corn Dog said...

This is a wonderful post. I think all the time about communication, and the lack thereof. I wonder too what makes successful communication. And I wonder too about communication in general. What I think is a wonderful enlightening post, others do not. Communication again?

Anonymous said...

Then there is the little thing called “agendas," which have nothing to do with communication. Tim, the whole community knows you are in bed with UFCW local 5. And if you read Kristine's comments, you took the last sentence out of long piece describing how hard she works. Can you say "out of context?"

Then, there is the comment by Charles Pine. Charles, you obviously do not know Monte at all. You have never been to his church. You have never heard him preach. You have never talked to him. He is a funny, kind, and lovable person who has the best intentions for his parishioners, the neighborhood and all people – not just the ones around here. Above all else, he is blatantly honest.

Also, you have never been in Farmer Joe’s. You have never talked to the employees. I have. Their wages are not substandard. The employer pays the health care and the vision. The ones I talked to don’t want a union. So what is your agenda? Sadly, from your harassing and antagonistic statements I suspected you were trying to drive a wedge into community. Typical union tactics. I checked. LM-2 filings 2006 file id 015-724. For those not in the know, all unions must file an LM-2 report of what they pay their employees. This information is public knowledge. You are record #184. You work for the California Nurses Union as a “Research Assistant.” Your representational activities are 80%. You are paid $118,459. You are out front of Farmer Joe’s no doubt leafleting with the UFCW local 5.

For those who wish to see LM-2 filings:
http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQry.do
And then enter the filing number.
The local UFCW filing #’s for last year were:
047-332, 022-639, 027-504, 047-721, 015-584, 509-956, 005-630. Millions of dollars paid to local UFCW officers and employees from union members dues. Charles, talk about substandard.
--Dimond Shopper

Anonymous said...

I have lived in this neighborhood for over twenty years and have been an active volunteer for years.

Dimond Shopper, who are you?

You suggest that you are a member of the Dimond community -- a protector of that community from Pine's "wedges."

Anonymity drives big wedge into the community

When I walk around the neighborhood I don't see anyone wearing a mask, not in the streets, not in Cafe Diem, and I'm sure that when Monte meets the Fruitvale Presbyterian community on Sunday, he is not greeted by a congregation hiding their identity.

I doubt that you would have the standing to lecture me about the Dimond community if you identified yourself, and you certainly don't have it anonymously.

Charles Pine identified himself and you search the Web for information about him.

You do this anonymously so we can't do a search about you -- why?

You seem to understand community as a form of asymmetrical warfare: the others identify themselves and you attack you from the shadows.

Anonymous said...

It's a very sad situation when outside interests intentionally corrupt and poison our community from the inside, as Timmy and Charles Andrews are doing. Their Union belief system preys on the honest citizens, without regard for our safety or economic needs. They are phonies and haters and we should pray for their souls. Please join me in contributing to their salvation. Thank you, Monte, for your neighborhood service and commitment.
John Nunes