My wife sat down in the drivers seat, started the car, and put the gear shifter in neutral. The car started rolling downhill and I had in instant revelation.
“When you’re in neutral you can only go downhill, never uphill.”
As Dr Palmer so eloquently writes, our country will be in neutral until the majority allows their hope to move them to action and they take themselves out of neutral.
Thank you for naming the devil’s work of white supremacy. This has also been a growing realization in me. Now it’s the stain I see everywhere, and the principality that must be spiritually overturned if we are to ever be free of it. It feels overwhelming at times - and I am a white person!! My Black, Brown and Asian brothers and sisters have been such good disciples for me in this new way of seeing and responding to the world as it is. And the wisdom of our elders, like you, affirms that we are in fact going in the right direction. Thank you. Bless you!
This is Margo again. Thank you again for your kindness in refunding my yearlong subscription. It gave me peace of mind during a time when I was quite anxious. It has taken me a minute, but I have re-subscribed on a monthly basis, and I am so happy to support your beautiful work on that more manageable (for me) basis.
I just read your beautiful post on diversity, and love your connection between human diversity and biodiversity in nature. Both are so close to my heart and so interconnected. I also love hope as a verb: 'Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two." I, too, believe that a majority of Americans do not subscribe to the nightmare of Project 2025, but I believe that there is still a colossal amount of work that needs to be done to wake us from the "White American Slumber Party." Too many white Americans - people who I know to have good intentions and good hearts - are still asleep, still steeped in the lies we were socialized (brainwashed) into believing about about manifest destiny and the doctrine of discovery. Maybe the stark, cruel world that MAGA is creating will help us wake up, help us see white supremacy and patriarchy for what they are, and commit to creating a world where all - human and natural - are valued and cared for.
Thank you for your clarity and love. Your writing has inspired me to focus very consciously on what I can do each day to "narrow the distance between . . . what is and what could and should be, and to recommit to doing those things.
I really appreciate your article. I think your personal story about proximity to other peoples is poignant. People don’t become more tolerant/appreciative of diversity thru education. Relationships are what change us.
As an 85 year old Vietnam Vet who proudly served in the U.S. Army; one who trained to impose my superior self on to the little people of South Vietnam, I am just now waking from a sick sixty-year-old sleep.
Those “little people” were real folk like me. We were both naive but in different ways. American leaders were showing off their power by strutting into this poor little country to save them from little bullies. And they were using me to blindly catch the bullets and throw them back, even if it kills me.
“Who are these people?” The little guy ask. “I have no idea but the seem to be trying to save us. Stay out of their way!”
The big boys are still using me to do the risking that makes them great again.
I'm just saying I am awake and starting to get the big picture. You are not out to make America great! You want me to make YOU great while I sleepwalk through your gameplan.
So I just want to warn or promise, depending on who you are: we are waking up to what MEGA America is doing and has been doing most of my life, only with a different gameplan.
Thanks for articles like yours sir, the sound is an alarm to sleepwalkers like me.
Thank you so much, Les. I'm very touched and moved by your words, which come from hard experiences of the kind I've never had, the kind I wonder if I could have survived. For me, voices like yours are some of the most important voices in today's world since they come from personal experience on the shadow side of American democracy, the side so many people simply don't want to talk about. You are bearing witness to realities that we all need to know about, realities that are important parts of the complex thing America is. For that, sir, you have my deepest respect. I wish you all the best, glad to be walking alongside you as we both travel deeper into our eighties. 🙏
Parker Palmer has inspired me to live as a curious, thankful, hopeful person for decades, ever since I read “To Know as We are Known,” and countless of his books since.
Though a little younger, as a white male Boomer raised in the Protestant south where Blue Law, the New Testament, and Sweet Tea were cultural givens, I also came of age by accidental and intentional exposure to diversity—people, religions, natural habitats, etc.
I agree that most Americans prefer the messiness of democracy to the efficiency of autocracy. If our current regime doesn’t kill us by lowering our standards of health and prosperity, we will surely die from the boredom of their un-Brave New World.
Thanks, Parker, for reminding me that our collective will to freedom and dignity for all is greater than the old patriarchy’s will to reestablish a past that never truly was.
Many thanks, Mark, for your generous words. You are right on that boredom is one of the major downsides of the cultural homogeneity and stasis that some people want to cling to. I remember my folks saying when I complained I was bored, "Well, that's on you! The world is an interesting place—get out into it!" (PS: My mouth is now watering for a glass of Sweet Tea!)
Hi Parker, I’m sure that you don’t remember me, but back in the mid 1990’s the chaplain’s office at Vanderbilt University brought you to campus as our featured Project Dialogue keynoter. I was one of the affiliated chaplains (United Methodist) who worked with Beverly Asbury to bring you to campus. So good to hear your voice in the midst of our American wilderness. Blessings & Peace!
Thank you. We have a group formed at our local library, reading and discussing "Healing the Heart of Democracy." I noticed some of your text directly from the book! Keep sharing! We need to hear these words of wisdom!
Thanks much, Rachel. Glad you have a group reading HHD. As I said in my piece, I stole some of this from my own books, but please don't tell the author!
Love reading this this morning after my early morning reading of the chapter from Esau McCaully's book, Reading While Black gave example after example of God's profound love and design for diversity in the kingdom - then ,now, and in the future. Thank you Parker Palmer for continuing to set the example for us - that our pens might be tools for yoke breaking and setting captives free.
Thank you so much for your wise words, Parker Palmer. An inclusive love of all the beautiful diversity in our world, lived out through courage and hope, is a necessity right now. Thanks for putting into words what so many of us know to be true, and we can only hope those who don’t yet know will learn and change for the sake of all our children and descendants.
Beautiful… thank you for your words and your hope. I do my best to live hope each day especially in the midst of all this current madness! I have to believe it makes a difference (no matter how small) but even if not I would still choose to live this way.
I love the image of hope being a verb. Let’s do hope. Yes, let’s do hope. 🙏💕
Thank you for your wise words, as always. 💖
Thank you!
My wife sat down in the drivers seat, started the car, and put the gear shifter in neutral. The car started rolling downhill and I had in instant revelation.
“When you’re in neutral you can only go downhill, never uphill.”
As Dr Palmer so eloquently writes, our country will be in neutral until the majority allows their hope to move them to action and they take themselves out of neutral.
Thank you for naming the devil’s work of white supremacy. This has also been a growing realization in me. Now it’s the stain I see everywhere, and the principality that must be spiritually overturned if we are to ever be free of it. It feels overwhelming at times - and I am a white person!! My Black, Brown and Asian brothers and sisters have been such good disciples for me in this new way of seeing and responding to the world as it is. And the wisdom of our elders, like you, affirms that we are in fact going in the right direction. Thank you. Bless you!
Hello Parker,
This is Margo again. Thank you again for your kindness in refunding my yearlong subscription. It gave me peace of mind during a time when I was quite anxious. It has taken me a minute, but I have re-subscribed on a monthly basis, and I am so happy to support your beautiful work on that more manageable (for me) basis.
I just read your beautiful post on diversity, and love your connection between human diversity and biodiversity in nature. Both are so close to my heart and so interconnected. I also love hope as a verb: 'Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two." I, too, believe that a majority of Americans do not subscribe to the nightmare of Project 2025, but I believe that there is still a colossal amount of work that needs to be done to wake us from the "White American Slumber Party." Too many white Americans - people who I know to have good intentions and good hearts - are still asleep, still steeped in the lies we were socialized (brainwashed) into believing about about manifest destiny and the doctrine of discovery. Maybe the stark, cruel world that MAGA is creating will help us wake up, help us see white supremacy and patriarchy for what they are, and commit to creating a world where all - human and natural - are valued and cared for.
Thank you for your clarity and love. Your writing has inspired me to focus very consciously on what I can do each day to "narrow the distance between . . . what is and what could and should be, and to recommit to doing those things.
I really appreciate your article. I think your personal story about proximity to other peoples is poignant. People don’t become more tolerant/appreciative of diversity thru education. Relationships are what change us.
As an 85 year old Vietnam Vet who proudly served in the U.S. Army; one who trained to impose my superior self on to the little people of South Vietnam, I am just now waking from a sick sixty-year-old sleep.
Those “little people” were real folk like me. We were both naive but in different ways. American leaders were showing off their power by strutting into this poor little country to save them from little bullies. And they were using me to blindly catch the bullets and throw them back, even if it kills me.
“Who are these people?” The little guy ask. “I have no idea but the seem to be trying to save us. Stay out of their way!”
The big boys are still using me to do the risking that makes them great again.
I'm just saying I am awake and starting to get the big picture. You are not out to make America great! You want me to make YOU great while I sleepwalk through your gameplan.
So I just want to warn or promise, depending on who you are: we are waking up to what MEGA America is doing and has been doing most of my life, only with a different gameplan.
Thanks for articles like yours sir, the sound is an alarm to sleepwalkers like me.
Thank you so much, Les. I'm very touched and moved by your words, which come from hard experiences of the kind I've never had, the kind I wonder if I could have survived. For me, voices like yours are some of the most important voices in today's world since they come from personal experience on the shadow side of American democracy, the side so many people simply don't want to talk about. You are bearing witness to realities that we all need to know about, realities that are important parts of the complex thing America is. For that, sir, you have my deepest respect. I wish you all the best, glad to be walking alongside you as we both travel deeper into our eighties. 🙏
On diversity,
Parker pairs nature, country.
Tells it like it is.
...
On democracy,
past demo differences.
Creative conflict.
...
Up to all of us,
a “more perfect union.’
Will we recommit?
Thanks so much, Marisol. I wish I had your poetic gift for distilling complex ideas into a few well-chose words!
You let your life speak,
light our words, work, steps, you teach.
Wholeness, not hidden. 😊
Parker Palmer has inspired me to live as a curious, thankful, hopeful person for decades, ever since I read “To Know as We are Known,” and countless of his books since.
Though a little younger, as a white male Boomer raised in the Protestant south where Blue Law, the New Testament, and Sweet Tea were cultural givens, I also came of age by accidental and intentional exposure to diversity—people, religions, natural habitats, etc.
I agree that most Americans prefer the messiness of democracy to the efficiency of autocracy. If our current regime doesn’t kill us by lowering our standards of health and prosperity, we will surely die from the boredom of their un-Brave New World.
Thanks, Parker, for reminding me that our collective will to freedom and dignity for all is greater than the old patriarchy’s will to reestablish a past that never truly was.
Many thanks, Mark, for your generous words. You are right on that boredom is one of the major downsides of the cultural homogeneity and stasis that some people want to cling to. I remember my folks saying when I complained I was bored, "Well, that's on you! The world is an interesting place—get out into it!" (PS: My mouth is now watering for a glass of Sweet Tea!)
Hi Parker, I’m sure that you don’t remember me, but back in the mid 1990’s the chaplain’s office at Vanderbilt University brought you to campus as our featured Project Dialogue keynoter. I was one of the affiliated chaplains (United Methodist) who worked with Beverly Asbury to bring you to campus. So good to hear your voice in the midst of our American wilderness. Blessings & Peace!
Thanks again, Mark. And how lovely to be reminded of Bev Asbury, who made a real impact on my life!
Thank you. We have a group formed at our local library, reading and discussing "Healing the Heart of Democracy." I noticed some of your text directly from the book! Keep sharing! We need to hear these words of wisdom!
Thanks much, Rachel. Glad you have a group reading HHD. As I said in my piece, I stole some of this from my own books, but please don't tell the author!
Thank you, Parker for these wise words. So happy you are on Substack ✨
Thanks, Diane. Very glad to be here!
Love reading this this morning after my early morning reading of the chapter from Esau McCaully's book, Reading While Black gave example after example of God's profound love and design for diversity in the kingdom - then ,now, and in the future. Thank you Parker Palmer for continuing to set the example for us - that our pens might be tools for yoke breaking and setting captives free.
Thanks so much, Ari. As for me, I'm just trying to follow the example of so many writers before me whose words have given me hope and courage.
Thank you so much for your wise words, Parker Palmer. An inclusive love of all the beautiful diversity in our world, lived out through courage and hope, is a necessity right now. Thanks for putting into words what so many of us know to be true, and we can only hope those who don’t yet know will learn and change for the sake of all our children and descendants.
Thank you, EK. I'm glad this spoke to you, and I'm glad you're passing the word along to those who come behind us.
Perfectly said about our imperfect world. Thank you. 💕
Thank you, Judy.
Beautiful… thank you for your words and your hope. I do my best to live hope each day especially in the midst of all this current madness! I have to believe it makes a difference (no matter how small) but even if not I would still choose to live this way.
Thanks, Lindy. And I agree: "living hope" is the way to go. Even if it doesn't change the world, it changes you.