That makes sense. Here’s what Cheryl sent me (two of the C’s overlap and for me, her four taken together are how one acts out Care – and Corporate-ness might emerge from her parenthetical remark under Creativity). It is the recent cover article for the Human Systems Dynamics Institute’s e-zine. The title is “Difference.”
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s epoch-framing speech, “I Have a Dream.” Across the country, people will gather to remember and to dream the dream again. Many things have changed since the fall of 1963, but we are still far from the mountaintop King spoke of that day. When and how will we rise above our prejudices and engage as a human family? Maybe never. Certainly if art, law, religion, demonstrations, violence, or civil discourse could pave the way to a world blind to differences, we would have arrived long ago. Maybe that is not the destination we should seek. Maybe we are striving in the wrong direction. Maybe we misunderstood King’s dream. Maybe we should forget erasing difference and turn our attention toward using difference to create opportunity for ourselves and our children.
A couple of weeks ago, I was back in Caux, Switzerland. Every summer, Initiatives of Change sponsors conferences on various topics related to global issues of peace, health, and justice. This time, I had the privilege of joining 125 thoughtful and committed (mostly young) people from around the world as we all engaged in Learning to Live in a Multicultural World. I realized early in the week that most of the participants already had learned their lessons and were trying to teach the rest of us. Their radically global, multi-lingual, political refugee, cross-cultural romance, migration-dependent, internet connected environment had already taught these young adults to live in their own world, which just happens to be multicultural.
The lesson I learned from conversations with individuals and groups all week helped me realize that difference is the key to living in this twenty-first century world. For those who live in this work, the difference that makes a difference is the unique character that distinguishes each precious human being from every other one on the planet. One African émigré, living in Barcelona, married to a Mexican woman, working for an international NGO said it best. I can’t quote his Spanish, but in essence he said, “It isn’t about culture. ‘Culture’ is made up by somebody who knows nothing about my life. It is about me and you. It is about what we hold in common. It is about the unique gifts we bring and the ways we engage across our differences to create the best for all of us.”
So, I’ve been thinking about how I can cultivate this capacity to engage with difference and live in a multicultural world. I have some thoughts, and while I’m working on putting them into practice, I’d like to share them with you.
Curiosity. I realize that my certainty is what holds me back. I will continue to occupy my cultural prison until I can ask the authentic question, give voice to the experience of each person, listen to the answer in the moment, and allow that answer to inform the next question—and the next.
Courage. It is a risk to abandon my traditional expectations and social norms to engage with another. Maybe I will stumble. Maybe they will misunderstand. Maybe I’ll reveal my ignorance, but I still have to take the chance. I have to face the risk because otherwise, I will never see their difference for what it is—opportunity for learning and relationship in peace and justice.
Creativity. I like my habits of mind and practice. They are comfortable. I don’t have to think very much or reach very far or pay much attention. On the other hand, until I engage with a fresh reality, I’ll be forced to live in the old one. If I want a different pattern of social and political interaction in my world, then I (and those who join me) will have to create it.
Consistency. This is not going to be easy. No centuries-old patterns will be changed in one interaction, no matter how powerful it is. Even when I’m not very good at it, and people I meet don’t know how to respond, I have to continue to practice. That is the only way I can build the skills and accumulate the knowledge that will allow me to see each person as a unique pattern of gifts and possibilities, to understand them in relation to me and their contexts, and to make decisions and take action that may bring King’s mountaintop closer to us.
I think I know the risk of taking such a stand. I‘m a middle-aged white woman, born in Texas and living in Minnesota. I speak only English, and I love 70s music. I read books (on paper) more than I Tweet. Most of my friends are more like me than not. Those unique (though boring) differences shape me and my view of myself and the world. I hope this simple discipline of curiosity, courage, creativity, and consistency will prepare me to engage with the uniqueness of others, but I may be mistaken. I hope this engagement will help freedom ring. Maybe I am deluded. Please, let me know what you think. I will endeavor to hear you with curiosity, courage, creativity, and consistency. I invite you to do the same.
Glenda Eoyang, Ph.D
Executive Director
HSD Institute
Certainly makes ME think…and appreciate how close she comes to my own life understandings and struggles.
Sunny
From: dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of McCabe, Diann A
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 9:02 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] question about the 4 C's
The other two were Corporate-ness and Creativity, I think. --Diann McCabe
From: Sunny Walker <sunwalker@comcast.net>
Reply-To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>
Date: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 9:56 PM
To: 'Colleague Dialogue' <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>
Subject: [Dialogue] question about the 4 C's
Okay, this old brain is foggy. I recall we used to speak of four C’s. It seems Courage and Care were two of them. The other two please? Then I’ll share a different (though somewhat similar) set of 4 C’s I’ve just run across (thanks to ICA Board member Cheryl Kartes).
Sunny
Sunny Walker
SunWalker Enterprises
303-587-3017 (cell); 303-671-0704 (office)
Aurora, Colorado
“What is it that you want to do with the one, wild, precious thing called your life?”
~Mary Oliver