March 10th, 2020

Out of Africa, Part 2

4D Mapping around the context of the 
education  of children in Uganda 

The "players" included:  Culture/tradition, the earth, parents; teachers; the government; church; economy; children and mazungus (western influence).  It was remarkable to see the shift from sculpture one:  the current state of affairs, to sculpture two: the highest future potential.  The shift could be described broadly as moving from rigid centralized power and control to more organic relational interweaving.  I have seen almost identical shifts in very different contexts.

There are two insights I am holding in generative tension:

​1. There is perennial wisdom (that which is true everywhere across contexts) that can be most readily  accessed when paying attention to the body.  This is because there is a common human pre-rational story that runs like a subterranean stream underneath particular cultural contexts.  Accessing this creates profound possibilities for transformation.

2. Respecting context is critically important in the effort to tap into that perennial stream.  As a guest in the Ugandan context the recognition of my contextual naiveté (the limitations of my story) helped me nurture a posture of curiosity (open mind), compassion (open heart) and courage (open will).  This was, of course, a very imperfect intention to be present and open and at times felt both exhausting and marginalizing.  Somehow I was able to hold this discomfort in a field of openness. 

Essentially, I continue to trust the archetypal, perennial wisdom of the grand narrative best seen through the lens of Love, while at the same time honoring the uniqueness of each path that leads to that Source.

In preparation to teaching an introductory course on the relationship between pastoral care and spiritual direction at a primarily African American seminary I encountered the following quote:

 ...postmodernity highlights the need to move beyond the grand narratives of dominant cultures toward the specifics of culture and experience. Yes, we have common human stories, but those stories are inflected and infused with the details of the journey. Because we are story people and not blank slates, spiritual direction is never generic. Social location and historical legacies play a crucial part in our spiritual health and discernment.​"  Embodied Spirits (Kindle Locations 64-69). Church Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.