What We Need Is Here: Hope, Hard Times and the Human Possibility
Joanne Esser was the planned speaker at semi-programmed worship on December 1, 2019.
I had the joy of seeing Quaker author Parker Palmer in mid-November when he performed in a show here in Minneapolis, along with the singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer and musician Gary Walters. I want to share with you today some of what I took away from Parker Palmer’s message that night.
They titled their show “What We Need Is Here: Hope, Hard Times and the Human Possibility.” The show came at an ideal time for me, since I have been feeling a growing sense of despair in recent months, feeling that we are indeed living in “hard times” these days. The whole evening was designed to raise listeners’ sense of hope. It was built on the idea that everything we need to deal in constructive ways with these hard times is already here, already available to us.
One of the metaphors Parker Palmer invoked early in the evening was of geese: How do they find the strength they need to complete their long, difficult migration? Geese have two powers that sustain them through hard times, Parker said: Their homing instinct and their flock. The first one, instinct, is their built-in “gut feeling,” the inner drive inside them that tells them the right way to go. They are faithful to that inner drive. The other power they have, their flock, offers strength between them. Being part of a community supports them on the long journey. If you take that image of the geese and how they approach their difficult task, and apply it to us humans, it reminds us that we can also look for what is inside us and what is between us – which amounts to everything we need.
I have been telling myself lately that I feel “powerless” in the face of all the big, tough issues in our world right now, from climate collapse to violations of human rights, especially those of people of color and immigrants, from untrustworthy political leaders to increasing gun violence. Laced through all of these “horrors of the day” is our old nemesis, fear – which is so often used to divide us. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and believe that you have no power to make a real difference, to make change regarding any of these problems, since they are so big.
But Parker Palmer’s response when people tell him they feel powerless is, “Powerless in comparison to whom?” Most of us, and most of the audience who was there to hear him speak, have a certain amount or maybe even a great deal of privilege. People who are white, who are educated, who have money, we have privilege. There is power in our privilege, if we have the courage to use it. He added: saying you are powerless allows you to evade responsibility.
Parker Palmer went on to remind us how people have always come together in hard times over shared goals, to use whatever power they have to advance the common good. These are not the only hard times we’ve seen in our lifetime. He referenced the civil rights movement as an example; how in those hard times, many people acting together actually did make some changes to our laws and our culture over time.
The things that have always saved us in other difficult periods, he asserted, are still here – things like hospitality, generosity, kindness, good parenting and grandparenting, a sense of humor, courage, strength….These did not go away. Parker advised us to remember what helped you move forward the last time you faced something hard.
The people who are our heroes, such as people who were leaders during the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., for instance, tend to take on tasks that will never end. How do they stay the course when their goals are so huge? Parker asserts that it is not about effectiveness, about getting a certain result. He said, “When results are the only measure, we narrow our goals.” It is more about faithfulness than effectiveness – it’s about staying faithful to our calling, to the bigger picture of change we want to see, even when it seems impossible. We may not live to see the results of seeds that we sow, but we can still plant the seeds.
Our faithfulness may take the form of small acts. Most of what we do, he said, affects the world only about three feet in front of us. But those small acts have an effect nonetheless.
Staying faithful to our work requires courage, and courage requires two things: both solitude and solidarity. We need to make time for self-reflection, in solitude, to, as he put it, “feel the imperatives of our own soul,” that power inside us. (One of the song lyrics Carrie Newcomer sang goes: “When I don’t know what is right, I hold it up to the Light.” That’s the solitude part.) We also need community, people who give us the gift of listening, so we can experience a sense of connection that can sustain us. That’s the power between us, our flock.
I came away from that evening of words and music feeling a renewed sense of possibility, something I think we all need during these hard times.