Stories of iritation and agitation

My body is irritated. My chosen mode of transportation here in the twin cities is bicycle. It is wonderful. Yesterday I rode the high bridge over the Mississippi River. That was really cool! Today Elyse, my friend’s sister-in-law who is giving me a place to live for the summer, showed me to the bike paths of Minnesota which are just gorgeous. I have ridden twenty-five miles in two days and have another 10 to do tonight to get home.
But oy, my under-carriage is sore! My body is irritated.
Today, I was talking with the person in the office working on foreclosures and housing issues. We were talking about the one-to-one. I asked him what he thought a successful one-to-one looks like. He said, when the other person is so agitated that they shoot up out of their chair and run out the door to go change the world. And I thought, Yah! I want to make people do that…but then thought about what that means…
Agitating people. It is the nature of creating change. Change does not happen until the status quo becomes so uncomfortable that staying as is means MORE uncomfortable than the discomfort of that necessarily accompanies change.
The conversation in the office continued. There is a dynamic tension between building relationships and agitating others. The one on one works to do both. This is a continuum. In pure organizing or on a shorter campaign, agitation is king. But in congregation life where a rabbi, for example, needs to not only agitate a congregant but also facilitate that same congregant’s baby naming, wedding and or funeral, the relationship may have to take precedence over the agitation for the rabbi to keep their job or to be effective as a service leader…
Wait, does that have to be true? I mean, can we be adult enough that I, as your rabbi, can, with full transparency, piss you off for the greater good on Monday and then offer you comfort for that agitation at services on Friday night? I mean, why not be both? Isn’t that my job as a rabbi…

Isn’t that our responsibility to one another as people?

What would the world look like if I felt it was my job to not only tell you when you are being self-contradictory, hypocritical, unnecessarily self-defeating, and then also hold your hand while you undergo the process of not doing that anymore?
I want my people to feel like it is their job to that for me…you all have my permission to do so.

Hmmm, on to the next task, how do I get right with, get comfortable with, actually putting discomfort in the world? And, will I be willing to take responsibility for it too?

Shoosh, this is a tall order…

Because really, my inner honest person (also affectionately referred to as inner bitch) knows the words to say. Does my inner softy also know the words? I think she does. Now, can I truth them both to work together and get along for the sake of what could then be possible?

So bottom line is this...irritation and agitation are not the same. There is no greater good to the soreness I feel sitting here right now from all the biking. That pain for pain's sake (I am building my callous which is not a greater good but more of a necessary evil). I think if I ONLY anger then I am irritating. If I also comfort and guide, then I am agitating. If the greater good is the reason, then the ends justify the means.

Right?

I am working all this out in my head. Am I just rationalizing??