Flourishing in the Public Square: A Pleasure-Centered Life

Building our community as a source of pleasure...& resistance

I find that at this time of my life I am pondering the spirituality of pleasure; that is, the pleasure of living, the pleasurable gifts of nature and the pleasures found in a strong sense of community, and, of course, pleasure in the deepest and most intimate parts of our lives found in and through our own bodies.

Flourishing and Pleasure

How else can we flourish without a focus on pleasure? How else can we save our global family without appreciating the pleasure of our shared lives? And… this is a big one…how can we possibly flourish during this time of turmoil in US culture when millionaires and billionaires who have sold their soul for the Almighty dollar now reveal they could care less about a flourishing world. The bad news with this shared hedonistic worldview – “live for yourself and to hell with everybody else” - is that it is focused on the mistaken belief that individual flourishing happens when the investment financial bottom line flourishes. See the biblical story in Luke 12:15-21 for the peril of stockpiling wealth so that one day the rich man would finally be happy…Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well. (See verse 19, 20)

The Timeliness of the Need for Communal Pleasure

How shall we flourish in the midst of the energy drain when daily headlines scream of yet another attempt to dismantle democracy to hand over the country to white male billionaires? Contrary to the capitalistic dream grounded in the vice grip of individualism, people of spirit understand we flourish together, with one another. When we consider the power of a flourishing community, we will survive. And this communal flourishing only happens when we can take pleasure in one another and this common experience we are having of being alive at this time and place.

Touches of Community Ties

This morning I received a photo of red roses and baby’s breath from a neighbor who, having gifted his partner with the bouquet, also wanted to share it with me. It was the pleasure of the photo, ah, who doesn’t remember the fragrance and the soft velvety touch of the summer rose? yet, by the sharing of it I was included in the embrace of the loving relationship with his partner. I was included in the special people in their lives. This was not just about beauty, it was an affirmation of friendship and connection.

Yesterday, a neighbor unexpectedly left on my doorstep a bag of homemade chocolate biscotti. The ostensible reason was to celebrate Valentines’s day but I saw through the pretext. I knew she was headed to the airport for a flight to comfort a new young widow so she was really saying, “Thanks for being a friend. I know you will be there for me when I return from this difficult visit.”

This week I had an interesting conversation on the differences between moss and lichens - yes, I have such interesting talks. Then this morning I was presented with a small gray stick with tiny patches of lichen on it. The message of this stick was, “I was thinking about you and how much I valued our conversation this week.”

These are instances of connection in my community in the last twenty-four hours. These small touches from another life to mine reflect the pleasure of community ties. It is the pleasure of knowing that others think of me even when I am not present. It is the gift of knowing that others value time we spend together.

Such connections convey, “I am here for you.” Each pleasurable touch says, “We got this.” And, most importantly, it says, “We can get through anything together because we have one another.”

And that, my friend, is how we flourish in the public square.

Now go forth and celebrate the pleasure of your circle of community. Value it. Deepen it. And, of course, take pleasure in it.

A word on community for my Christian readers:

My reflection is informed by the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the Body of Christ, that we have many distinctive members yet they are all connected in one united system of the body itself. In I Corinthians 12 he teaches that each brings our own unique contribution by offering our gifts to the whole. This teaching of our communal offerings also includes the idea of the D in DEI, that is, diversity. Note that, for Paul, there is no expectation of uniformity in the followers of The Way. To the contrary, he argues against it. “…if the whole body were an eye where would the sense of hearing be?” and “If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” see verse 17 So, although White Christian Nationalists would force everyone to be clones of themselves and their version of Christianity, this violates Paul’s teachings. And of course, such a dictate of “insider vs outside” has no basis in the life or the teachings of Jesus.