Skip to main content

Growing and developing, one and the same?

I've been finding the relationships between words engaging and interesting. Looking at blame/responsibility and excuse/explain has led me to another pair of words recently often on my mind.

Growth and development

One can have growth without development which eventually will come crumbling down upon itself for the stagnation. Like an 8 foot tall 2 year old! One can have development without growth and likely will reach limits that impede the development. Like with technologies that are more and more developed to the point the company hasn't grown enough to support the development and so they are sold or closed down.

There is a fine point, that sweet spot, that tipping point, where the balance between growth and development is at its best.

Many would argue that urban development is a current example of this kind of imbalance - in most any place. We certainly see it here in Israel as our town is looking to fill each and every space that can take an apartment building, without necessarily thinking about how that growth will impact the rest of the city and further, without doing the necessary development planning to provide the needed support for that growth. Do we have enough roads and are they big enough? Is it time to install more traffic lights instead of traffic circles? When should a new school be opened? A new sports facility? A new shopping center? A new medical facility? And do we have enough staff to support this growing and developing community.

Obviously the impact on the environment is a significant area where we can see the negative impact of growth, especially when done in the absence of development.

Tangentially, this gets a little complicated and potentially confusing when one considers that the word development is also used in construction - as in, we're building a new development of houses. But that's really growth and using the word development here, I would argue, is disingenuous to the real meaning of the word and the true intent of the efforts to build.
Perhaps this is what is at play in Yokneam at the moment that we are building all these developments of houses and apartments but in fact not doing any of the necessary development to support to growth. 

It is worth noting and considering further that observing such a disconnect as what is happening in our town can also transfer to evaluating ourselves and how we are growing and developing personally, in relation to others, and in relation to our community as it grows. Food for thought for tomorrow...


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Macher or Schmoozer?

I'm working my way slowly through the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam . In a nutshell, which has to be pretty big because it's a hefty book, it's about social behaviors and the decline of them in the US - things like voting and participating in the political process at all levels, and engaging with volunteer and community efforts. Chapter six looks at Informal Social Connections. At paragraph two of the chapter he mentions the Yiddish words macher and schmoozer . That stopped me in my tracks for a moment. He continued to explain that fundamentally a macher is a doer, someone who makes things happen in the community. Whereas a schmoozer is a talker, a person with an active social life, someone who focuses on informal connections to others. And while it is certainly nice to sit and talk with someone, at the end of the day that's all a schmoozer does. Alternatively, the macher will sit and visit with you and then either your roped into helping or the macher...
Post a Comment
Read more

Taking the time

Last night I went to a talk given by Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg last night. She spoke about guilt, atonement, and intimacy. My takeaway from this evening, even as I am still unraveling what she laid out for us is as follows. Elul has been described as like a bird hovering over a nest - waiting, ready to arrive, not yet there, but at the same time present. From this point she moved to the relationship between G-d and Moshe. After all of Moshe's hard work to build, carefully, diligently, the Tent of Meeting (אוהל מועד), Moshe remains outside, as if hovering over the nest, waiting to enter, unable to enter. Calling to others - as G-d calls to Moshe - is our way of calling attention to the other with whom we want to speak. Saying a person's name indicates that we have a desire to speak to her and elevates the communication, adding impact and intimacy of the conversation. Interestingly when Israelis talk to each other there is always a great amount of time asking each other...
Post a Comment
Read more

A very fine line

There is a remarkably fine line between making excuses and offering explanations. It can be quite challenging to know the difference and that confusion can lead to difficulties. We work hard to help our children learn the difference between making an excuse for behavior versus offering an explanation to help figure out how or why something happened. Sometimes it is helpful to get the background but sometimes it just confuses matters. The balance between excuse and explain is similar to the one I have been pondering between blame and responsibility. Sometimes when we are trying to assign responsibility we actually end up placing blame. Both are a bit of a slippery slope that we should only start down with great caution. Strangely the challenge of excuses versus explanations is more easily addressed with children, which also tells me that it's more commonly understood as opposed to blame versus responsibility. We'd all do better to see the fine line between the two.
Post a Comment
Read more