Accountability and Change

The primary failure of Western epistemology is focusing exclusively on measurable results.
The product is not always the goal or objective. The moral fabric is woven into existence invisibly, and the Spirit seeks commitment to things which are verbally and logically indefinable, but which can be indicated by imagery. Truth cannot be taught, only caught, and only those spiritually aware can catch it. Our spiritual awareness taps into an infinite supply of patience when we recognize the vast majority of those we encounter will not understand. That doesn’t affect the imperative we bear to reveal the truth in what we do and say.
Accountability is faithfulness to the truth. It’s seeking to conform to the moral fabric within creation which is both invisible to the eye and obvious to the soul. Divine efficiency is in how we escape of this world, not maximizing things in it for their own sake.
In seeking to make myself accountable to you, it’s not simply a matter of letting you have a say in what I do. I may well respond, but only if your input strikes a chord with the imperatives driving me. Rather, the issue is one of letting you choose, of openly and honestly letting you see everything so you an decide whether you want to be involved. My whole approach assumes you will have your own imperatives, and that’s the whole point of what I do here. I want more than anything else for you to feel the same kind of fire I do, not to make you a clone of me.
I can’t imagine a world where even a tiny slice would agree with me on everything I say. What I do hope to see is a small slice of humanity who find enough of my expression tolerable so that we can share some things we have in common. There is more common ground than most Western minds imagine, and more room for friendship and cooperation than most of humanity is prepared to entertain. Peace is not compelling others to do it your way, but allowing others to back away and not be involved if they find something uncomfortable.
This is entirely inefficient when you measure it objectively. Peace is sloppy and very expensive; it leads to reinventing the wheel over and over again, and massive duplication of output. That’s because the wheel and the output aren’t the point of the exercise, but human progress within their own imperatives. Granted, we’ll run out of resources long before we run out of imperatives, but how we handle that is part of the imperative. How we make room for someone else to get their share of resources we all use is what makes for peace. Nor is peace the absence of fighting over those resources, but peace is in how we justify morally the way we compete for things which we are driven to use.
Nor would I presume everyone is going to agree with my judgment about even that. Accountability says I take responsibility for not cheating you, but allowing you a full accounting of what I see and think, how I intend to act regardless of your level of accountability. I realize there is no way I can boost your accountability by reducing my own. I fully realize most of the world will not play along, but that has nothing to do with it, either. I must be accountable; that’s my victory over human failure.
My teachings overlap Christian orthodoxy, but they are hardly orthodox. Even when we acknowledge how the word “orthodoxy” is always relative to the folks deciding what is and isn’t orthodox, the whole point is not adhering to some imaginary standard regardless who imagines it. Rather, accountability is doing the best I know in letting them see and letting them honestly judge for themselves. I tread that fine line between trying to speak to their context without compromising the distinctives.
As a man driven by the parable of the shepherd, I need for you the full freedom of deciding whether you want to put any of your sheep in my care. It’s okay if you would rather not investigate and decide intelligently; it’s not okay if I try to manipulate you into that. Even in this blather I am being accountable. Do you really want to spend time reading my blog posts? Every time you read, I am hoping you include that question in the process. Why you may want it is another question, and I don’t have to know that, but it does make for good friendship and a stronger peace between us.
I am accountable. The very process of accounting demands attention and a bit of life drained from both of us, but that’s just a feature of our fallen and broken existence. This level of existence was never that important in the first place; I am seeking to reveal something which is that important. The options are limited, so how I handle them is itself morality.