Care Out in the Open
In cities we each pursue our passions in diverse work, and in doing so we end up looking after each other. Laura looks after our teeth. Arundeep moves gravel to construction sites. Rob looks after teaching our kids. Thor looks after our bodies. Vicki helps me pay for my groceries. Nancy looks after how we keep track of our money. Scott makes decisions on our behalf at city council. Liz looks after kids we seem to forget about. Anand helps make sure the climate for business is healthy. Lin is pursuing nanotechnology. All together, we are, in theory, looking after ourselves and growing ourselves.
There’s another layer to this: we can not assume that we are caring for each other. Care needs to be out in the open, or it isn’t happening.
“Care needs to be out in the open, or it isn’t happening.”
Assuming we are, in fact, caring for each other is not good enough. It needs to be explicit, not hidden.
At the scale of a partnership, or a family, a group or even a city, when someone tells us they are in need of something, we need to acknowledge they are heard. Hearing is a first step in caring; we have to care enough to hear.
In the messiness of city life people are asking for what they need at every turn. It might be an organization looking for financial support to better serve people that need caring. It might be the message emerging from the Inquiry into Missing Indigenous Women and Girls that took place in my city this month: looking for people in power to care about their struggles. It might be taxpayers asking for better oversight on how we spend our shared resources. It might be an environmental group pointing out the things we do that harm ourselves. All of this work makes our communities better and stronger – but only if we truly care about self and others.
To care out in the open means I have to be willing to first care about what people have to say – to stop and listen, acknowledge what I heard. To care out in the open also means that I need to be willing to change my thinking and my actions because of what I have heard. To care out in the open means I am willing to be changed by what I hear.
“To care out in the open means I am willing to be changed by what I hear.”
Do you care enough to hear, to be changed by what you hear? If you do, you are improving your city. No matter how small or large.
REFLECTION:
What is an example of something you heard that caused you to change your way of thinking or feeling about a situation?
How did you fight being changed by what you hear?
Under what conditions do you allow yourself to be changed by what you hear?