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Finding Wholeness in Tough Times
February 25, 2009
I think the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of reality because illusion
never leaves us ultimately happy.
- Parker Palmer,
Founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal and author of A Hidden Wholeness
I came across a powerful online interview between Bill Moyers and Parker Palmer last night after posting my impressions on the topic of societal/institutional social pain. The interview is infused with Mr. Palmer's wisdom from beginning to end. There is so much to mine here in terms of the pain we encounter as we relate to society and the world. Your insights are so valuable, and I'd like to know your impressions after reading some of the excerpts below, or you can watch the video interview here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02202009/watch2.html
On the capacity to deny reality with our current economic crisis:
... I could make the same argument about the current economic collapse. Who didn't know it was coming? Who didn't know that a system that encouraged us to live beyond our means and provided all kinds of devious and ethically doubtful ways for us to do that was going to fall apart someday?
Who didn't know that housing was over-evaluated? That stocks were overpriced? Who didn't know that a system the makes the rich richer while the poor get poorer will someday face a curtain call? We all knew that at some level, just like we know we're going to die. And yet our capacity to deny reality is huge. And I think that we don't want to know what we really know because if we did, we'd have to change our lives. And now we have to change our lives because the whole thing is crashing down around our head.
On how to dialogue in a way that leads to societal reform:
And so at Camp Obama, in small groups and over a period of a couple of days, people were invited, first of all, to tell the story of self. What are the hurts and hopes that bring you to this occasion, to the possibility that this long-shot candidate might represent your interests and might actually get elected? The story of self.
The second story, very important, the story of us. How do you see your own story relating to the stories of other people you know and to the larger American story that's going on right now? I'm a Quaker. And one of my great monitors was Douglas Steere, a great Quaker teacher. And he always said the "Who am I?" question is important. But the "Whose am I?" question is equally important.
What do you mean when you say "we"? And so the story of us, so that self-story doesn't end up in narcissism but gets connected to the larger fabric of community. And then finally they were asked to tell the story of now from their point of view. What do you see going on in this moment that makes you think we have a chance to heal some of the hurts and pursue some of the hopes that you've named in those earlier stories?
Well, there's a lot to be said about that process which then rippled out through concentric circles to gather more and more people in as these folks went back home and asked other people to tell the same stories.
On creating new habits of the heart? ~ (sounds like metta
... a new habit of the heart would allow us to take that broken-hearted experience in a new direction, not towards the shattering into a million pieces but toward a heart that grows larger, more capacious, more open to hold both the suffering and the pain of the world. I think that's teachable stuff. I think that if our schools and our religious communities worked on that, that we would have a greater capacity individually and collectively to do it.
Part of the heartbreak is around having to give up illusions that we've carried for far too long. And it's good that that's happening, too. And the two, of course, are related. But, yes, it's a moment of heartbreak. And it's a moment for people to step up and say we have to learn to hold these tensions in a life-giving way.
Palmer also speaks of finding a middle path between corrosive cynicism and irrelevant idealism... that we need to hold our compassion, kindness and idealism along with a clear vision of what is actually going on. (Sounds like the wings of compassion and wisdom entwined together)
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The question that emerges after watching the interview is how do we stand up and say we have to learn to hold these tensions in a life-giving way? The first answer that came to me... post it here and see what "me" and "us" stories emerge from this mindful, intentional community. Where is the movement of our time? The emperor is naked, so I don't think it will occur within the context of government, it begins with "us." Sorrow, mental depression, economic depression - if these are held in right mindfulness, can they be powerful medicine? The chemotherapy of our time?
Unfortunately, my comments still are not working. I might have to start over from scratch with a new template which will then need to be customized. It might be a cumbersome process... everything changes, doesn't it?
Posted by susan at February 25, 2009 10:43 AM
