Question:
Have you ever considered collaboration in your own work? What inhibitions might you have about doing collaborative work? To what extent do you think your reservations are flavoured by Western notions of individual expression? How might a Christian concept of community challenge or inform some of these assumptions?
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Right now I am struggling with understanding how to collaborate with my medium, the pen, computer, typing, papers. To write is in a way to collaborate with something other than yourself, words can truly take on a meaning of their own even when you try to control them. I am in conflict with writing when i dont understand it, how to work with it, how to enjoy this gift.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens when we collaborate with a person? I suppose similar conflicts as i experience in writing would be my inhibition.
I think the west tells us to be free, which means to be comfortable, to be anonymous and autonomous, alone and unknown. These ideas do not push us to know and work with other people.
In stark contrast, Christian community is found in love. I think that is why it is worth facing conflict, working through it to understand others, and enjoying the fullness of relationships.
It is only in this latter story that i would consider collaboration. I wonder how often i do live in love, or just consider it.
I have to say, that as much as I love the idea of collaboration; individualistic tendencies have almost become too ingrained. If I collaborated with someone, I think I would cringe at every brush-stroke or change the other person made.
ReplyDeleteBut, like Matt pointed out, Christian community is a community. We were made to work together and not follow the temptation of focusing on only ourselves. I think that repeated collaboration would make us more at ease with the idea of our individuality being… not quite squashed, but set aside. It’s not about us. We are supposed to act as different parts of one body, ultimately working for the same goal. So shouldn’t it be natural for us to want to work together?
Acts of collaboration involves humility - to not just acknowledge the other, but to celebrate and embrace the other. Collaboration viewed as a compromise of self, rather than a more full realization of self through the other (Charles Taylor, I think), is a stunted, self-suffocating, individualistic approach.
ReplyDeleteIn my own experience of collaboration, as others have suggested here, is painful and trying. But the investment multiplies!