I was just emailed a blog post by Derek Silvers where he is talking about being local or global, and his decisions about it. Honestly, if I were in his bucket where I was better able to see the consistent fruits of my work, I could probably easily answer the same. Still, it was sent to me, and an opinion was asked for – I think I have one, especially in light of the weight that I’ve realized on myself over this past week.
Where things are concerned with me, I deal inside of a faith sphere where the local connection is more esteemed than the global one. You see, the question after the realization of my life as a Christian is always “where is your home church?” I tend to hate that question. Mainly because there hasn’t been a local church that I’ve found that shares my global-local-remixing ways. Forgetting for the moment that I have been a part of various churches, I’ve been at my best and happiest when dealing with those items that point to life outside of that specific community.
Here’s the part where I reflect how I am writing this here, but very few will read this… they don’t come to this blog, though they acknowledge that I have some kind of thing with computers and online that I do… [sigh]
Then there is the global me. Well, the part that seems that it is global. I’m not really sure that I’m all that global at all. I’ve stumbled into a magazine that gets some kind of nod on a world’s stage. I continue to participate in text/chatting communities where the bulk of activity happens when I’m sleep (but they are awake). And when I do travel, there’s a sense of peace about it… that if I didn’t make that trip – regardless of how comfortable, lonely, or unimpressive it is – that I am doing something that is fulfilling… in part.
I’m not as clear on this as Silvers is. I get that I lean globally more than I do locally. But, without those bike rides, coffeeshop visits, and random invites to events, I don’t know that I would have the same color to living. There’s a both-and to Silver’s question. At least for those of us whom are on this side of economies and reputations. Sure, I wish (at times) that I could travel more. My lower back hurts right now from the trip I just had, and my mind won’t stop working, so I’ve got to have something local to go along with the global touching.
Perhaps there’s something in addition. I want to call it a remix. Where there’s both local and global happening, but a moving in and out of both spheres. Where you aren’t in need of services to check-in to places, but that it does help to have a device (or two) which can navigate socio-political boundaries. I want to say that right now, I’m more of a remix of this local-global thing for sometime longer.
There could be other items at play here. I wonder if there’s a place on a mapping application for this one?
* Corrected the first name of Mr. Silvers.
blog.arjw 