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Week 13 - Interdependence
"So What's The Plan? We Saddle Up, Right?"

Opening

As we look back and survey the terrain to determine where we've been and where we are in relationship to where we're going, we clearly see that we could not have gotten where we are without coming the way we came. There aren't any other roads; there aren't any shortcuts. There's no way to parachute into this terrain. The landscape ahead is covered with the fragments of broken relationships of people who have tried. They've tried to jump into effective relationships without the maturity, the strength of character, to maintain them.

But you just can't do it; you simply have to travel the road. You can't be successful with other people if you haven't paid the price of success with yourself.

-Stephen Covey

It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.

-Dag Hammarskjold

Episode 4.20: The Yoko Factor

What to watch for

  • How Spike manipulates the group against each other

Transcript is available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season4/transcripts/76_tran.shtml

Episode 4.21: Primeval

What to watch for

  • How the group overcomes their hurts
  • How the group places friendship and cooperation over their differences

Transcript is available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season4/transcripts/77_tran.shtml

Questions

Is it true that you have to like yourself before you can like others? Is liking yourself sufficient for good relations with others?

How can we depend on others without becoming dependent on them? What are the factors within ourselves that give us safety and stability when relying on others?

Which is the more difficult task that Buffy faces here? Defeating Adam, or rebuilding her friendships?

Stephen Covey talks about the idea of an "emotional bank account." It's a way of building trust with others through daily courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping of commitments. In times of problems, we can draw on this reserve to maintain easy and effective communications with others. In these episodes of Buffy, how can we see where these "emotional bank accounts" have been overdrawn?

Earlier in the course, we talked about rebuilding trust after betrayal. How do we rebuild trust when trust has been lost through a lack of daily caring and communication?

What are the things that each character does to move from confrontation to cooperation?

What is the difference between courage in the face of danger, and courage in the face of broken relationships?

What is the single, most courageous thing that any character does in these episodes?

In what ways have the characters matured through their reconciliation? What are the issues that may not be resolved?

Closing

Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think... there are no little things.

-Bruce Barton

Additional Reading

Brock, Rita Nakashima, and Rebecca Ann Parker, Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.

Covey, Stephen, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.

Kopp, Sheldon B., If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! Toronto: Bantam Books, 1972.

Marinucci, Mimi, Feminism and the Ethics of Violence. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Miller, Jessica Prata, "The I in Team": Buffy and Feminist Ethics. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Rose, Anita, Of Creatures and Creators: Buffy Does Frankenstein. Wilcox, Rhonda V., and David Lavery, Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.