Clarification

A friend who knows me pretty well said this by way of introducing a comment: "I know you don't like him, but Jean Vanier says..."

So I suspect other folks who know me think I don't like Vanier. But I do. What I don't like is people who read his books, take a class or write a paper, and start yammering about "community." Because invariably they are in the very place he warns against: self-indulgence. Community begins to mean "the gang's all here!" Or it remains an idea, and talking becomes the same as doing.

I have had to quit using the word community because it has been stripped of all meaning. Unless community now means, "the place where I am comfortable, constantly affirmed, and there's only the people I like."

I like Vanier very much; it's how he gets watered down that I can't stand. And then the ridiculous posturing that comes along with it. That's what I can't stand.