Connecting Joseph Bailey to Buber...

 Joseph Bailey who wrote the book Slowing Down to the Speed of Love can be connected to Martin Buber's book “I and Thou.” Even though he is not directly connected to the main ideas in  “I and Thou,” there is a connection between the two through Baxter and Montgomery’s book Relating, Dialogues and Dialectics. Using the six degrees of separation as the descriptive framework, I assigned the book by Baxter and Montgomery, Bacon Number one and Joseph Bailey as Bacon Number two to Martin Buber. I examined some of the text in the books by these authors and connected them to each other. Baxter and Montgomery employ the notion of dialogues which is based on Buber’s “I and Thou” concept and Joseph Bailey advances Baxter and Montgomery’s notion of dialogue to describe how we can have a meaningful relationship with our partners similarly described by Buber to define people's relationship with other people and God.

Baxter and Montgomery describe the concept of dialectics as relational dialectics signifying the tensions, which arise in relationships. Buber mentioned “the world is two fold for man in accordance with his two fold attitude”(p.83). He also said that “ the individual “it” can become a "You" by entering into the event of relation” (p.84). Baxter and Montgomery advances Buber’s notion of I and Thou by adding the idea of tension, which exist in relationships. Buber focused on the relationship that we have with someone as either an “it” world or a “Thou” world while Baxter and Montgomery elaborates on the tensions that exist while building that relationship. For example, Buber mentioned “When I confront a human being as my You and speak the basic word I-You to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things (p.59). Baxter and Montgomery argue that close relationships like all social systems are always composed of fusion with and differentiation from both centrifugal and centripetal forces both interdependent and independent (p.43). While Buber is redefining the relationship between people, Baxter and Montgomery advance that concept to elaborate on the tension in the relationships.

Joseph Bailey is Bacon number 2. His book Slowing Down to the Speed of Love recreates Buber’s idea of I and Thou to describe a solution to the tensions that exist in relationships. Bailey reiterates that it is difficult to build relationships now because of the hectic fast paced lives that currently engulf our livelihood. Apart from other factors, I think the fast pace life also causes tensions in relationships which Baxter and Montgomery elaborated on. One of Bailey’s thesis relies on the fact that, we have to find personal fulfillment in order to access our birthright of love in relationships. Buber mentioned that every actual relationship in the world rests upon individuation; that is the delight, for only thus is mutual recognition of those who are different granted (p.148). Joseph bailey combines Buber’s idea of true relationship and Baxter and Montgomery’s examination of the tensions in a relationship to devise a new way of finding true meaning in a relationship.

In conclusion, Joseph Bailey and Baxter and Montgomery can be connected to Buber through the concept of Dialogue. Both of them used Buber’s concept of I and Thou to build their own concepts and ideas about relationships. Through of six degrees of separation model, Buber is Bacon, Baxter and Montgomery is Bacon number one and Joseph Bailey is Bacon number two as he re-introduces Buber as a solution to a fast paced world which has caused so much tensions in relationships.