Inauguration Post: Lessons From Robin Hood

So this officially makes me a blogger. I never thought I'd see the day, but to be honest, at this point I don't quite mind. I always thought it was kind of silly, writing silly things to silly people who read them online, and for that I must apologize to all of you avid bloggers out there who so industriously work to write meaningful posts that will enrich the lives of whoever reads them. My experience with blogs up until college was limited to Xanga sites where as you can imagine, the subject matter was the equivalent to middle school cafeteria talk. It was only when I got to UNC that I met friends who kept detailed, intuitively remarkable blogs that mattered. These blogs were worth reading, and it is to these blogs that I aspire. So officially, I apologize to blogdom. I underestimated you. And on that note, I begin.

So today on TV, I started watching Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and written by Pen Densham. In this film, Kevin Costner's character, Robin of Locksley, returns home from the Crusades to discover that England is being run by the tyrannous Prince John. In his efforts to defeat Prince John, Costner's character undergoes a dramatic character change which begins as early as the very first scene where he escapes from near amputation at the hands of the moors (forgive the stereotypes, that's what happens in the movies). In the film, Robin undergoes a transformation from a selfish, rich-man's son to a caring defender of the people, acutely aware of the suffering in his community. In doing so, he becomes defender, teacher, and friend to the outlaws of Sherwood forest and their families.

When I was little, I loved this movie. I guess it was just something about the adventure of it all, the heroism, and the fact that even the humblest most inexperienced men, the poor, of Sherwood Forest, could learn how to fight like Robin Hood. Now that I'm all grown up (and by all grown up, I mean not 10), I still like this movie, but for different reasons. I can appreciate the storytelling much more for one. Here we have a hero story, a quest, gallant comrades in arms, a story arc that ends in the hero being vindicated for his trials, and even a decently sappy romance to top it off. It's not the best story/film in the world, but it's satisfying. I like it.

However, there's so much more to be seen in this film than just a plain tale of adventure. For instance, just look at how it took one person to unify and give direction to an entire community. Without Robin Hood, the thieves of Sherwood forest would have remained just that, a bunch of thieves, hiding for their lives from the Sheriff of Nottingham. Yet, Robin's presence stirred the men to action through one way or another. He was the catalyst that gave their community direction, meaning, and hope. In a sense, it reminds me of the role a producer plays in a film production. The producer deals with so many different individuals with disparate thoughts, ideas, skills, and dreams. Yet, it is also the producer who brings all of these different individuals together to create art in the form of a united whole, a feature film.

In the same way, what role do individual's lives play in shaping a community and giving it life? What about that special teacher who inspires students to go out and do something more than society expects of them? What about that friend who reaches out to you when you don't think anyone cares or when everyone "cares" but you know that they don't really? Or the peacemaker in the family who makes sure everyone sticks together, even when you really want to be at each other's throats? Or the preacher who gives direction to the church and coordinates all of the spiritual gifts and blessings that God has bestowed to the congregation? Sometimes, it just takes one person to make an important issue a relevant issue. No one would care about poverty were it not for individuals who saw the need of the community and vocalized it. The same is true for any issue, regardless of what it is.

And yet, I don't mean to make this a praise-fest for individualism. Individualism is nice. I tend to be very individualistic myself, very independent. That being said, America makes too much of individualism. We all want to go our own way, which sounds a little too reminiscent for my tastes of an often quoted verse from Isaiah if you ask me. Something to do with sheep, which is kind of ironic. In America, we try so hard to be individuals that we often become sheep instead, by being individuals, just like everyone else. Go figure. But that too is not my point. What I'm trying to show is that there is a relationship between individuals, leaders, and their communities. Sometimes a community needs an individual to grab on to and to give it direction, just like the muscles in the body need the skeletal system to latch onto for support and strength. But in the same way, leaders need a community. The community gives them identity, friendship, and most of all strength. A single cord breaks easily, but multiple cords are strong.

Sometimes we forget the importance of our community around us and we try to go it alone, but we have to remember that we can't do that. We are designed to be in community, and the need for a community is just as strong as the need for individualism and leadership. Without each, we're incomplete as human beings, or so my feelings tend to lean. A leader without a community is just an individual with ideas sans application. They're stuck. They aren't going to go anywhere, they're not going to do anything, and they certainly aren't going to grow in their relationship with God all by themselves. Iron sharpens Iron, but if you only have one piece of Iron, well, you're out of luck aren't you? Similarly, a community needs direction, and sometimes individual passions and ideas are excellent ways to provide that. Communities need leaders and without leadership, a community is likely to fall apart from lack of purpose and solidarity.

Plus, Communities help to define leaders and give them shape. Without the men of Sherwood and the need of that community, Robin Hood would never have become Robin Hood. It was through the need of that community that Robin Hood was able to become the leader-figure that he became and the legendary figure that we know and love. In the same way, a leader is never fully who he or she is or could be without a community to give them someone to love and care for. Someone to serve.

In this way, what are our roles in our community? First of all, we need to identify what community we are part of. Who are the outlaws of Sherwood Forest in our lives? Second, we need to figure out our passions and our needs. Just because we're leaders doesn't mean we can't also be led by others. We all have our passions, our areas of discontent as Alex Kirk mentioned at Rockbridge this summer. There are things about society that make us angry, and these are the things that will prompt us to take action and be leaders. We need to identify these passions and learn how to serve in these areas. Yet, just like Robin Hood, when we serve, we become a part of the community that we are serving, and we too have our needs. No man is an island, or so it goes. We need to understand that we all need some sort of direction and leadership in our life, which requires us to be humble too. We need to learn from our communities just as they learn from us. It's this connection and reliance on one another that makes community so vibrant in the first place. So, how can we apply the lessons of leadership and community to our lives and the communities around us? How can we be leaders? Where is there need in our community? And where can we learn from our community? Where does our community help give our own wild passions and dreams definition and structure? These are all questions that we need to consider as we try to understand our roles within our community. Not that this blog or these questions will provide all of the answers, or any for that matter, but I think they're worth thinking about at least.

So lesson learned from Robin Hood: Communities need leaders, and leaders need communities. We need each other, and we shouldn't forget this, no matter where we're at in life, what our careers are, or what American culture tells us.

Thus ends my first post. I hope it was worthwhile.