Perhaps, the answer is that my ravaged mind rails against the idea of God, but something deeper in me calls out as if God might answer. 'There are not foxholes,' I guess, and depression is the deepest and deadliest foxhole I've been in. It may be the 'dark night of the soul' that the mystics talk about but in depression it is not so much that one becomes lost in the dark as one becomes the dark.
Parker J. PalmerWhen we generate utopian visions and hope to make them happen soon โ when we elect Barack Obama and expect all our problems to be solved, and solved quickly, by his presidency โ the outcome is both predictable and tragic. That is not the way to engage social change in a democracy. And it is not the way to help democracy itself survive and thrive. Democracy is a non-stop experiment. Each generation must help sustain it, which means being in it day-by-day for the long haul.
Parker J. PalmerHumility is the only lens though which great things can be seen--and once we have seen them, humility is the only posture possible.
Parker J. PalmerWe think it's about little techniques and tricks, but techniques only take you so far. We need teachers who care about kids, who care about what they teach, and who can communicate with kids.
Parker J. PalmerLetโs not forget that American democracy started with โWe the Peopleโ agreeing to work hard to create โa more perfect union.โ Weโve lost the idea that politics begins at home with what happens in families, in neighborhoods, in classrooms, in congregations. We called this democracy into being โ and if we want to call this democracy back to its highest values, itโs got to be the us doing that calling. Thatโs not going to happen if โWe the Peopleโ donโt know how to talk to one another with civility and hold our differences in a creative, life-giving way.
Parker J. Palmer