• Finding degrees of appeal to ease the process along •
[1 MIN READ]
Part of the human social experiment is learning to live in the larger world. Because I grew up in a relatively homogeneous community, the moment I started college, I had to start learning more about the world outside of that homogeneity. Naturally, I’m still learning.
One way of learning is seeking out opportunities to be in community with others who are unlike me. It’s easier to do when there are other degrees of appeal than just doing it for its own sake: Time is not unlimited.
A bunch of years ago I decided to take my running on the road—in this case to Philly from Jenkintown—to join Black Men Run. The degrees of appeal included the running, relatively short travel time, and a relatively familiar community. In the best ways, the experience exceeded expectations.
One benefit is being able to appreciate how much people appreciate being appreciated. I joined BMR’s Facebook group to help me with my experiencing. Sadly, after 2 visits to BMR, I wasn’t able to create additional opportunities. Recently, circumstances have allowed me to try again. What I hadn’t noticed is that the BMR moderator had dropped me from the group during my absence. (Apparently the group lacked appreciation over my own lack of appreciation.) That development contributed to me missing the run by an hour.
The effort I exert to attend will hopefully get me back into the BMR Facebook group. That will just improve my success appreciating them as a meaningful community in the future.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT
Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2023’12’27’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. This website posting: Cerebrun only with added caption.
Updated: 2024’01’03’W (Asian Me and Blackness link)
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