Healing The Heart Of Democracy – Parker J Palmer

The investment of time and energy was small. The returns on neighborliness were substantial. In that same neighborhood, local schoolteachers enlisted the help of neighbors to create a community garden, giving residents a place to socialize as they grew vegetables and the teachers an outdoor classroom for their elementary school students.25 And a neighborhood association sponsored several annual holiday gatherings that allowed nearby neighbors to meet and make friends among what would otherwise have been a relatively faceless collection of commuters.

In yet another neighborhood, under the auspices of a community foundation, people deepened their social bonds through a “neighborhood resource catalog.” Neighbors were invited to submit descriptions of services they would be willing to volunteer, which were then distributed in print (and today could be posted on a Web site).

The catalog contained a wide range of offerings: some people were willing to take care of a pet while a family was on vacation; others volunteered to visit shut-ins; still others offered to share their skill by making minor home repairs. To keep anyone from being locked in to a promise that turned out not to be working well, services were time-limited (say, to three hours of home repair services per week), and all entries had a life span of three months, at which point they could be renewed or allowed to expire.

The catalog urged people to use common sense to avoid any sort of exploitation, and the coalition of local congregations that screened, published, and monitored entries provided an additional safety net. This kind of project clearly requires more time, effort, and organizational support than a potluck supper, but the social benefits are proportionally greater.

This same community foundation sponsored another project called “Living Room Seminars on Coping with Community Change.” The project was aimed at a cluster of neighborhoods where rapid demographic changes were creating the kind of anxiety that can lead to unscrupulous real estate practices and community deterioration. The seminars were based on a six- session curriculum led by trained discussion leaders who gathered with small groups of neighbors in someone’s living room to explore their fears and hopes about the future of the community.

Like any respectable seminar, these were fueled by coffee and cookies as well as good ideas.

Introduction to the Paperback Edition Let’s Talk About Us Big Money and Little La Veta Our Deepest Political Divide People Can Change Prelude: The Politics of the Brokenhearted Notes Chapter I: Democracy’s Ecosystem Diversity, Tension, and Democracy Truth, Suffering, and Hope The John Woolman Story What Lies Ahead Notes Chapter II: Confessions of an Accidental Citizen Citizenship and the Common Good Faith and Doubt in Politics Hearts Broken Open to Hope The Story Behind the Story Tocqueville in America Five Habits of the Heart Holding Hands and Climbing Notes Chapter III: The Heart of Politics The Heart and Realpolitik A Farmer’s Heart The Power of Heartbreak Two Kinds of Heartbreak Examined Diagnosing Our “Heart Disease” The Self a Democracy Needs Notes Chapter IV: The Loom of Democracy Learning to Hold Tension Creatively The Endless Argument The Endless Challenge Beyond Fight or Flight Democracy and Self-Transcendence Notes Chapter V: Life in the Company of Strangers No Strangers Allowed The Meaning of Public Life The Places and Purposes of Public Life Public Power in a Democracy The Decline of Public Life Reclaiming Space for Public Life The Promise of Neighborhoods Imagining the Public Life Notes Chapter VI: Classrooms and Congregations Where Classrooms and Congregations Converge Public Education and the Inner Search Doing Democracy in School The Hidden Curriculum Congregations and Habits of the Heart Who’s in Charge Here?

Power and Potluck Suppers Decision Making and Counseling A Theology of Hospitality Notes Chapter VII: Safe Space for Deep Democracy When the Media Define Reality Getting the News from Within From Solitude to Circles of Trust The Power of the Circle From Trust to Political Power The Public Narrative Process Cyberspace and Deep Democracy Notes Chapter VIII: The Unwritten History of the Heart Myth and the Story of the Heart America’s National Myths When Image and Reality Collide Movements and the History of the Heart From Inner Liberation to Outer Transformation Standing and Acting with Hope in the Tragic Gap Notes Gratitudes The Author Index Healing the Heart of Democracy Discussion Guide: With Links to Video Interviews with Parker J.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 04ea9e0102fe80ff
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,409,897 bytes (2.298 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781118907504, 9781118970355, 9781118970362, 9786468600
• Pages: 315
• Language: English (en)

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