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.”