The Politics of the Brokenhearted
A retreat and conference with Parker J. Palmer on habits of the heart and the future of American democracy
We invite you to participate in The Politics of the Brokenhearted, a retreat and conference with Parker J. Palmer sponsored by the Center for Courage & Renewal. The program will be offered twice in 2010: May 20-23 in Seattle, Washington, and October 21-24 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Each gathering is intended for 100 people who want to help heal the deep divides that threaten American democracy. We will explore practical approaches to helping ourselves and others hold our political conflicts in ways that can help renew the quality of our civic conversation and the promise of our democratic institutions. As Parker Palmer writes in his book-in-progress, The Politics of the Brokenhearted:I am not alone in my heartbreak about the way American democracy has been diminished as disagreement among its citizens turns to distrust, anger and hatred, undermining the civic community that can hold power accountable and help create a better future for our children. That kind of heartbreak spans the political spectrum—and in that shared pain lies hope.
There are two ways for the heart to break: it can break apart in anger, or it can break open into a greater capacity to hold the tension of our differences. “Habits of the heart” that make the heart supple, enabling it to break open, not apart, can help those of us who differ on the issues renew our sense of “we, the people” on which democracy depends.
Citizens who are able to hold tension in a life-giving way within and among themselves can put democratic institutions to their intended use. As Joseph Ellis has written, the Founders invented a form of government that “was not about providing answers, but about providing a framework in which the questions could continue to be debated.” They left us a loom on which we can weave the fabric of a common life—if we have an inward capacity to turn tension into creativity, letting it open our hearts to new ways of seeing, hearing and being present to each other across our great divides.
In education, religion and various venues of public life, we have daily opportunities to develop habits of the heart that can renew democracy and help us resist the many forces that are bent on closing it down. The ”better angels of our nature“ that Lincoln called upon have not abandoned us. Let us not abandon them.
Our days together will feature compelling ideas, large- and small-groups dialogues, poetry, story-telling, and performances by singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer. As Jim Wallis has said, "Carrie Newcomer inspires me…with her faith and passion for justice. Her music tells stories of the lives and struggles, the hopes and dreams, of immigrants, single mothers and wage-workers. They are stories of real life that teach spiritual truths. And hovering over all the stories 'there is a spirit moving'—a spirit of hope and grace, a spirit calling us to 'be not afraid'.”
Since 1997, the Center for Courage & Renewal has helped people in many professions reclaim identity and integrity in the work they do—renewing their vocational commitments, deepening their capacity to serve, and calling the institutions in which they work back to their highest purposes. The Center does much of its work in settings called Circles of Trust®, where the individual finds it safe to test his or her inward learning in the context of communal dialogue. The conference will be grounded in such circles, a “portable” form of community based on principles and practices that participants can use when they return home.
What You Can Expect from the Conference…
- A thoughtful examination of democracy’s promise and perils
- Dialogue about what “we the people” can do to renew the civic bonds and civil discourse on which democracy depends
- Experiences, inspiration and practical ideas you can take home to help yourself and others develop democratic “habits of the heart”
- Access to an ongoing community of support, online and face-to-face, thru the Center for Courage & Renewal
We are excited about this important topic and about the ways in which we will explore it together. But much depends on who the explorers turn out to be. We hope that you will be one of them, because we know that you have commitments, capacities and experiences that will enrich and enliven this retreat and amplify what we hope will flow from it. Democracy depends on many voices, and we want to hear yours!
Parker Palmer on Democracy on the Web
Parker Palmer's article about this event in our Winter 2010 Words of EnCOURAGEment newsletter.
More about Parker's new book-in-progress in our Fall 2009 Words of EnCOURAGEment newsletter.
Politics of the Brokenhearted: On Holding the Tensions of Democracy Part of the Deepening the American Dream Series published by the Fetzer Institute in 2005. In this occasional paper, Parker speaks to the conflicts and contradictions of twenty-first-century life that are breaking the American heart and threatening to compromise our democratic values.
Bill Moyers sits down with Parker J. Palmer for a conversation about maintaining spiritual wholeness even as the economy and political order seem to come apart.
Parker Palmer on the Democratic Experiment Recorded on February 19, 2008 at the Commonwealth Club of California, Parker speaks on “America’s Democratic Experiment: Holding the Tension Between Reality and Possibility.” He argues that democracy requires us to do the soul-work necessary to stand in the tragic gap, evoking “the better angels of our nature” in ourselves and in our world.
An edited version of this talk, with an accompanying discussion at Gather.com, can be found at the website of “Word for Word” from American Public Media.