With Parker Palmer, we ask: Can we heal America?

Click on the cover to jump to Amazon for a copy.Welcome to 2012!
Five years ago, we founded ReadTheSpirit by posting our 10 Principles. That was 2007, before the economy crashed, and we gathered 70 friends and colleagues from across the United States at a chapel in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The assembly included writers, editors, photographers, artists, clergy, scholars, teachers and representatives from other publishing houses. As our first collective act that day, we “nailed” our 10 Principles to a “wall” on the Internet. To this day, we live by that code.

In light of that—we find it remarkable to read Parker Palmer’s inspiring and pragmatic new Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.
One quarter of the way through the book, Parker lists “Five Habits of the Heart” that, when “taken together, are crucial to sustaining a democracy,” he writes. At ReadTheSpirit, we are moved by the convergences between Parker’s Five Habits and our own 10 Principles.

This week, we welcome Parker Palmer to the pages of ReadTheSpirit. Stay tuned to read our interview with him, later this week. If you’re not familiar with his name, Parker is now a near-legendary thinker, teacher and writer whose good friends include Bill Moyers (who has featured conversations with Parker on the PBS network). Parker advises foundations, universities and top leaders about sustaining a core vision of peace, faith and transcendent meaning in their vocations. He has written a series of books before his current volume. He is well aware of the timely nature of this new book—arriving prophetically at the start of a year of no-prisoners-taken political warfare in America. You’ll learn more about Paker Palmer in our interview, later this week.

Today, there’s no better way to start 2012 than to read these Five Habits of the Heart. (And you also should order the entire book from Amazon, now, so you can enjoy the full scope of Parker’s renewing ideas in this new year. Want it now? Just click on the book’s cover above.)

PARKER PALMER’S FIVE HABITS OF THE HEART
FROM HIS NEW HEALING THE HEART OF DEMOCRACY

We must understand that we are all in this together.
Ecologists, economists, ethicists, philosophers of science, and religious and secular leaders have all given voice to this theme. Despite our illusions of individualism and national superiority, we humans are a profoundly interconnected species—entwined with one another and with all forms of life, as the global economic and ecological crises reveal in vivid and frightening detail. We must embrace the simple fact that we are dependent on and accountable to one another, and that includes the stranger, the “alien other.” At the same time, we must save this notion of interdependence from the idealistic excesses that make it an impossible dream. Exhorting people to hold a continual awareness of global or national interconnectedness is a counsel of perfection, achievable (if at all) only by the rare saint, that can only result in self-delusion or defeat. Which leads to a second key habit of the heart …

We must develop an appreciation of the value of “otherness.”
It is true that we are all in this together. It is equally true that we spend most of our lives in “tribes” or lifestyle enclaves—and that thinking of the world in terms of “us” and “them” is one of the many limitations of the human mind. The good news is that “us and them” does not need to mean “us versus them.” Instead, it can remind us of the ancient tradition of hospitality to the stranger and give us a chance to translate it into 21st century terms. Hospitality rightly understood is premised on the notion that the stranger has much to teach us. It actively invites “otherness” into our lives to make our lives more expansive, including forms of otherness that seem utterly alien to our way of life. Of course, we will not practice deep hospitality if we do not embrace the creative possibilities inherent in our differences. Which leads to a third key habit of the heart …

We must cultivate the ability to hold tension in life-giving ways.
Our lives are filled with contradictions—from the gap between our aspirations and our behavior to observations and insights we cannot abide because they run counter to our convictions. If we fail to hold them creatively, these contradictions will shut us down and take us out of the action. But when we allow their tensions to expand our hearts, they can open us to new understandings of ourselves and our world, enhancing our lives and allowing us to enhance the lives of others. We are imperfect and broken things who inhabit an imperfect and broken world. The genius of the human heart lies in its capacity to use these tensions to generate insight, energy, and new life. Making the most of those gifts requires a fourth key habit of the heart …

We must generate a sense of personal voice and agency.
Insight and energy give rise to new life as we speak and act, expressing our version of truth while checking and correcting it against the truths of others. But many of us lack confidence in our own voices and in our power to make a difference. We grow up in educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, and as a result we become adults who treat politics as a spectator sport. And yet it remains possible for us, young and old alike, to find our voices, learn how to use them, and know the satisfaction that comes from contributing to positive change—if we have the support of a community. Which leads to a fifth and final habit of the heart …

We must strengthen our capacity to create community.
Without a community, it is nearly impossible to achieve voice: It takes a village to raise a Rosa Parks. Without a community, it is nearly impossible to exercise the “power of one” in a manner that multiplies: It took a village to translate Parks’s act of personal integrity into social change. In a mass society like ours, community rarely comes ready-made. But creating community in the places where we live and work does not mean abandoning other parts of our lives to become full-time organizers. The steady companionship of two or three kindred spirits can kindle the courage we need to speak and act as citizens.

REMEMBER: You can order the new Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit by Parker Palmer now from Amazon.

COMPARE WITH OUR OWN READTHESPIRIT 10 PRINCIPLES

We welcome this convergence. Our 10 Principles are aimed at reshaping media. Parker Palmer’s Habits of the Heart are aimed at reshaping our entire culture. So, the scope is somewhat different—nevertheless, you’ll find obvious parallels. CLICK HERE TO READ OUR 10 FOUNDING PRINCIPLES.

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

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