Opening the Agora

I don't go out in public anymore.

I didn't realize it about myself until a couple of weeks ago, but there is no public in my life.

Parker J. Palmer, the author of a 1994 book entitled The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of Public Life, helped me to see the gaping hole in my life.

Before I gain a snap reputation as a hermit, let me clarify that I do go places where anyone can see what I'm doing. As a preacher, for at least an hour every Sunday morning I put myself out there. I walk to work sometimes, using state, county, and town roads. And I go to the bank, to Wal-mart, and TGIF on occasion.

What's more, I post stuff on the internet in the form of blogs and facebook comments. My daughter and I sit at the breakfast counter and watch CNN, FoxNews, and World World. I get exposed to stuff that a significant chunk of Americans and the world are witnessing.

None of this, argues Palmer, is truly public.

The first challenge of Palmer's book was redefining (or, in my case, really defining for the first time) the word "public." He asserts that the "public" is the body of strangers to whom we are connected by proximity but with whom we have no mandate to become familiar. To be "in public," for Palmer, means having to encounter, listen to, converse with, and perhaps for a time work with those who are strangers.

When I post a blog, I'm not really interacting with anyone. On facebook, I'm not encountering a real person; even when I take the typewritten words to heart, it's often from a person I know or to whom I am related. When I preach, I do so amidst a community of people who are far from strangers. When I get mad at, say, Eliot Spitzer's commentary on the CNN site, he can't see me and I'm in no way part of a conversation.

Town meetings, well-used local parks, protests, and free pools are examples of what Palmer considers truly public. Even schools, which we often call "public" and tout as the focal points of our communities, have tight reins on communication and get sub-divided into groups of narrow age or interest. Of Palmer's truly public fora, I frequent none.

I'll leave the well structured argument of Palmer's book for you to discover. If you're a Christian who considers part of our calling to be engagement with and witness in a wider world, then I recommend this book to you. If you're a reader who likes pictures, be prepared: it sacrifices stories and illustrations for abstract (though not extremely academic) discussion. Still, it will be worth your time.

For me, Palmer had the greatest impact on my present life with his first topic: the spiritual importance of encountering the stranger. Scripture is shot through with the Spirit's working between strangers. And I interact with strangers very rarely. Maybe too rarely. I wonder if the Lord is calling me to find (or make, a la Palmer) the public from whom I have become estranged.

And to discover the merciful truth that real people are not like the yelling heads on the "news" networks.

~ emrys