DROP TO THE CONTEXT:
ANOTHER RYAN: RYAN STEVENS, TRACYYesterday I received an email that contained this letter:
Tracy Press/ Wednesday, 25 April 2007
A letter from Ryan Stevens
EDITOR,
It’s hard to watch or read the news. It seems the whole world is aflame in bombings, massacres, shootings and unavoidable global tension. Even locally, it is impossible to escape the news of possible or impending calamity when we hear about local schools being locked down as a reaction to violent threats. I thought about why all of this is a reality while walking around town Friday, and I noticed how some people avert their glances away from anyone in an attempt to avoid exchanging a simple hello with a passerby.
All of this got me thinking. We’re all so horribly disconnected from each other. We’re all so fragmented. We divide ourselves along lines of faith, politics, geography and social class, and these lines seem to grow deeper and with more breadth, becoming increasingly more violent and full of invective as the days go by. And instead of celebrating and embracing our differences, we accentuate them and denounce others in an attempt to make ourselves look better by approximation.
Why can’t we all see that we can be united in our differences When you think of it, we are all similar in the fact that we are all flawed, we all have dreams and we all want to be happy.
Our flaws are forever confronting us. That’s life. Some people react to this by acknowledging their flaws and trying to better themselves. Others try to obscure their flaws by drawing attention to the flaws of others, cutting someone else down in an attempt to make one’s self appear taller. For far too long, we have been cutting each other down, leaving all of us stunted in the process.
It is time to end the fragmentation. It is time that we, as a community — whether it be a community in the sense of a city or a nation, a church or simply as human beings en masse — join to form a bond.
It is time we lifted each other rather than aiding in the collective fall.
Ryan Stevens, Tracy---
TO BE CLEAR, THE ABOVE RYAN IS NOT YOUTUBE'S
RyanTwin20Than, last night I saw that Ryan of "Ryan's Phone Experiment" had responded to my private email and
public observations about how the tags "hott" "sexy" "boy" on his original video, and on his second one as well, could lead to the misunderstanding that he is "gay" or that his intentions are other than solely to help people.
This in the spirit of helping
RyanTwin20 clear up the misunderstanding that seemed to bother him so. Last night and this morning, after an email exchange, Ryan did remove those tags from his videos. - Why should this matter to me?
This matters here, because I gave him an award as encouragement, recognition, and frankly to join in his movement of raising awareness of the great value of "listening to others."
I have been working in this vain for a long time. His gesture seemed so perfectly in alignment with mine. I had often thought, during these developmental stages of Youand, "We should just set up a 24hr. hotline to just listen to people. Alas, Ryan has lead the way, and his challenges to keep up are lessons for all of us.
Perhaps it is not a "perfect" way to go about being there for people, but . . . the outpouring of calls, support and detractors says something about our need to connect and sometimes "my any means unnecessary.
I have been blogging about the unfolding of "Ryan's Phone Experiment" since its inception, on
youandblogSpace. For anyone interested in human relations what Ryan's gesture has triggered people saying is all very interesting, well it is very, to me. Here is an example:
Josie Morris' post:
Lonely SocietyBut, rather than continue to keep "Ryan's Phone Experiment" at the front and center spot of the
youandblogSpace, I created this area to see, experience, and share about what seems to me is a social symbol for the great need so many of us feel today for meaningful human contact with one another, especially in this ever more hostile world.
For the recored: My pointing out those tag words, by no means implies any judgment of them or Ryan. I also have no opinion of Ryan's trying to clear up that he is not "gay." Further, it is my opinion those things do not take away form his message of offering to "make time to listen to others," - this most interests me.
Or, as
Ryan Stevens from Tracy wrote:
"Our flaws are forever confronting us. That’s life. Some people react to this by acknowledging their flaws and trying to better themselves. Others try to obscure their flaws by drawing attention to the flaws of others, cutting someone else down in an attempt to make one’s self appear taller. For far too long, we have been cutting each other down, leaving all of us stunted in the process. It is time to end the fragmentation. It is time that we, as a community — whether it be a community in the sense of a city or a nation, a church or simply as human beings en masse — join to form a bond.
It is time we lifted each other rather than aiding in the collective fall."
Today I feel less alone. And I would love to know what you think.Sincerely,
José Angel Santana, Ph.D.
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"The final frontier may be human relationships, one person to another." -- Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut
