Almost Famous; Now What?

Tuesday, I received a letter in the mail from the New Pittsburgh Courier, addressed to "Elwin Green, Publisher, Homewood Nation." It opens with this:

Dear Elwin,
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen as one of the New Pittsburgh Courier's 2014 Men of Excellence.

That means that I will be featured, along with other Men of Excellence, in the Courier's July 23rd edition. It also means that I'm invited, along with the others, to a cocktail reception to receive an award on July 24.

Meanwhile, the June issue of Pittsburgh Magazine has a two-page spread about Elwin Green in their monthly feature, "You Should Know." So all this month, people who have never heard of Elwin Green will be reading about him, and next month some folks will read about Elwin Green some more.

All of which is seriously cool. Now the question is, can I turn it to a higher purpose?

As Homewood Nation's tagline suggests, I'm working to elevate the conversation in and about Homewood.

To put it another way, I want to facilitate transformative conversations.

Can I use this newfound fame somehow to do that?

The answer may depend on figuring out why that isn't happening already. Most of my posts receive 0 comments. They ignite no conversation.

Is that because I come across as being hard to talk to?

Are the design and layout of Homewood Nation so uninviting that they turn people off from commenting?

Or is it a matter of who is reading?

On Saturday, I met three Homewood Nation readers for the first time at the OpenPittsburgh Open House held at the Homewood Carnegie Library as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking.

I always love meeting readers; what made Saturday's encounters especially interesting was that one of the three has commented on Homewood Nation. I recognized her name, and gave her a hug (with her permission) and felt comfortable with her right away.

The other two have not commented, so I had no sense of them as people. I was more tentative with them, even while encouraging them to chime in online.

And I've just thought of something: the reader who has commented is 1) Black, and 2) a Homewood resident. The two who haven't are 1) White, and 2) non-residents. And both of them, when I encouraged them to comment, said they don't feel qualified to do so.

I find that deeply interesting. Maybe the majority of my readers are non-residents. Heck, maybe the majority of my readers are white. Maybe the ones I met Saturday are following a good instinct, and should keep quiet and learn.

But from whom? If those people should keep quiet, who should converse? Who is likely to engage in transformative conversations?

My bias says, "Begin with residents. The best use of your newfound fame would be to get more residents using Homewood Nation."

Is that a valid answer? If it is, how might I go about it? I would love to hear what other people think - especially you :)

A Shift In Being - To Be A Neighbor (2 of 2)

In recent years, my work on "My Homewood" and "Homewood Nation," and with the Save Race Street Committee, have led to the fulfillment of a goal - to live in such a way that people ask me why I do what I do.

I worked out an answer which I have used consistently, with slight variation. I have told people that I have two reasons:

1) I have a King, and He has issued a command - not a suggestion, not a request - to love my neighbor. Working together with some of my neighbors for the good of all is a way of doing that.

2) I am a homeowner, and I want to increase the value of my house.

I gave that two-part answer (leaving out the second sentence of the first part for brevity) just a few days ago to Lauren Davidson of Pittsburgh Magazine, for a profile that they are publishing in the June issue.

After speaking with her, I remembered Jesus' conversation with "an expert in the Law," in which he told the parable of the Good Samaritan. Most people focus so much on the parable that they overlook the conversation, which is a shame, because Jesus does something pretty mind-blowing here. He responds to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" by refusing to answer it. Luke says that the very reason for the question was that the questioner wanted to justify himself - by having Jesus say who his neighbor was, he would then know who was not his neighbor, and therefore, whom he was not obligated to love.

Jesus sidesteps that completely, refuses to answer the question, then....trumps the Law itself. He basically says, "Forget about loving your neighbor. Just be a neighbor  - to whomever you encounter." Be the one who draws near.

****************

Dr. John M. Perkins said it years ago: "The highest calling of God is to be a neighbor." That immediately stuck in my memory, but I didn't get it for a long time, until I noticed the conversation surrounding the parable of the Good Samaritan.

I want to be the one who draws near. I want to become a great neighbor.