We are People

I read something this week, something that initially I thought to be quite wise and insightful.  Something about it nagged me though, rubbed me the wrong way, made me uncomfortable.  The more I thought about it, the more I disliked it.  Seriously, what an idiotic thing to say… 

It’s a quote from our dear Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, a wise and wonderful women held in high regard in our culture.  However, not everything a famous person says makes it good.  Here’s what she had to say:

“Great minds discuss ideas;

average minds discuss events;

small minds discuss people.”

 

And I disagree.  Entirely. 

It is people that God made, people that God loves, people that he tenderly created and cares for.  The church is made of people.  The world is full of them.  History has been shaped by them.  The future will be determined by them. 

We are people. 

And to discuss us is not an error; it’s not shallow, not simple-minded, not dumb.  Sure, this type of conversation can be all of those things—it can be abused, used to spread rumors, hate, despair.  But it can also be constructive. 

The second we stop to talk about the people and look only to events and ideas is the moment we lose our humanity.  We essentially take a giant Pink Pearl Banford© eraser and rub away the face of the problem.  Ideas become grand generalizations belonging to someone else, to another time, another existence.  Problems that arise from the discussions of ideas become someone else’s responsibility.  If we have no faces and no names to identify with, why should we care?  Poverty, homosexuality, abuse, globalization, freedom, peace, liberty, love—these are all faceless if we don’t talk about the people who are affected by them every single day.  Otherwise, the victims of these ideas remain voiceless, amorphous blobs of un-identity forever stuck in a state of non-existence and injustice.    

It is for the people that Jesus came to this earth; not for the ideas, not for the events.  He came for us.

So it should say: “Great minds discuss ideas.  Great minds reflect on events.  And even greater minds care how ideas and events affect people… and do something about it.”

Stay tuned!