Those of us who go to college and graduate school make some
friends that we track all through our careers.
Sometimes we don’t have much contact with them, but we watch their
careers take off or take different kinds of turns. Often we watch them through the books they
publish. Today we frequently track them
through social media like Twitter. If
they are in our academic discipline, we might see them periodically at
conferences.
One such person I have known for decades now is Parker
Palmer. Although we never were in school
together, we have known each other since the earliest days of our careers. In the earliest days he was not a Quaker, but
he was at a Quaker institution and was flirting with Quakerism. Because he was serious about his spiritual
search, he became in many ways more Quaker than those of us who grew up as
Quakers!
He figured out how to take the best from my own Quaker
tradition and “package” it in teaching and leadership situations to become
“somebody.” It was fun to watch him
become pretty well known in academic circles.
He became prominent by virtue of his speaking and books. He had a knack for taking stuff that I knew
so well and presenting it in a way that was compelling to folks---most of whom
never heard about Quakerism or thought we only dealt with oatmeal!
Parker Palmer began to do what we call “spirituality” before
most non-Catholics wandered into these waters.
I did, too. That was one of the
things we had in common in the days when we both were young and full of
promise. No one ever introduces me today
as one full of promise! I am sure Parker
and I found spirituality so attractive because Quakerism always emphasizes
experience first and then theology/doctrine.
And that is one of the ways I differentiate spirituality and
religion. Spirituality always begins
with experience. Religion tends to begin
with doctrine.
I am now using one of Palmer’s books in a class I
teach. I don’t know whether the students
fully appreciate him, but I find what he does in that book, The Active Life, very valuable. One of the places I found interesting was his
suggestion that we all tend to look at the world from one of two
perspectives. Some of us view the world
from a model of scarcity. Others view
the world with an abundance model. Of
course, I immediately think: which am I?
The scarcity model says the world contains limited
resources. “There is only so much,” is
the mentality. “I better get mine while
the getting is good!” We all know the
various ways this view of the world shapes us.
I think it is the worldview my family held as I grew up. This kind of view of the world breeds anxiety
and sometimes fears. We are worried that
we will not get enough. In fact, the
word “enough” might characterize this way of seeing the world.
Palmer characterizes this world well with these words. “In a universe of scarcity, only people who
know the arts of competing, even of making war, will be able to survive.” In this kind of world most of us will be
losers. But there is another option: the
worldview of abundance. This view works
well with a sense of God.
Here the perspective suggests that the world is always “more
than enough.” Of course, it is easy to
think about famine, poverty, etc. that seems to say that is a lie. But think about the gifts and graces of the
world. Think about love. If viewed this way, the world offers
abundantly. Love is a resource that can
never be used up---there is always more.
This is the insight that Palmer offers to me.
I appreciate his words that guide me in re-imaging the world
and what it has to offer. He says, “in a
universe of abundance, acts of generosity and community become not only
possible but fruitful as well.” To think
about generosity and community help me to see the world differently---to see it
as a source of abundance.
I have known the gift of generosity from people, from nature
and from life. Generosity comes to us as
“more than enough.” We feel we don’t
deserve that much. We are amazed. We are overwhelmed. We can only be grateful.
Community is the same.
True community gives me a sense of belonging, care and love that amazes
me. To begin to see the world with the
abundance model is transforming. It
enables me to see possibility and potentiality that creates a new future for
myself, others and the world. I think
this must have been the case with Jesus who imagined a new world. He called it the kingdom. I think I begin to understand. The kingdom is a new world---a world of
generosity and community.
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