Politics
Ya, I know, I just lost half my newsletter audience by simply reading the title. For those of you who remain however, let’s consider some things.
The Greek root word for politics is “politika”. In our current culture, the word carries a lot of emotion. However, like all things, it can be reduced to a very simple concept that does not necessarily have to lead to division, chaos, bigotry, and/or hatred.
It is a word that simply means “doing life together.” When you understand it at its core, it is really a beautiful word that expresses the communities in which many of us would aspire to live. I think we all have a vision of the side of politics that bothers us, even hate, but think of the positive side of us making collective decisions to “do life together.”
How many of you are glad we have a central distribution system for our sewage? Flush the toilet and away it does through a network of plumbing to a treatment facility. It was “politika” in first century Rome that first developed a community wide disposal system. Ya, I know, I just lost half of those who are still reading.
Politics has led us to the development of travel systems including city roads, highways, interstates, airports, trains, etc. Systems that safely and efficiently deliver food and other goods for consumption or use in our community. Leadership at the community, state, regional, and national level that helps to gather community member input and enact it into a law for the betterment of the whole. Please don’t believe me to be a “Pollyanna” here. I know of the potential and reality of ego driven corruption which is the risk of all political systems.
In many ways, Serve Wenatchee’s humble beginnings was a God directed political decision to find ways to do life together by supporting the most vulnerable in our community. We connect people and resources to restore HOPE for a better future. In August, I saw the beauty of politics in action at our Back-to-School event. Serve Wenatchee and CVCH came together to offer the opportunity for our community to serve your neighbors with donations of time and money. Because we came together, over 1000 children received backpacks with school supplies and a new set of clothes to start the year out right.
The problems we face are many and quite complicated and we may be too far down the road to redeem the word, Political in our culture. But not the concept. Let’s continue to find ways to simply “Do Life Together” by serving one another, with one another, for one another.