Life Itself: Community and Conviction - Parker Palmer's Quaker Wisdom

I don't remember when Parker Palmer became a favorite teacher in my life.

A decade ago I took one of those online assessment surveys that ask you dozens of questions about your beliefs, values, and practices and then offers you your ideal religion. I was told I would find my meaning and my greatest personal fulfillment as a Quaker. So, when we decided to do this series of podcasts for Faith House called Life Itself, I immediately thought of one of the greatest Quaker teachers of life in modern America, Parker Palmer.

Over the years, I have been lucky to know Parker and experience him as a friend and mentor. That says nothing about me except that I dared to ask for help, but it says much about Parker and his boundless generosity. Always responsive, always thorough, always gentle. I even shared an experience of participating in a Clearness Committee with him at one of the leadership retreats he led. (If you don't know what Clearness Committee is, Google it, it's worth it. Or read about it in his book Hidden Wholeness).

My personal library of books has regularly been the trigger for spousal spats about use of the shared space in my family. We moved from Michigan, to New York, to California, and then back to New York, from house to house and from one apartment to another, so many times. Each time I had to surrender half a dozen boxes of books in order to make our living space actually livable and make a place for new books coming in. Books written by Parker, however, kept multiplying over the years. Both my wife and I read them. Sometimes we bought a handful to have handy as a gift for friends, coworkers, or family, anyone wishing to live a courageous life. Parker Palmer is in every room in our home now.

In my public life, I sometimes catch myself being proud of an insight I come up with when I am speaking or consulting, only to find out weeks or months later that the insight has been underlined in one of Parker's books. This scares me, in terms of the condition of my memory, but it also delights me in terms of the state of my belief system. I feel whole and happy to think that Parker's thoughts, absorbed long ago, are working their magic deep in the recesses of the way I think and imagine.

In the hustle of modern life it's often difficult to stop, take a breath, and listen to those around you. We can learn so much simply by attending to the stories of the people around us. The monthly Life Itself podcast invites you to participate in sensible dialogue around interfaith experience from a variety of sources ranging from experts and religious scholars to students and community members worldwide.

In this episode, we asked Parker to share with us the three best things about Quakerism, three insights or practices that any one of us from other religions can learn from Quakerism and use to deepen and strengthen our lives. Enjoy!

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