A collaboration between Spirituality & Practice and the Fetzer Institute

May 18, 2020
 
PRACTICE ALERT
 
Dear Colleagues,
 
Raising a barn, back in the day, was impossible to do as an individual or even as a family. The preassembled interlocking timbers, huge frames called "bents", had to be hoisted with ropes by several neighbors at once. And of course every aspect of the project, even the simpler ones, went more quickly with ample community help. A spirit of reciprocity reigned: I help you build your barn, you help me build mine, and we both help with the next person's barn.
 
If building a barn is daunting to do alone, how about the task of surviving a pandemic? Fortunately, when challenges arise, the human spirit often finds ways to display the best of democratic values, with each person contributing to acts of collective good will that strengthen society.  
 
This week's Practicing Democracy blog describes a project sewing masks and gowns to protect front-line workers in the fight against COVID-19, and it goes on to mention some of the many other recent acts of community solidarity. These metaphorical barn raisings cultivate the virtues of caring, commitment, empathy, generosity, service, thankfulness, courage, sacrifice, cooperation, mercy, dignity, perseverance, resilience, idealism, and responsibility -- and they help us accomplish together what we could never accomplish alone.

We invite you to initiate such "barn raisings" of your own or to celebrate your part in collective support that you are already providing. As the Bondei proverb says, "Sticks in a bundle cannot be broken."   
 
Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Peace,

The Practicing Democracy Project Team

 
Discover more at PracticingDemocracy.net