Chaplain’s Note
Last week I had the opportunity to see Little Shop of Horrors our Senior School Musical.
One of the many interesting things about the performance is that we had so many talented applicants that we have two different main casts playing on alternate occasions.
I had the fortune to see both and can report that they are equally entertaining.
The same songs, the same lines, the same costumes and yet each cast is distinct.
This is what it means to celebrate individuality. Each person being encouraged to bring themselves, their attributes, their skills and experiences to contribute to the greater whole.
Sometimes individuality gets confused with individualism. Individualism places primacy on the single person and their priorities.
But imagine if the members of the Little Shop of Horrors cast decided that they were so important as individuals that they were going to wear whatever they liked in the play or improvised the script to change the plot.
The whole performance would be disrupted rather than enhanced by their ‘individual’ performance.
The same would be true in our orchestra, or a sports team, a mentor group or a classroom.
Individualism spoils these collective opportunities; individuality is what enhances them.
An orchestra needs different instruments, teams need players in different positions, mentor groups need different perspectives, classrooms need different ideas.
The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 put it this way,
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ […]
But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Cor 12 21, 24b-26).
If one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
To me that’s what community is about. That’s what Cranbrook’s community is about. What assembly is about.
The honouring of individual contributions to our collective life. Where everyone rejoices in individual success because it didn’t come at the expense of others, instead in recognition that we are all one body made of different parts who need each other to thrive.
Are you going to be an individualist this term, focused just on yourself, or are you going to be an individual looking to play your distinct part in the success of us all?
Feeding off the energy of others and giving nothing back is parasitic individualism. Being fed by others and feeding others in return is what it means to be a symbiotic individual, distinct but living for more than just yourself.
Play your part in the body this term. Rejoice with the body this term. Grow together as body this term.
We all get more out of our time here together when we do this. Amen.
Reverend Farraway
Chaplain