JOURNEY OF ILLUMINATION
•CONNECTING•SHOW UP AND SHARE—WE ARE MEN WHO CHOOSE ANOTHER TO WALK WITH
For Illuman men, connecting is one of the five touchstones we want to advocate as being a necessary component in all aspects of our work, from the Journey of Illumination to our Chapter events like the MROP or Firmings, and from how we meet communally to our one-on-one relationships. We want the five touchstones to permeate all aspects of our communities. Truly connecting should be one of our highest goals. As such, we need to know what is meant by connecting. There are many nuances to connecting, but the purest sense of connecting is the joining. To be really connected is almost as if two separate entities become one—much like a marriage.
Of course this kind of connecting between men could be very uncomfortable. Most of us do not want to be that intimate with another man. It’s a risk and implies doing the even riskier thing of loving another man. But connecting, and even loving, does not always mean there has to be a marriage. That kind of love and intimacy can and does exist outside of matrimony. A good example is the relationship between King David and Saul’s son Jonathan. When they met, “There was an immediate bond between them, for Jonathan loved David.”
Likewise, just at it would be hard to imagine being married to multiple partners, the ability to truly connect with another seems, by nature, to exclude. Most of us simply are not able to be that open with everyone and, in fact, it may be just one or two people that we truly feel connected to. Finding those people and maintaining those relationships are paramount when furthering the spiritual journey but, just like with many marriages, there are failed attempts to connect so we need to be discerning in our search.
Be the man
who says to other men
I love you and I’m here for you
I’ll listen to your needs
a warmth you’ve never felt
until one day
your own revolution
taps you on the shoulder
and says - “hey man, are you ok?”
-Matt Dickinson