{"id":41589,"date":"2025-04-10T09:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41589"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:36:08","slug":"the-myth-of-green-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-myth-of-green-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of Green Grass"},"content":{"rendered":"

This might have been the hardest book yet for me to digest in this program. In his YouTube videos, Jordan Peterson is like the energizer bunny who just keeps going. How is it possible for him to captivate an audience for so long? His book, Maps of Meaning<\/em>, is so dense that even ChatGPT when asked for a summary, asked which chapter to summarize as it couldn\u2019t summarize the entirety of the book. Using AI and shorter summaries of his work I still feel like his work is so ethereal that I will ask the same question of this book as I asked last week. So what? What does it matter? \u00a0How might I understand my NPO considering Peterson\u2019s work?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist, argues that the stories we live by, the myths, cultures and beliefs help shape the world in which we live and the way in which we interact with others. He writes, \u201cWe interpret the present in terms of what we desire, expect and fear in the future, and in terms of what we desired, expected and feared in the past.\u201d[1]<\/a> Here in Minnesota, and my city particularly, Somalis and Christians live side-by-side with limited interaction. Our communities do not integrate nor really interact but rather have found a rhythm of ignoring each other.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christians in our community, who recall the days when our city was more monocultural, now struggle to understand the new identity of our city. Neighborhoods used to take pride in clean cut green lawns during the summer, but now Somali families neglect to care for their yards, which is seen as a stain on the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Somali families have brought their cultural myths and beliefs from an Islamic, nomadic, clan-based country and find that they have trouble making sense of their world here in America. Why should they care about grass they ask? Peterson highlights how this can be challenging writing, \u201cWhen systems of belief collide, the result is conflict. The old \u2018truth\u2019 is challenged by the new: a consequence of that challenge is the reduction in certainty.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In one video discussing Jacob and Esau, two brothers who must learn to reconcile, Peterson highlights how people must face the unknown or the \u2018chaos\u2019 to grow.[3]<\/a> As the Somali community continues to grow here in our city, we are beginning to get to a point in which we must enter the chaos, recognize it, and then work through it. This in itself is a wicked problem, as Bentley and Toth remind us in their book on handling difficult issues. There is not an easy way through this challenge, \u201cDown in the swamp there are no experts who can tell others what to do. Everyone is struggling to figure out what is happening and what should be done.\u201d[4]<\/a> Peterson challenges his audience to enter the swamp and embrace the challenge. He writes, \u201cThe individual must voluntarily confront what is frightening, in order to learn to master it.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essentially, my NPO project is working to highlight the two cultures and how they are colliding with each other. It is my goal to help us find a way to enter into the chaos, or the swamp, and to wrestle with our own biases and struggles we have. When Jacob was preparing to meet his brother Esau, he encountered God in a sacred space. He wrestled with God. God met Jacob in the struggle.[6]<\/a> I too, have been wrestling with God in my own way. I have been struggling to see how God is at work in our community. I have been frustrated with the division and biases I find. It is interesting to reflect on the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the only one who wrestled with God in that moment. His family did not. His brother did not. Jacob wrestled with God alone for reconciliation of two-family units.<\/p>\n

Jacob came out of the struggle a changed man. He had a limp and was given a new name. How might I come out of this personal struggle? Can I help bridge these two communities? Peterson writes, \u201cThe process of change \u2013 voluntarily undertaken \u2013 is the path of life itself.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

What might new maps look like? How do we develop them? Can we create new maps that help orient us and our two communities into a collective and shared community? Will we have any shared space? How will I be changed through my time in the chaos and in the swamp? Will I have a limp? Can I wrestle with God and not have a limp?<\/p>\n

When we try to enter the communal space and engage the Somali community, we help develop new myths. When I shovel the snow for a Somali family, a myth is tweaked. When a Somali man and a Christian man sit together at a coffee shop, a new myth forms. When I mow a Somali family\u2019s lawn for them, myths are created. When I listen to the stories and experiences of Somali men and women, myths are shared.<\/p>\n

So, the work in the chaos continues by challenging myths one at a time.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief<\/em> (New York: Routledge, 1999), 7.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Peterson, 18.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Lecture: Biblical Series XIV: Jacob: Wrestling with God<\/em>, 2017, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DRJKwDfDbco.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are and Why They Are Important<\/em> (Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2020), 131.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Peterson, Maps of Meaning<\/em>, 353.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Lecture<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Lecture<\/em>, 338.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This might have been the hardest book yet for me to digest in this program. In his YouTube videos, Jordan Peterson is like the energizer bunny who just keeps going. How is it possible for him to captivate an audience for so long? His book, Maps of Meaning, is so dense that even ChatGPT when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2967,1778],"class_list":["post-41589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03","tag-peterson","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41591,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41589\/revisions\/41591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}