A Lesson From Single-Lane Scottish Roads & Stanley Hauerwas On Community
note: pictured above – a single-lane road on the Isle of Mull
Two of my favorite authors – Jean Vanier and Stanley Hauerwas – collaborated on a book together: Living Gently in a Violent World—The Prophetic Witness of Weakness. While talking about the need for community, Hauerwas says…
I love the Isle of Mull in Scotland—for one, it is beautiful. But I also love the roads on Mull. They are all single-lane with a pullover about every five hundred yards. Driving on those roads is a constant negotiation; you see a car coming and you have to make a judgment about who should pull off first.
To drive on Mull requires constant cooperative trust.
I think it makes a difference for the whole community. If you stay on Mull for a while, you discover that everybody knows one another. They have a sense of one another’s strengths and weaknesses.
That’s exactly what we try to plan out of our lives today—that kind of cooperative relationship.
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I am a husband, father, pastor, leader & reader. I love God, love people & love life.
The weakness referenced in this excerpt sounds quite different than what we would assume from our culture. I have not yet read the book, but I wonder if it’s akin to the word “meek” as used in the Bible…
I’m sold based on the title of the book!
Living gently in a violent world. Wow. #signmeup