We are launching a new feature on our web site called Wisdom Voices Spotlight. With it we hope to highlight the every day work being done by the many organizations and people around the country working tirelessly to simply make the world a better place. They are living examples of the phrase, “we are all better off, when we are all better off.” Too often we can become overwhelmed with all that’s wrong, or not working properly and forget about the many successes that are achieved every day in communities large and small.
We are reminded of the quote from Parker J. Palmer when discussing the ongoing work of democracy.
“To stay in the fray, we have to make effectiveness (or getting the problem solved) a secondary criterion. Each of us is going to die without seeing the final resolution of the problems we care most about. If effectiveness is our only measure, we will fall into despair. For me, the word ‘faithfulness’ names the primary criterion for evaluating our contributions. Am I acting in a way that is faithful to the gifts I’ve been given, to the situations in which I’ve been placed, and to the needs that come up in those situations about which I might do something?
“At the end I am going to be asking, ‘Was I faithful to my best lights? Did I speak my highest truth? Did I speak it in a way that other people could hear it? And was it truth that somehow, on balance, contributed to human possibility?”
Our initial feature is on the Young Elected Officials Network and its director, Andrew Gillum. The work being done by this group is nothing short of awe-inspiring. We invite you to read their stories and to take heart that the work of the next generation appears to be in good hands.
