New Freedom Fighters - Wounded Healers to Heal the World

Every now and then - in fact I am glad to say rather more frequently these days - I come across someone else's work that makes me say YEESS! At last the message is getting through - my idea is becoming part of the Zeitgeist, the Spirit of the Moment. And today is one of those days, when I stumbled upon a brilliant talk by Rick Axtell Associate Professor of Religion and College Chaplain at Centre, a Top 50 liberal arts college located in the “centre” of Kentucky in Danville. He was addressing the graduate class of 2011, on May 22nd this year, with a talk on Wounded Healers.

Do read the full transcript. Axtell starts with the story of the courageous Freedom Fighters, fighting for racial equality in America 50 years ago, an event being celebrated this month. He tells the biblical story of Jacob and his ladder, an archetypal story of the human journey, and he talks of the Wounded Healer of Dutch Roman Catholic Priest Henri Nouwen. And he ends with a plea to all the graduates to go out into the world as Wounded Healers to build a better future. Here is a story from a Fr. Daniel Berrigan given in the talk:

"There once was a child who used to play only in the front yard, where everyone was like himself. One day,…he was sent…into the back yard. Back yard? He hadn't known there was one. A revelation! Tanners, shoemakers, alleys, gutters, children, washwomen, markets, flower carts, beggars. The child sat on the back stoop, half frightened, totally fascinated...
His exile ended, as such things will. He was called back indoors, and on into the front yard.
He went in with a strange new look on his face. He knew something for the first time.
It had come to him with the unpredictability of lightning, with the logic of nature, of water and sun, of the opening of a door.
He knew now, THAT A FRONT YARD EXISTED BECAUSE A BACK YARD EXISTED -- front will have back, rich will have poor, master will have slave, pride will have fall, blood will have blood."

Rick continues: "Here is the wound that leads to life. Fr. Henri Nouwen writes in his book, The Wounded Healer, that the outward journey toward healing of others requires an inward journey that recognizes the sufferings of our time in our own unsatisfied cravings, in our own alienation, in our shared human condition.
This is the starting point on the journey into service.
And only when it comes from a heart wounded by the suffering we seek to heal will service be authentic."

“Empathy is a quality of Character that can Change the World” says Obama.

Speaking at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast on May 12th 2011 Obama said that empathy is a source of morality in the immigration reform debate. According to Edwin Rutsch, writing to Members in Let's Find 1 Million People Who Want to Build a Culture of Empathy and Compassion, Obama has been talking about empathy and compassion more lately and Edwin thinks it will be central to his 2012 election campaign.
Here is the video posted up as part of Edwin Rutsch’s empathy documentary project. where you will find links to many other videos from Obama and others on the importance of empathy.

Here is some of the text from the video:

"So, yes, immigration reform is a moral imperative, and so it’s worth seeking greater understanding from our faith. As it is written in the Book of Deuteronomy, “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” To me, that verse is a call to show Empathy to our brothers and our sisters; to try and recognize ourselves in one another. ….

That sense of connection, that sense of Empathy, that moral compass, that conviction of what is right is what led the National Association of Evangelicals to shoot short films to help people grasp the challenges facing immigrants. It’s what led the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to launch a Justice for Immigrants campaign, and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition to advocate across religious lines. It’s what led all the Latino pastors at the Hispanic Prayer Breakfast to come together around reform...

I’m asking you to help us recognize ourselves in one another... Obama went on to say ...Empathy is a quality of Character that can Change the World.”

Empathy and Compassion are qualities whose time has come. Here is the Zeitgeist, the Spirit of the Age.

See also Edwin Rutsch's Center for Building a Culture of Empathy
And the Facebook Center for Building a Culture of Empathy and Compassion 
and the cause - Let's Find 1 Million People Who Want to Build a Culture of Empathy and Compassion 
and thankyou to the indefatigable Edwin Rutsch who is working so very hard to put all this together and keep it running - and growing!

It is a cause very dear to my own heart and I will be talking in a few days time to a local book group about empathy and compassion and how we need to nurture these qualities in everything we do to heal our broken world.

Books - New York Times Bestsellers v The Times own lists

Hi everyone

I've read somewhere recently, although I do not recall where, (perhaps someone could give me a lead to find the source), that the Americans are astonished generally at the frivolity and frothy celebrity bias of our Times book bestselling lists! The New York Times bestselling list is apparently composed of much more serious stuff! Is this really so?

Then let's look at our mind/body/spirit genre. So many of these actually confuse material success with spiritual development - but that is all the publishers want to see because that is what sells. Can we really be so self centred? There is a growing band of those who find the egocentricity of the 'Me-Millennium' repugnant.

'William Bloom is one of the UK's most experienced teachers, healers and authors in the field of holistic development.'(quote from his website!)

He calls the authors of such books the 'success-and-happiness' authors and says such books will actually disappoint in the long term.

If you do not know of Cygnus Review- 'written with love to guide, uplift and inspire you' - Visit Cygnus where he writes a regular column.

I write these blogs with love and prayers for a better world!