Empathy

Finding Inner Peace In an Age of Strife: A Few Good Quotes

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A friend of mine collected these. I find them helpful, and thought maybe others might find them helpful, too:
“What have I got to fear from my enemies? I carry my Paradise in my heart; it goes where I go.”- Ibn Taymiyya
“Be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting such a hard battle.” – Philo Judaeus
“God made all of us, and we all come from one woman, sucked one bubby; we hope we shall not quarrel; that we shall talk until we get through.” -Chief Holata Mico to Gen. Wylie Thompson, Oct, 24,1834, in Seminole treaty negotiations
“Man never reaches so high an estate, as when he knows not whither he is going.”

Culture

Yom Kippur Beyond Right and Wrong

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When I was a young girl in Israel, in the early 60s, one of my favorite days of the year was Yom Kippur. For a full 25 hours a great silence descended on the Jewish parts of Israel. No traffic, radio, or commercial activity of any kind took place. For many families, including mine, this was the one time a year we went to synagogue. In the silence I could hear everyone’s footsteps echoing in the empty streets.

Christianity

Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks: "The Greatest Coming Out Story Ever Told"

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In this last installment of my interview with Bishop Gene Robinson, we discuss interpreting collective story in an inclusive fashion culminating in Gene’s interpretation of Exodus as “The Greatest Coming Out Story Ever Told.” Feel free to check out the first two installments if you are so moved:
Morning Feature: Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks About Obama and “The Left”
Furthermore! Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks: From Tolerance to Empathy

LR: In organized religion, there seems to be a tendency to substitute a particular interpretation of a collective ambiguous story for the story itself. And often, the narrow interpretation excludes specific people from participating in the power structure. So as a bishop, you are now a participant in the power structure.

Christianity

Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks: From Tolerance to Empathy

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This diary is dedicated to Father Paco Vallejos, who has facilitated my own journey from tolerance to empathy. Several weeks ago, I interviewed Bishop Gene Robinson, a leader in the modern civil rights movement for Tikkun Daily. Bishop Robinson, who delivered the inaugural prayer, is the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop. You can read the first installment of my interview about Obama and “the Left” here. LR: My second question for you is a little bit more spiritual in nature.

Empathy

Why I Gave 20 Vials of Blood for a Blogger

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Unless you have been blogging at community sites such as Daily Kos and Streetprophets, you probably do not know that a blogger who calls herself Kitsap River needs a kidney. Some of us contributed to the community quilts Sara R made for River and her husband, CharlesCurtisStanley. For the past year, I have been (somewhat ambivalently) completing requirements necessary to donate a kidney to River. River lives far from me, and even if she lived nearby, she is not someone I would have been likely to cross paths with. We frequent different worlds.

Empathy

How We Discuss Religion on Tikkun Daily

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It’s quite an experience to read all the comments on Amanda Quraishi’s post “I Can’t Make It Any Clearer.” They provide more of a snapshot of the comments widely seen on the web than we often get at Tikkun Daily: some are characterized by one of the commenters as “vitriolic.” If I try to practice the art of empathy for all the commenters — which is by no means the same as agreeing with them, but involves trying to imagine myself in their shoes — I can make guesses that may or may not hold some truth for the commenters involved. I find it easy to empathize with Amanda Quraishi and other practicing Muslims when faced with Rob Fox’s comments about that he calls “the psychopathology of Islam,” because I was raised myself in a religious movement that was very heavily attacked, in the press and in books available in the library, in terms that dismissed the entire thing as, essentially, evil. I found these attacks extremely hurtful, because I knew that my family and the people in our movement were very decent people.

Culture

Personal Growth and Social Change (Part 4)

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This mini-series started on Aug 8, followed by part 2 and part 3. After posting a response to part 3, I now return to the next section – what actions can we take towards creating the world of our dreams that works for all? Joanna Macy has been urging us for some time now to operate simultaneously in three directions to move towards a sustainable future: “Holding Actions in defense of life on Earth: actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings; Creation of Alternative Institutions: analysis of structural causes and creation of structural alternatives; and Shift in Perceptions of Reality, both cognitively and spiritually: a fundamental shift in worldview and values”.* I would like to address and provide concrete examples to how each of these could be done in a manner that is fully consistent with principled nonviolence, the Gandhian approach. The list below is far far from exhaustive, and I only mean it to be an illustration and food for thought for those who want to take action. Obstructive Action Done with Love
Acts of civil disobedience have been a mainstay of nonviolent social change movements for a long time.

Empathy

Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks About Obama and "The Left"

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A few weeks ago, the congregants of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe were honored by a visit from Bishop Gene Robinson who delivered the evening’s d’Var Torah. Bishop Robinson is the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop. He was invited to Santa Fe as Grand Marshall of the Gay Pride parade. When Rabbi Marvin Schwab learned from a colleague at St. Bede’s that Bishop Robinson might be barred from speaking in an Episcopal Church, he invited him to deliver the Friday Night D’Var Torah at Temple Beth Shalom.

Culture

Collaborative Decision-Making: the Difference Between Being Willing and Being Passive

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This post is a response to Dave Belden’s comment on part 3 of my Personal Growth and Social Change mini-series. I believe what’s below will make more sense if you read part 3 of my mini-series and Dave’s comment before reading what’s below. When I wrote the section on willingness and group functioning I was well aware that what I was writing would not be practical. What would be needed in order to put any of this into practice is beyond the scope of what a blog entry here and there could support people in doing. Instead, I was reaching for enough clarity so that the ideas and images could inspire some people to want to explore, learn, experiment, and ask questions.

Culture

One Million Homeless Children in America's Schools

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The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) recently published a report showing that there are nearly 1,000,000 homeless children enrolled in U.S. schools. This represents an alarming 41% rise from just a few years ago. Most people don’t imagine a child’s face when they think of the face of homelessness, but the average age of a homeless person in our country is nine! Click here to read a report by NAEHCY with more details. When my husband and I launched Reach And Teach, one of our first areas of focus was homelessness.