Bella Rivas - I and Thou

    Last semester, I took Sacred Communication and Sacred Journeys. We discussed Martin Buber's "I and Thou" a lot. Excerpts of his book have stuck with me throughout this semester. It has made me question how I interact with God, how I interact with others, and how I interact with myself. He discusses two basic relationship models: I-You and I-it. Essentially, I-You is a relationship in which your ego is not the priority. There is space to serve and know others. In this relationship, life is not all about you as you are interacting with a subject. The other relationship, I-It, is the relationship with an object. This type of relationship is transactional and the ego is the focus. His work has made me question what kind of person I want to be. Do I want to be a person whose main focus is personal gain when I interact with others, when I interact with God? Or do I want to be a person who selflessly serves others, leaving behind my need for personal advancement?

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