Can Compassion Be Cool?

"[T]hat quality of reverence, that is really the gateway through which we can begin to rediscover our capacity to do good." -- Interview with Van Jones, President, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

"Only by establishing peace in yourself can you be helpful in contributing to peace . . . being peace is the basis for doing peace, making peace."
-- Thich Nhat Hanh quoted in Great Peacemakers

I recently received a review copy of Great Peacemakers by husband and wife team, Ken Beller and Heather Chase. The book is a collection of 20 short profiles of well known, and not so well known peacemakers who the authors divided into five categories: choosing nonviolence, living peace, honoring diversity, valuing all life, and caring for the planet. Some of the peacemakers profiled include Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Thich Nhat Hanh, Riane Eisler, Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, Wangari Maathai, David Suzuki and The Dalai Lama. Although it won the 2007 OMNI PeaceWriting Award for Writing for Young People, Great Peacemakers' short profiles make for inspiring morning or bedtime reading for adults as well.

The three ideas that stuck out for me among the peacemakers' profiles and quotes were the importance of having compassion, getting things done through collaboration, and recognizing that all people need love. We live in a time when talking about things like love, peace and compassion is considered to be either religious (and consequently offensive to the non-religious), or New Age (oh, Dennis Kucinich, why did you have to mention the UFOs?). As Van Jones, the President of the Ella Baker for Human Rights said when I interviewed him last year, "[T]he idea of protection and nurturance and cooperation and solidarity, and really believing that there is something precious about everything and everyone, that is not too fashionable right now."

Perhaps we're at a time in history, when we need to feel comfortable talking about things like love, compassion and interconnectedness in our daily lives, not because we are religious or "woo-woo," but because we are human. As Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, said in her 2006 Commencement address to the University of Santa Clara Law School, "[I]f the shapers of U.S. foreign policy looked out for the human consequences of their decisions, the world and the United States would be far better off.

Celebrities like Bono, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney have made it hip to "do good." Perhaps the next thing is to make it cool to talk about kindness and compassion.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Britt Bravo, also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, and NetSquared

Submitted by Britt Bravo (view blog

) on Wed, 01/02/2008 - 14:41

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Cooler than cool: "Uncle Jimmy"

Great post Britt.

It takes a superhero to solve a cataclysmic human crisis, right? That's always my secret thought when I look at the very admirable work by the Clooneys, Jolies and Pitts of the world. I mean really, in the grand tradition of Bob Geldof and Ethiopian famine, doesn't a person have to be something special to halt true evil?

Or so I thought until Jimmy Carter (yes, that Jimmy Carter) called my parents (not superheros except to me) in a very kind, low-key, friendly way to thank them in person for the small but consistent donations they've made to his work on humanitarian issues over the years. My sister does this hysterical story true justice:

Uncle Jimmy

My fave part of her post is the point she makes that my mother-- for whom charitable giving and volunteer work is in the DNA, who is the family matriarch with a small m and whose work supporting my father's work and all of her kids and grandkids -- got the star-donor treatment she deserves for her kindness and compassion. To have Jimmy Carter call out of the blue and thank the woman who's been signing the checks for the past 1.5 decades, really restores some karmic balance.

Cool. Definitely cool.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Submitted by Lisa Stone on Wed, 01/02/2008 - 14:36

Small is Great

Thanks for sharing this wonderful story, Lisa, that illustrates that whether you are a celebrity, or a regular person, small acts of kindness like making a phone call to thank someone, or sending a yearly donation, make a big difference.

Britt Bravo
Blogher Contributing Editor: Nonprofits & NGOs
NetSquared Community Builder
Big Vision Career & Project

Submitted by Britt Bravo on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 09:26