Many people have read White Picket Fences and then asked me about practical steps they can take to respond to the harm they see in their own lives and communities. How do we move from considering the harm of privilege into participation in the healing process? Head Heart Hands is a free action guide that accompanies White Picket Fences and offers ways to respond to the harm of social divisions and privilege in a thoughtful, loving, and courageous manner. It's designed to equip anyone who wants to respond to the harm of privilege; it walks through the problems of “fixes” and then offers ways to engage your head, heart, and hands.
Show Notes:
Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
Many people have read White Picket Fences and then asked me about practical steps they can take to respond to the harm they see in their own lives and communities. How do we move from considering the harm of privilege into participation in the healing process? Head Heart Hands is a free action guide that accompanies White Picket Fences and offers ways to respond to the harm of social divisions and privilege in a thoughtful, loving, and courageous manner. It's designed to equip anyone who wants to respond to the harm of privilege; it walks through the problems of “fixes” and then offers ways to engage your head, heart, and hands.
Show Notes:
Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
Note: This transcript is generated using speech recognition software and does contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
0 (0s):
Hello, I'm Amy, Julia Becker, and I am an author and a speaker. I wrote a book called white picket fences, turning towards love in a world, divided by privilege, which if you're interested in, you can find on audible.com. But I also wrote an ebook that is available for free to read on my website. And I'm recording it here as a free audio book. This is a companion to white picket fences. It is designed to be used as an action guide for people who read white picket fences, get to the end of it and say, now, what now?
0 (37s):
What do I do? It's called head heart, hands introduction. How to respond in the introduction to my book, white picket fences. I write, I have come to believe that privilege harms everyone. Those who are excluded from it, and those who benefit from it. I want this book to be an invitation, especially for people from a cultural background, similar to mine, to consider the reality of privilege, the benefits and wounds that come from privilege.
0 (1m 10s):
And whether we can respond to the fact of our privilege with generosity, humility, and hope, Many people have red, white picket fences, and then asked me about practical steps. They can take to respond to the harm they see in their own lives and communities. How do we move from considering the harm of privilege into participation in the healing process and this audio book, I want to offer practical ways to engage in healing, the wounds of privilege using your head, your heart and your hands.
0 (1m 45s):
No quick fix. When I first began to think about the problem of privilege, I wanted to figure out how to fix it. I studied the issues by reading books and listening to podcasts and watching documentary films. I prayed and read Bible verses about mercy and justice. I even fasted from lunch one day a week to remind myself to pay attention to the injustices experienced by so many marginalized people in our world. I talked with others who shared my concerns.
0 (2m 16s):
Eventually I wrote white picket fences to reflect those thoughts and experiences. But if there is anything I have learned from thinking and reading and writing and praying about the reality of harmful and undeserved social divisions in our world, it is that this problem has no easy solutions. There are no quick fixes, no lists of action items to work through. One by one, rather participating in healing is a lifelong work of transformation, a lifelong work of longing for all to be well, a lifelong work of turning away from fear and toward love.
0 (2m 58s):
Why fixes don't work before I offer some practical steps towards healing. I want to explain my resistance to quick fixes for the problems of social division and privilege. Why have I come to believe that there are no easy solutions? One the attitude I had in the past of wanting to fix things, betrays an arrogance in me, rather than a willingness to listen, a desire to engage with the centuries of harm and exclusion and a commitment to examine my own role in this harm.
0 (3m 31s):
I wanted to rush towards solutions because of my education and social position. I thought I and people with similar backgrounds to mind could solve the problems of social divisions. As long as we put enough effort towards those goals. Moreover, instead of a humble posture of learning, listening, and challenging my own values, I wanted to help everyone else become like me too. I no longer believe that problems are solved by individuals in positions of power.
0 (4m 3s):
Individuals in positions of power have a role to play. But I now believe that social healing emerges from cultures transformed through relationships of mutual dependence. Our social divisions will only be overcome through collective and connected action, collective and connected action that grows out of relationships of love, powered by a love that is bigger than any one of us. And three, I have learned that action is one step in a long process.
0 (4m 37s):
My efficiency and productivity are values often associated with my social position as an affluent educated white American. I can easily prioritize speed and action over relationships and listening, but sustained healing will take time. Reverend Jennifer Bailey of the people's supper says relationships move at the speed of trust. Social change moves at the speed of relationships.
0 (5m 7s):
Action will only be effective if it involves the whole self in the context of relationships. So how then do we respond? Human beings consists of mind, body, and spirit, or put another way of head heart and hands thinking, feeling and doing all need to be involved in order for healing to happen. This audio book will guide you through these three aspects of response to the problem of privilege.
0 (5m 38s):
So you can begin to engage your head, heart and hands. You're a few questions for reflection on this initial section of this audio book, How have you witnessed or experienced the harm of social divisions? Have you ever tried to fix a social? What happened? Are you most likely to engage social problems with your head heart or hands Chapter one?
0 (6m 9s):
The head I am a thinker. I tend to read, listen, and gather information about topics. Before I talk to other people, pray or take action to respond to what I'm learning. When I hear a news story about police violence, I usually have more questions and want more information. I can easily get lost in my own mind. I sometimes fail to respond because I hide behind the fact that there's always more to learn. Other people of course respond to events and news with their feelings and others.
0 (6m 42s):
With immediate action, all of us have distinct ways in which we will engage social problems and distinct contributions to make as people who primarily think, feel or act. But all of us will be strengthened in the ways we contribute. If we use our whole selves, head, heart and hands to respond using our minds in isolation, shuts us in an ivory tower of information. Using our hearts in isolation runs the risk of despair using our hands in isolation runs the risk of burnout.
0 (7m 16s):
But when we combine our heads, hearts and hands, we can move lovingly into the world, grounded in a love outside ourselves, connected to other people, working toward the same end. I've laid out this audio book as a movement from the head to the heart, to the hands in real life. This movement will not be neat and tidy and different personality types will approach it differently. My purpose is not to dictate the progression, but rather to invite all of us to a holistic approach, to healing our minds, help us understand the historical and contemporary reality of privilege, what it is, how it operates, who it excludes and what damage it does without learning and asking questions.
0 (8m 2s):
Anyone engaging in the work of social justice and social healing runs the risk of well meaning, but harmful and ignorant action. Engaging our minds can take the shape of reading books and articles, discussing them with others, listening to speakers and podcasts, watching films, researching local history, or asking questions. Human beings have erected and maintained social divisions that offer some people unearned, social advantages, also known as privilege and that unjustly exclude and harm others using our minds to understand how and why these divisions exist and how we participate in them helps in two ways.
0 (8m 45s):
First we can acknowledge the harm that has been done in our own lives and communities as a result of human choices, to privilege some people and exclude as I explore in greater depth than white picket fences, see chapters six and seven, for example, I've come to believe that privilege harms everyone. Those excluded from its advantages, as well as those who are supposed to benefit from it. Learning about the impact of social divisions on all.
0 (9m 15s):
People helps us to recognize and name that harm.
2 (9m 19s):
Bye
0 (9m 20s):
For anyone seeking to understand our current moment, learning about the past will provide context to help us reflect on the present as individuals and in groups, possibilities for learning abound, we can consider our family history or the history of the place where we grew up. I do that. For example, in chapters three and four of white picket fences, we can learn about the demographics of our current town now. And in the past, we can learn the stories of the institutions where we are involved. We can explore the history and current social reality of the United States when it comes to socioeconomic class, race and ethnicity, disability, gender, sexuality, and or immigration status.
0 (10m 1s):
Eventually information can propel us towards action as individuals and within communities and institutions. So to cite a few examples, learning about the history of exclusion for people with disabilities within the United States, led me to talk with the elders of our church, about making our sanctuary and the entrance wheelchair accessible A group of middle school students in Guilford, Connecticut decided to investigate their town's history of enslaving people in the colonial era.
0 (10m 33s):
This process led to action. As these students began the witness stones project. Now they have placed stones of remembrance throughout their town, that bear witness to the reality of their local involvement in enslaving people, schools like Georgetown university, Yale university, and Princeton seminary have all been investigating their institutional history. When it comes to slavery. Georgetown has granted admission to descendants of enslaved people. They want sold Yale renamed, a college formerly named after slave holder.
0 (11m 5s):
John Calhoun, Princeton seminary has set aside $27 million to address the ongoing impact of their institutional support of slavery. Some of these measures are small and some are controversial, but they all offer examples of the way using our heads can lead to meaningful work historical and sociological sources help us understand our present moment so that we can take thoughtful action to address the harm of the past Police brutality, mass incarceration, detentions of central American migrants at the border.
0 (11m 43s):
People with disabilities earning less than minimum wage. All of these news headlines come with decades of context. The news cycle is designed to prompt, passionate reaction rather than compassionate response. We employ our minds not only to examine the past, but also to inform the present moment. Every day we encounter current events that can be situated within a larger context. One way we can challenge our minds is by reading or listening or watching a spectrum of political and social perspectives.
0 (12m 16s):
As a kid. For instance, I saw my dad read both the New York times and the wall street journal for what sometimes amounted to very different reporting of the same events in our household. Today, we subscribed to both the new Yorker, a progressive magazine, and first things, a conservative one seeking out a balanced perspective can come by watching multiple news sources, Fox news, CNN, and MSNBC, for instance, or listening to political commentary that intentionally provides a more conservative and more progressive point of view every Friday afternoon.
0 (12m 51s):
For instance, NPR holds a week in politics segment with two perspectives and the PBS news hour also holds a conversation between two pundits from divergent political leanings. It takes a different kind of effort to seek out opposing viewpoints, but when we do so, it sharpens our understanding of the issues at hand and often prompts compassion for the other side. Even when we disagree, we can't understand every issue from every angle at all times on the news can seem overwhelming, but we can identify a few trusted sources and we can identify issues that come up again and again, and do the work to understand those issues with greater clarity.
0 (13m 33s):
In recent years, for instance, I didn't understand why immigration was so contentious the phrase illegal immigrant pretty much summed it up for me. I thought people who wanted to come to this country should do so legally. End of story. And yet there was so much debate and disagreement. I realized I needed to learn more about the issue. I talked with some friends who held different perspectives from me. I read articles. I listened to podcast. I began to understand the way our immigration system has been shaped over time.
0 (14m 4s):
And I grew in compassion for people who are considered illegal in this country. I also grow in compassion for the border patrol, as I began to understand the complexity of their job. And I grew in conviction that our current system is unjust and untenable for everyone involved. All of this eventually led me to take action. I took a trip to the El Paso border. I now consider immigration policy when voting and I've written essays to share what I've learned with others. So whether the issue is racial justice, disability rights, the meritocracy reparations, immigration, LGBTQ plus rights, gender discrimination, or the separation of church and state.
0 (14m 45s):
All of these topics have a rich history. These topics divide our nation and engaging minds in the historical and contemporary reality of current events will help us to respond with both compassion and care. Again, here are a few questions for reflection. Why is it important to engage your mind while responding to the problem of privilege? What do you know about the history of the place where you grew up or live now, as it pertains to race disability and other markers of social division, What contemporary news event would you like to learn more about in the ebook version of head heart?
0 (15m 29s):
Hands? I do have a list of different links to resources, articles, podcasts, films, books, other organizations that correspond with each chapter. So if you're listening to this on audio book and you'd like to get some references for you to do further study or further reading or further listening, I would just ask you to go to my website, Amy, Julia becker.com under resources. And you can get a free version of head heart hands, and look at the end of each chapter for a list of resources that you can put to use in your own work, responding to the harm of privilege.
0 (16m 16s):
Chapter two, the heart in order for the work of the head, to be more than an intellectual exercise, the heart, the seat of our emotions, our relationships, and our souls needs to be engaged through relationships of mutual dependence. As a person of faith. I see those relationships as both vertical and horizontal reflecting our connection to God, as well as our connections to our inner selves and to other people, individuals can cultivate spiritual lives with, or without explicit faith in God practices like meditation and mindfulness have enabled many people to attend to nature, self, and emotions, and to connect in meaningful ways with others.
0 (17m 1s):
These spiritual practices can provide an emotional relational and spiritual basis for loving action in the world. My own spiritual grounding emerges out of my Christian faith. My belief that the essence of God's being is love, which comes up throughout the Bible. Most succinctly in first, John four eight. My belief that the essence of God's being is love, offers a vision of the way using my heart to connect to God will empower me to participate in God's healing action in the world.
0 (17m 35s):
If I can learn and develop practices that root and ground me in God's love Ephesians three verse 17 talks about this. Then out of that limitless, eternal and infinite love, I can connect to others in our common humanity as beings who can give and receive love through that giving and receiving together, we can participate in the work of love in the world, around us, the daily habits of prayer, journaling and reading the Bible have equipped me in two ways.
0 (18m 12s):
One, these spiritual practices have provided opportunities to pray about the harm of social divisions. I've confessed my arrogance and ignorance. I've asked God to show me my role in both the harm of privilege and the possibilities for healing and to these practices have helped me to understand that the work of healing is God's work in which we are invited to participate. We are not responsible for saving the world. We are invited to receive God's love and allow that love to empower us to join in God's ongoing, loving action.
0 (18m 51s):
Our hearts not only connect us to God, but also to other people. These horizontal relationships inform and transform us. If they are relationships that involve giving and receiving, recognizing our common humanity and trusting that each of us has gifts to offer and needs that only other people can fill. When our daughter, penny was born and diagnosed with down syndrome in 2005. At first, I saw our relationship as an imbalanced transaction, where she had needs, and I had ways to help her over time.
0 (19m 27s):
I began to understand that I also had needs and penny also had gifts with which she could help me. Our relationship became mutual. Initially I had placed penny in a category of needy without recognizing her capacity for a reciprocal relationship. Eventually I saw that I also had categorized other people as needy and I had failed to value their full humanity and their potential for reciprocal relationships of giving and receiving, engaging my heart in the problems of social justice and healing means cultivating friendships with people outside my typical social groupings.
0 (20m 9s):
It means acknowledging my own needs. And it means connecting with people who have similar concerns to my own and considering how we could lovingly address those concerns together. One white affluent friend of mine from Richmond, Virginia, for instance, began praying for ways to connect with women in her city who came from a different background than her own. In time, she learned that a few of her friends had similar hopes. They began to pray together after a year of prayer, one of them struck up a conversation on the sidelines of a basketball game with a mother from the opposing team.
0 (20m 47s):
This mother was an African American Christian with connections to other black Christian women in the city. These two moms on the sidelines connected through their kids' basketball and through their shared faith in Christ. But they also both recognized that God was answering their prayer. In that moment, this conversation led to a weekly gathering of women from the suburbs and the city white and black, rich, and poor who teach the Bible to one another, pray for one another's needs and who are being transformed through their relationships to offer another example.
0 (21m 23s):
As my friend, Matt floating was serving on the faculty at Western seminary and hope Michigan. He became aware that the school faced a shortage of student housing one day at church friends who had an adult son with down syndrome, talk to them about their son's need for semi-independent living. Matt realized that they both had needs for housing solutions over time through prayer and connections and believing that God provides abundantly for what we need. Western seminary established the first friendship house, where seminary, students and adults with intellectual disabilities live together in mutually beneficial relationships of love and care.
0 (22m 4s):
Horizontal connections of the heart will look different from person to person and place to place, but we can all seek out these connections. We can join with people from similar backgrounds as our own and look for opportunities to move beyond our typical social group. We can intentionally look for mentors and seek friendships with people outside of our typical group. When I've interviewed individuals with intellectual disabilities and seminary students living in friendship houses, they've all testified to the power of those friendships.
0 (22m 37s):
The individuals with intellectual disabilities have experienced belonging and inclusion in ways they didn't before. They also grew tremendously. In terms of life skills, seminary students like Quinn Holmquist at Duke divinity school, talked about how his friendship with Nathan freshwater, who has down syndrome, awakened creativity in him at the same time that it slowed him down in a good way. Amber Taylor who lived at the friendship house at Western seminary describes the way her friendship with Amanda crate pushed her to become a better person.
0 (23m 12s):
And friend for me, Patricia Rayvon is a friend who became a mentor. As I wrote white picket fences. Patricia is an African American Christian woman who was born a few decades before me. We first met when she reached out to me to submit a guest blog post. And we later connected in person at a writer's conference. In time, we became part of the same writers group, our virtual friendship built over the years. And I reached out to her a few times when I was wrestling with how to talk with our children about race.
0 (23m 42s):
Eventually Patricia read multiple drafts of white picket fences and offered gentle, but bold wisdom, not only from an editorial perspective, she's a terrific writer, but also from the perspective of someone who has suffered oppression and bigotry, and who continues to write with a commitment to justice love and grace, Patricia ended up writing the foreword to white picket fences, where she describes the risk. She took in reaching out to me with that initial blog post for both of us relationship carried risk.
0 (24m 15s):
And for both of us, it has carried a blessing. When we connect with people across social divides, it allows us to understand social problems through the lens of our common humanity and human connection, rather than simply from an intellectual viewpoint without engaging our hearts, we run the risk of cynicism or despair when it comes to social problems, our hearts can ground us in spiritual practices that equip us for the work of deep and meaningful connections to our fellow human beings.
0 (24m 47s):
Our hearts also connect us to individuals who humanize the headlines. Here's some questions for reflection about using your heart. Do you have any regular spiritual practices? In what way can a spiritual life equip you for the work of addressing social harm? Who are you connected to within your natural social network? Who cares about healing, the wounds of social division? If no one comes to mind, is there anyone you want to reach out to about these topics?
0 (25m 20s):
Do you have any friends or mentors outside of your typical social network from whom you could learn and what connections either vertical or horizontal would you like to make in order to become more equipped to respond with your heart? And again, if you download the ebook that goes along with this audio book, I have a list of resources that will help you think about what it means to be human, what it means to express diversity within our common humanity, what it means to understand yourself and others as vulnerable and beloved, needy, and gifted, broken, and beautiful.
0 (25m 57s):
It's a list of books and films, organizations, and podcasts, chapter three, the hands finally, once the head and the heart are engaged, the hands can get to work again. Using our minds in isolation, cuts us off from relationships. Using our hearts in isolation runs the risk of becoming emotionally overwhelmed. Using our hands in isolation runs the risk of taking well-intended, but harmful action.
0 (26m 31s):
But when we combine our heads, hearts and hands, we can move lovingly into the world, grounded in a love outside ourselves, connected to other people, working toward the same end to consider how you might take action toward healing work in the world. It helps to consider yourself individually influentially and institutionally, individually. Each of us can take small steps in our own lives that reflect a commitment to loving action in the world.
0 (27m 2s):
These actions may not have far reaching effects. They probably won't change systems of oppression or overturned patterns of injustice. They are simply small and individual ways in which we can participate in a larger work of healing. These actions will look different from person to person. I, for instance, have taken individual action to change the books on our children's bookshelves, because I realized we owned books with characters who were almost exclusively white as another example. I now endeavor to welcome people of color.
0 (27m 33s):
When I find myself in majority white social situations, one of my African American friends told me how helpful it was to have white people acknowledge the discomfort and anxiety. It might cause her to be in a majority white situation. Hearing from her has helped me become less hesitant to acknowledge racial dynamics within groups. We also have made a commitment to talking with our kids about their social position as affluent white educated Americans.
0 (28m 4s):
We once chose to shield them from news related to violence, against people of color discrimination, against people with disabilities and negative attitudes towards immigrants. We now discuss these issues without shying away from the hard reality that many people in our nation face injustice we've changed our charitable giving to better reflect our commitments to social healing, including a commitment to support churches and nonprofit organizations led by people of color.
0 (28m 35s):
Influentially all of us participate in groups of people where we exert some measure of influence. If you have kids in a local public or private school, that's an area of influence. If you are a member of a church, mosque, synagogue, or another religious institution, that's an area of influence. If you're a member of a local board, that's an area of influence. If you go to an extended family dinner or a neighborhood block party, that's an area of influence.
0 (29m 4s):
Areas of influence affect a wider group of people than individual actions, but they do not create institutional or structural change in these spaces. We can mindfully humbly, patiently and lovingly look for ways to tear down barriers among groups of people and participate in healing. These actions could include sharing your opinion respectfully, but boldly. When a contentious issue emerges, we can look for ways to advocate for people who might not have a voice.
0 (29m 35s):
For instance, when a board of directors does not include any representatives from marginalized communities, we advocate for their inclusion. Members of churches have influence over whether church funds are spent on improving the building and programs are on sharing that wealth with other organizations or congregations town, zoning, commissions influence, whether towns are set up to welcome people with lower incomes. I live in a small, predominantly white town in Connecticut. Our church is also predominantly white.
0 (30m 8s):
Our pastor has used her influence to invite pastors who are people of color to preach. She wants to remind us of the breadth of our Christian community. Even if that diversity is not represented among the members of our particular church, one pastor in particular, an African American man from a church about two hours away has visited more than once. He stands at the front of our congregation, opens his arms wide and says, hello, cousins. His greeting communicates a truth that could lead members of our congregation to think, feel, and act differently.
0 (30m 44s):
When it comes to issues of social division in our community, our state and our nation here, our pastor is using her influence to affect the attitudes of people in our congregation towards people of color in leadership. Our action has not led to massive institutional change. She simply moved beyond her individual commitment to cross-racial friendships and to using her influence, to lift up pastors of color in front of our congregation over the course of her seven years of pastor.
0 (31m 15s):
However, the church itself has begun slow institutional change. As members have begun to study issues related to race and justice. And now as we've welcomed a woman of color who is serving as a pastoral intern, individual actions can lead to a willingness to use our influence. And once we begin to use our influence, sometimes we see institutional change institutionally, the judicial educational medical immigration and housing systems within our nation can all perpetuate harm against individuals and groups.
0 (31m 54s):
Even when the people involved in those systems mean well, changing institutions is not as simple as making individual choices or exerting influence institutions change only through collective and during action. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s might provide the most familiar historical example of institutional change. The collective action over time of African American southerners and their allies not only changed individual lives and influenced communities, but created long lasting changes in the ways the entire nations institutions and systems operate.
0 (32m 34s):
The laws of Jim Crow were overturned. School segregation was denounced by the, this change came at a tremendous cost to the courageous women and men who gave their lives in the struggle and the work they began continues still. These legal and political victories changed educational medical and judicial systems throughout the nation. Similar institutional change began to happen in the 1970s when it came to including children and adults with disabilities in schools and in the workplace before this era, children with disabilities were routinely institutionalized and they were not guaranteed a public education, a combination of changing social attitudes and legislative mandates paved the way for children like our daughter, penny, to go to school alongside her typical peers, when it comes to race based segregation and disability rights, these changes happened slowly, painfully and through a combination of official laws and social shifts.
0 (33m 39s):
Some of the work needed now is more subtle, but schools, corporations, nonprofit organizations, police departments, and other government offices can all take steps to make these institutions, places where all people have access to services, equal treatment and opportunities for employment and leadership. For instance, InterVarsity Christian fellowship recognized that although it sought to serve college students from a diverse array of ethnic backgrounds, people in leadership within the organization were predominantly white.
0 (34m 14s):
As Helen Lee wrote for Christianity today, InterVarsity examined what factors led to this discrepancy between leadership and constituents and developed a program for long lasting and systemic change within the entire organization. They began a program to develop leaders from Asian American backgrounds, which led over time to a demonstrable change in the organization's leadership, including hiring the first Asian American president of the organization or take Princeton university.
0 (34m 46s):
Princeton's endowment earns a billions of dollars each year. So the university is not dependent upon revenue from students who can pay full tuition still until recently only six or 7% of students came from low income socioeconomic backgrounds. Recently Princeton made an institutional commitment to increase the number of qualified students from low income families to 21%. This type of change needs to be supported by other institutional measures to ensure that these students develop meaningful social relationships with peers and teachers, and that they receive educational and career support.
0 (35m 25s):
But the financial commitment of the university offers an example of the way institutions can leverage social change. As another example, Randy Lewis, a senior vice president of used his influence within this large corporation to create institutional change. When it came to employing workers with disabilities, Louis whose son Austin has autism developed systems and supports throughout the company in order to provide employment for hundreds of previously unemployed, people with disabilities, Walgreens became a place that provided fair and stable employment for people with disabilities because Lewis used his influence to create institutional change.
0 (36m 12s):
Institutions are slow to change by nature because they rely upon stability and consistency. As a result, change can be threatening and challenging, but any institution that wants to develop into a more just and healthy place will do the work with its current employees and constituents to examine current practices and consider steps towards institutional change questions for reflection. What holds you back from participating in social healing?
0 (36m 46s):
Where do you have influence in your community? How could you use that influence to participate in healing? What institutions are you a part of? Do you see areas where those institutions need to change to become more, just, are there other people who would join with you to consider those types of changes? What action steps do you want to take in response to these ideas?
2 (37m 12s):
And again,
0 (37m 13s):
In the ebook associated with this audio book, there's a list of resources to talk about the work of the hands, a varied work, where each of us will have different ways to engage individually influentially and institutionally. It's really a list of stories that offer further examples of women and men who have used their hands to effect long lasting healing change in their communities in conclusion and invitation.
0 (37m 44s):
If you are someone who wants to participate in the healing work of social change, then begin now, but expect it to take time. Ideally find some other people to connect with in this process. I hope you can utilize the resources in this audio book to number one, use your head, learn about the historical and contemporary realities of racial, economic, and other social divisions in your communities.
0 (38m 14s):
Remember to use your heart confess your role in the pain, pray for guidance, pursue friendships outside your typical social group. Look for a mentor who is a person of color. Look for a mentor who has an intellectual disability connect to other people who want to participate in healing number three, and then use your hands. Take small steps towards change in your individual life. Look at areas in which you have influence or power and consider how you could use that influence for the common good for breaking down social barriers for healing connect with other people through institutions and organizations who are working towards justice and healing.
0 (39m 2s):
My hope for myself, for anyone who hears me speak or who reads white picket fences is patient and humble engagement with the issues of social division. I long for engagement that doesn't rush to action, but sits patiently and learns and listens grieves and connects asks for guidance, pursues, friendship, and begins to trust in love. Instead of fear, I am not suggesting removed intellectual realism that studies a problem without grieving the harm inherent in our history.
0 (39m 40s):
I do not want to inspire emotionalism. That means well, but accomplishes little. I do not want to provoke charitable action that perpetuates current power systems. Rather, I want to invite you to join me and countless others in a work of body, mind, and spirit of hands, head and heart of the whole self engaged in relationships with others. And with God, I want to invite you to begin a lifelong transformative work of healing.
0 (40m 16s):
Thanks so much for listening to this audio book. I hope it's been helpful to you. Again, there's an ebook version with many resources for free, a free download on my website, Amy Julia becker.com. Also on my website are some discussion guides to accompany white picket fences and other resources that might help you in this journey. So I hope you'll visit me there and please feel free to reach out through the contact form on my website. Send me an email. Let me know what you're thinking about.
0 (40m 47s):
Whether you've got additional resources you'd like to add or additional thoughts or questions or comments you'd like to share. Thanks again. And I hope to be in touch with you soon.