As we approach the unveiling of the Charter for Compassion on November 12th, TED.com and charterforcompassion.org have just released six short talks on compassion from six different perspectives–from a Rabbi, an Imam, a Reverend, a Tenzin, a Swami, and a secular/scientific perspective. According to the Charter, “together, these six speakers bear witness to the fact that compassion and the Golden Rule lie at the heart of all religion and all morality.”

Another story of forgiveness from Africa* is being told as a one-hour documentary. Ready to Forgive: An African Story of Grace, produced by the Lutheran Church America and hosted by Imaculée Ilibigaza, a Rwanda genocide survivor and the author of Left to Tell, tells the story of the Acholi people in Northern Uganda. Despite being brutalized during twenty years of war which left thousands dead, many displaced, and many–especially children who were abducted and forced to fight–suffering crippling physical, mental, and emotional injuries, the Acholi people still believe in reconciliation and forgiveness.

According to a recent review, “Ready to Forgive is laced with on-location photography and plentiful interviews with survivors of attacks, but also members of the Lutheran World Federation and others in who to restore peace to Northern Uganda after more than 20 years of conflict.  The documentary focuses on the ability of the Acholi people of Northern Uganda to forgive their own: members of their own villages who were, in many cases, forced to join a rebel group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, which committed atrocities against the Acholi people.”

In a previous blog entry, Robin Edgar wrote about American-born Andrew Briggs who was inspired to go to Koro Abili, an Internally Displace Persons camp in Uganda, to help traumatized children heal through the arts. He developed a program that eventually became the nonprofit, Freedom In Creation (FIC). It is not only helping heal affected children, it is helping heal communities.

Read more about the film and Andrew’s work with Freedom In Creation. Both are needed shots of hope amidst bleak headlines.

*Some other stories of forgiveness in African countries can be found in As We Forgive, a film about forgiveness after the Rwandan genocide and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s book about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, No Future Without Forgiveness.

When we talk of love, compassion, or forgiveness, it’s easy to think that practicing any of these requires something bigger, more perfect than we are capable of. It doesn’t. In fact, it’s the small acts of love, compassion, and forgiveness that can disarm us, brighten our day, or lift a crushed spirit.

When I was in the midst of despair over the end of my marriage, the kindness of a barista who gave me a free latte for an unknown reason and the warm smile of a retail clerk were just two seemingly small gestures that made my day. In their own way, each of these people I encountered had provided a hand to grab onto from the emotional cliff I felt slipping from my grasp. They didn’t have to–nor could they–save me, just show some kindness.

A recent article in the Beacon-News in Aurora, Illinois, tells the story of an Aurora police officer who saw a child in need and acted–decisively, compassionately, without fanfare–in a way that left an indelible mark on his trainee, the child, and his mother.

The gesture had “symbolic importance. It’s a good sign for this deeply polarized country…”
–Camilo Gonzalez of the Institute for Development and Peace (Indepaz), Colombia

“How important is the gesture of the son of Escobar?” BBC World asked philosophy professor Guillermo Hoyos, Universidad Javeriana. Hoyos said he was ‘very impressed’ with the meeting between the son of the perpetrator and the children of the victims.

The goal of social emotional education is for children to be internally motivated to act compassionately; and to develop a system of ethical values. These values should guide their behaviour and stem from the concern for the welfare of others. — The Importance of Fostering Social & Emotional Development in the Early Years, Research Into Practice, The Institute for Early Childhood Education & Research, University of British Columbia

My mother was a Head Start and elementary school teacher for many years. Her watchword was the Golden Rule and her love of her young charges legend. She was a champion of social and emotional development, mostly just because of who she was–not any formal program.

She seemed to intuitively know that compassion could be taught and that teaching the whole child mattered. Still, she and her colleagues–who taught decades ago–faced some of the same challenges educators face today: large class size, an emphasis on testing, lack of resources, and–because she taught in a poor district–children who came to school without their basic needs met.

There are many educators, and parents like her who continue to spotlight the importance of social and emotional learning. Of course, education suffers from a raft of difficulties, but bit by bit, there are those who keep pushing an agenda that will help children learn to better navigate their emotions and human interaction.

Hats off to all those who teach, parent, care for, and/or build the case for better ways to educate and nurture children.

If you’re interested in reading a brief synopsis of research findings on fostering social and emotional development and recommendations for creating a caring community, teaching emotional literacy, check out this UBC, Institute for Early Childhood Education Web page. It’s a quick, but important read.

These quotes are among many profound, and beautiful images, truths, and teachings from late poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue in a 2008 conversation with Krista Tippett on Speaking of Faith. Read, then listen and be moved!

“In the Celtic tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the idea of soul-love; the old Gaelic term for this is anam ċara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and ċara is the word for friend. … In the early Celtic church, a person who acted as a teacher, companion, or spiritual guide was called an anam ċara. It originally referred to someone to whom you confessed revealing the hidden intimacies of your life. With the anam ċara you could share your innermost self, your mind, and your heart. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. … In everyone’s life there is great need for an anam ċara, a soul friend, in this love you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. Where you are understood, you are at home.”

–from Anam Cara by John O’Donohue

“When I think of the word ‘beauty,’ some of the faces of those that I love come into my mind. When I think of beauty I also think of beautiful landscapes that I know. Then I think of acts of such lovely kindness that have been done to me, by people that cared for me, in bleak unsheltered times or when I needed to be loved and minded. I also think of those unknown people who are the real heroes for me, who you never hear about, who hold out on lines–on frontiers of awful want and awful situations and manage somehow to go beyond the given impoverishments and offer gifts of possibility and imagination and seeing.”

To be creative, you have to do something. It’s applied imagination.
-Sir Ken Robinson, Author

I loved what I was hearing from the distinguished panel on creativity and well-being at the Vancouver Peace Summit. It was hopeful, and spoke of a powerful human capacity we’ve not fully tapped, but is within our reach if we recognize and nurture it.

“The power of creativity,” Sir Ken Robinson, author and leader in the development of creativity and innovation, explained, “is unique to human beings.” And yet, our educational system, according to Robinson, is rooted in industrialism and based on standardization. “In education, you have to teach creativity,” he said, “you can’t just allow it.”

Nobel Prize winning physicist, Murray Gell-Mann lamented that school is the only place where problems are formulated for you. Problem formulation is part of the creative process and allows more expansive thinking than problem solving alone.

Daniel Siegel, executive director of the Mindsight Institute, talked about how compassion and creativity were healthy for the brain. “We know certain factors, including novelty, keep the brain growing,” he said. In response to a challenge by the Dalai Lama to look for a secular ethic to promote compassion, Siegel suggested introducing compassion and creativity as a form of brain hygiene and recommending it as a daily activity to promote public health.

Author, Eckhardt Tolle spoke of redirecting attention inward, calming the mind and tapping an “intensely alive stillness.” It is in this moment of a cessation of thinking, he said, that we can realize our source for creativity.

Chris Wink, founder of the Blue Man Group and Blue School emphasized that “Creativity must be sewn into every part of the educational process. That’s how teaching of the whole child might happen.” Robinson emphasized the importance of creativity even more strongly, “It’s essential for humanity, for our future.”

“The power of creativity is unique to human beings. We’re born with the capacity to project ourselves into other places. To be creative, you have to do something. It’s applied imagination.”
–Sir Ken Robinson, Author, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

“We know certain factors, including novelty, keeps the brain growing.”
–Daniel Siegel, Executive Director, Mindsight Institute

“Creativity is where we focus our attention. It’s about mental flexibility,” began Chris Wink, one of the founders of the Blue Man Group and more recently the Blue School, as he started the session on Creativity and Well-being at the Vancouver Peace Summit. Then, he launched us off into a performance presentation featuring three “bald and blue” men who playfully illustrated the mindsets or archetypes the Blue Man cast goes into in their performances (listed below with their opposite):

• scientist (logical, analysis)-shaman (instinctive, focused on synthesis)
• group member (sensitivity to others and collaboration)-the trickster (playfulness, breaking free of groupthink)
• hero (moving toward a goal), and innocent (naïve, childlike, focused on being present)

Before each performance, Wink explained that the blue men get centered so they are not in any one mindset, but instead are able to access and move between any of them, something we could all benefit from practicing off the stage.

After taking us through each of the mindsets, he ended with the “innocent” asking each of us to reach back to a time when we expressed ourselves freely–when we ourselves were innocent. “We don’t enter this state often,” he said, “but we need to. We need to connect to our hearts.”

The theme had come full circle–once again–to the heart. Coming back again, and again.

The first day of the Vancouver Peace Summit was filled with flashes of hope, passion, brilliance, bulbs, and recognition. Media swarmed the Dalai Lama and his entourage, though only allowed to take photos in the hall for the first five minutes of the morning and afternoon sessions. Speakers returned again and again to ancient wisdom, basic tenets of religious teachings, and moral imperatives. Still, it came down to each individual committing to personal change.

Here’s a sampling:

• Victor Chan, the founder and director of the Dalai Lama Center opened the Summit with an intention “to translate compassion into concrete action that will make a change around the world.”
• Tom Beech awarded His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu the Fetzer Prize for Love & Forgiveness. In introducing the awardees, he spoke of living with the reality of fear and violence and the promise of the power of love and forgiveness-a tension the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have certainly navigated in their own lives.
• Cherish oneself and extend it to others. -The Dalai Lama
• People often think compassion is passive. Compassion is action.-The Dalai Lama
• Peace isn’t just absence of violence, it’s deliberate avoidance of violence through peace. -The Dalai Lama
• People are so beautiful, but they don’t know it. We underestimate our capacity for compassion. We need to bring that potential to the surface.-Matthieu Ricard
• Children have a lot to teach us. They give us the gift of being able to forget ourselves.-Rev. Mpho Tutu (who accepted the Fetzer Prize on her father, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s behalf)
• Love isn’t what we feel, it’s what we do.-Rev. Mpho Tutu
• Family negotiation is a model for decision making. I know peace is possible, I’ve seen my parents. -Rev. Mpho Tutu
• Cultivate compassion, all day, everyday. It takes us beyond the prism of selfishness…Now, when things are difficult, it’s time to practice.-Karen Armstrong

And then, there were flashes of recognition that rippled through the audience. A woman sitting by author and Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard, glanced his way and smiled when opening the afternoon session, tenor Mario Frangoulis offered a rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine and sang the line, “Imagine no possessions…” The two shared a moment of amusement.

Later as several references to the importance of parents in demonstrating and building peace were made by Nobel Prize recipient Betty Williams and Rev. Mpho Tutu, I noticed heads turned in recognition and smiles rippled through Sir Ken Robinson’s family, sitting in front of me.

It was infectious. I came back to my room, looked at a photo of my mother I had found in my suitcase from a previous trip and was glad to be able to share this with her–at least in spirit.

For a glimpse of what went on backstage at the Peace Summit yesterday, check out an article by The Vancouver Sun’s Douglas Todd.

Stepping into the cool gray, Seattle morning, I spotted the Yellow Cab hovering several feet from the curb. Little did I know the Vancouver Peace Summit would begin its work on me during my short cab ride to the train station. Though not a speaker on the summit agenda, my driver dispensed enduring advice.

After telling him where I was headed, Sunil, as I’ll call him here, gave me his prescription for peace: yoga, meditation, natural power (vs. fossil fuels), and a positive disposition.

Having grown up in northern India, the son of a farmer, Sunil told me he finds a special peace in his visits to a local park, listening to bird songs, the sound of a breeze blowing through the leaves, and water lapping against the shore. There he meditates.

As I gathered money for the fare, he shared a Sanskrit story illustrating the interconnectedness of the world and how it both belongs to and requires the guardianship of us all, but I’d mess it up in trying to retell it here…

He handed me my suitcase, we said our good-byes, and I turned to walk into the train station, his words lingering in my mind.

Tell us about someone who embodies love, forgiveness, compassion, or peace in your life by commenting on this entry.