Yes, yes, yes
Submitted by Heather on April 23 1999 at 15:49:11
In reply to My Mission Submitted by Bach on April 23 1999 at 09:20:04
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"I would never live in a suburban setting and presume to be able to come in and solve the problems of the inner city. But, if I move to the inner city, spend several years getting to know a neighborhood and its problems, build relationships of trust with my neighbors, then at some point down the road I will have an impact." Initially, I didn't consciously try to figure out why I didn't stay over the border when I arrived at the boylove boards, asking questions in a cool and detached fashion (as in fact I do when covering any other subject). It just seemed obvious to me that boylove was a subject so little known to the outside world that I couldn't possibly hope to understand it even a little bit unless I entered the boylove world and took part in the conversations. I do think that, from a journalistic point of view, the connections began to prove a problem after a certain point, which is why I wrapped up my "boylove world from an outsider's perspective" journalism and started looking at other ways to approach the subject. I'm perfectly happy doing Unconditional Love now – that's the type of work I can do without having to worry about whether I'm becoming too emotionally involved with the people I'm working with. But I think that what the outside world worries about is that those suburbanites are going to start thinking only like inner city people and not be able to offer any new ideas. I do think that the value of having outsiders come in and contribute is lost if the outsiders aren't able to provide their special perspective – it's the difference, say, between interfaith dialogue in which people of different faiths enrich each other's understanding and interfaith dialogue which ends with one group being converted to the faith of the other group. That's all horribly simplified, of course, because all of us here have more in common than in division. But I think that Paul's remarks about the "varieties of gifts" is appropriate here. Heather |