{"id":1274,"date":"2022-09-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2022-12-01T06:49:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T06:49:24","slug":"part-1-an-invitation-to-cbu-faculty-and-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/2022\/09\/17\/part-1-an-invitation-to-cbu-faculty-and-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 1: An Invitation to CBU Faculty and Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By E. Russ Bermejo, MSW, Lecturer <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Part 1 of a 4-part blog post.  <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are designed for connection.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2021-2022 academic year, our University Provost chose connection <\/em>as the theme. I loved how Dr. Charles Sands continually reminded us to connect with others throughout the year.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This intention has forced me to think more deeply about how we are connected. I have a collection of Japanese kokeshi <\/em>and Russian matryoshka<\/em> dolls, which are wooden stacking or nesting dolls kept at each of my desks at home and campus. These heirloom pieces remind me how we are connected. They are a 3-D representation of \u201cperson-in-environment\u201d (also known as PIE) a theoretical framework that underpins the social work profession. PIE is a practice-guiding principle that highlights the importance of understanding individuals and their behavior in light of the environmental contexts in which they exist (Kondrat, 2013).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Credit: R. Bermejo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is quite easy to compartmentalize our lives or partition our thinking into artificially-created domains or silos. Where my mind wants to isolate or separate, and provide easy explanations to complex issues, these wooden dolls remind me to do otherwise. We are not mere objects, instead we have meaning defined by our interactions with our environment. We cannot see ourselves or anyone else outside of the world they exist in; or as essayist, Ana\u00efs Nin wrote \u201cWe don\u2019t see things as they are, we see them as we are.\u201d <\/em>Context always matters.  <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing our world connected doesn\u2019t sound earth-shattering, until you try to live it out intentionally. In practice, living connected is not easy.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we stay connected in a fragmented world?<\/em> This was a question that I explored in my earlier blog post where I looked towards Japanese arts forms<\/a> to show us the way towards meaningful integration. In these upcoming series of blog posts, I want to explore three questions:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n