Healing The Heart Of Democracy: The Courage To Create A Politics Worthy Of The Human Spirit (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Palmer weaves his own experiences over the years throughout the book. Essentially, the final two chapters help bring the message into focus. I had a hard time getting a spark going through the first 4/5 of the book. I did feel the final chapter brings it into perspective. Palmer is a fan of allowing ourselves to be okay to sit in the moments of "tension" and to "hold the tension" between dark and light, left and right, wrong and right, etc. and allow the heart time to listen and to eventually speak. The process by which Palmer espouses seems it would indeed work for a politics worthy of our country...I have no idea how one would convice these folks who live by the law of a "New York minute" to engage in this process that begins with simply "being", listening deeply, allowing one to "hold the tension" of conflicting ideals. It reminds me very much of a Quaker approach to resolving conflicts, or attempting to come to consensus on difficult issues. It is true that such an apporach would be far better than what we have now in our national and local politics.Ultimately, Palmer undescores that it isn't as much up to the current leaders as it is up to each one of the country's citizens to embrace this new path and change the politic from grassroots up. He references examples such as the civil rights movement and its humble beginnings and nonviolent, heart centered methods. Tired of the sniping, nastiness and cynicism in Washington D.C.? So is Parker Palmer. In his usual attempt to be a redemptive thinker, Palmer gives us a clear-eyed assessment of the situation, describing the broken-heartedness of our democracy. And again, as usual, he calls us to our better selves--to quote Abraham Lincoln--"the better angels of our nature." This is not the usual language heard around the beltway, but it's quite refreshing to hear from a wise, hopeful man about one way he can find that could lead us past the divisiveness of our country and save the union. Basically, he lovingyl says that we're better than how we're behaving. This is a country that can embrace a diversity of human beings, we can embrace a diversity of opinion and hold it in tension. We can get to know the strangers next door, to become a community again. These basic American qualities are the keys to keeping the American experiment going. There is a lot more in this book. Well worth the read.
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Core concepts are powerful. References are insightful. Challenge to media worth taking up.
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