The Politics of the Brokenhearted - Boston, MA
When: October 21-24, 2010
Where: Boston, MA
Who: Center for Courage & Renewal
The Politics of the Brokenhearted
A national conference with Parker J. Palmer on habits of the heart and the future of American democracy
“The human heart is the first home of democracy.” — Terry Tempest Williams
We invite you to participate in The Politics of the Brokenhearted, a national conference with Parker J. Palmer sponsored by the Center for Courage & Renewal.
The conference 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.