A baby enters the world a unique individual with certain traits, talents, aptitudes, intelligence, potentials. These are the gifts - the raw materials - we bring with us. A community that doesn't value and support the cultivation of these individual qualities will probably be stagnant. There's no formula for authenticity other than allowing it to flourish - giving it water, good soil and sunlight. That's the community's job.
In the meanwhile, we individuals have to be comfortable with whatever level of solitude is needed for us to flourish and work with the raw materials we were given. That's our job. Being in "hermit mode" is like being a seed in the ground. It's needed for ideas to germinate. Creative individuals and supportive communities are like the seeds and the garden; one doesn't exist without the other.
Our closest relationships have the most depth. They impact our path as individuals the most. Further relationships are less authentic and don’t provide useful feedback the same way. A spousal relationship, parent-child, sibling will provide real material for self-improvement; rockstar- fan does not. Social media highlights the distant rockstar-fan type relationships. Our society’s esteem for marriage and prioritization of family had eroded long before social media.
Here’s an example. A young mother, when covid started, predicted that teens would fare very poorly with covid restrictions as the restrictions enabled and encouraged social media and eliminated or severely restricted face to face interactions, exacerbating an already existing trend. I specify a young mother because none of her kids were actually teens yet.
Teens did fare poorly.
But teens in a traditional family unit interact with parents and siblings, grandparents even, not just their friends. Secular modern society dictates that it’s unfair to teens to interact with anyone outside of their own age range. In a traditional society, teens are part of a family, with rights and responsibilities, just like anyone else. Teens and young adults in thriving families had an opportunity to spend real time with their families that they would never have had without covid; many don’t live at home anymore. This was a silver lining during a terrible time.
A very valuable Torah Talk. Well done. Hashem demands individual responsibility, unlike all these secular "woke" cults which demand the individual is meaningless and that only the group matters.
If a person is never along with his or her thoughts (there are no other options), that person never fully forms, never has the time and space to reflect on what he or she takes from the crowd.
as in chassidic thought, one must “run and return” - go out to the community and back onto i self - it is a constant motion.
That's a wonderful way of putting it!
A baby enters the world a unique individual with certain traits, talents, aptitudes, intelligence, potentials. These are the gifts - the raw materials - we bring with us. A community that doesn't value and support the cultivation of these individual qualities will probably be stagnant. There's no formula for authenticity other than allowing it to flourish - giving it water, good soil and sunlight. That's the community's job.
In the meanwhile, we individuals have to be comfortable with whatever level of solitude is needed for us to flourish and work with the raw materials we were given. That's our job. Being in "hermit mode" is like being a seed in the ground. It's needed for ideas to germinate. Creative individuals and supportive communities are like the seeds and the garden; one doesn't exist without the other.
One can be alone and yet be connected. Both are valued and sacred.
Or is it ‘alone together’?
Our closest relationships have the most depth. They impact our path as individuals the most. Further relationships are less authentic and don’t provide useful feedback the same way. A spousal relationship, parent-child, sibling will provide real material for self-improvement; rockstar- fan does not. Social media highlights the distant rockstar-fan type relationships. Our society’s esteem for marriage and prioritization of family had eroded long before social media.
Here’s an example. A young mother, when covid started, predicted that teens would fare very poorly with covid restrictions as the restrictions enabled and encouraged social media and eliminated or severely restricted face to face interactions, exacerbating an already existing trend. I specify a young mother because none of her kids were actually teens yet.
Teens did fare poorly.
But teens in a traditional family unit interact with parents and siblings, grandparents even, not just their friends. Secular modern society dictates that it’s unfair to teens to interact with anyone outside of their own age range. In a traditional society, teens are part of a family, with rights and responsibilities, just like anyone else. Teens and young adults in thriving families had an opportunity to spend real time with their families that they would never have had without covid; many don’t live at home anymore. This was a silver lining during a terrible time.
Very powerful words and so very true.
A very valuable Torah Talk. Well done. Hashem demands individual responsibility, unlike all these secular "woke" cults which demand the individual is meaningless and that only the group matters.
If a person is never along with his or her thoughts (there are no other options), that person never fully forms, never has the time and space to reflect on what he or she takes from the crowd.