“Change comes about at the margins. People in the center are not going to be the big change makers. You’ve got to put yourself at the margins and be willing to risk in order to make change. But more importantly, you have got to approach differences with this notion that there is good in the other. That’s it. And if we can’t figure out how to do that — if there isn’t the crack in the middle where there’s some people on both sides who absolutely refuse to see the other as evil, this is going to continue.”
— FRANCES KISSLING
Living in the Margins
“There is important wisdom to be gleaned from those on the margins. Vulnerable human beings put us more in touch with the truth of our limited and messy human condition, marked as it is by fragility, incompleteness and inevitable struggle. The experience of (life) from that place is one of absolutely gratuitous mercy and empowering love. People on the margins, who are less able to and less invested in keeping up appearances, often have an uncanny ability to name things as they are. Standing with them can help situate us in the truth and helps keep us honest.”
Pat Farrell
“It is the most insignificant members who are at the heart of a community and who carry in their hearts, those people who are blocked towards each other and who have different ideas concerning the community. It is the love of the hidden people which keeps the community united. The leader brings unity through justice, but these loving people are creators of unity just by being who they are.”
Jean Vanier, Community and Growth
Living with Open Hands 
January 11th, 2019 → 12:20 am
[…] Chapter 18: THE POWER OF THE MARGINS […]
LikeLike