Richard Rohr is a Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher. He is also a writer and the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. One of his books, THE TEARS OF THINGS, is among my all-time favorites. The book brings forth two critical awarenesses which are: “Learning to live and lead with a bias towards the bottom” and “Taking personal responsibility for collective woundedness.” Both orientations, once seen, are transformative. His words on these topics are so powerful that I would like to simply share them as he wrote them.
Here are five excerpts from Richard Rohr’s THE TEARS OF THINGS:
- “Those at the top tend to believe that things are the way they are for good reason, but the poor know in their bones that things are not as they should be.”
- “Our bias, in society and in our churches, has invariably been from the top and towards the top. We like kings and bishops much more than we even noticed layfolk, women, and herdsmen. The common people were not seen as important or influential, despite all that Jesus taught us about ‘the little ones’.”
- “Most societies are content to locate evil among individuals. But there is little value in placing our attention merely on a handful of bad actors. Culture and systems are what create the large-scale evils that threaten us.”
- “If you read the Bible as if Jesus is only performing miraculous medical cures, you might think, WOW – for five seconds. But when you ask why the healing was needed in the first place you have a whole new way of SEEING what needs to change, which is invariably the bigger power structure; IE the institutionalized evils that no longer look evil. If we do not recognize that evil first and foundationally resides in the group, we will continue to search out, condemn, or perhaps forgive the few bad apples, thinking that will take care of our problems. But, too often, sins we condemn in the individual are admired, or at least given a cultural pass, at the corporate level. The view from the bottom helps us escape this human tendency.”
- “Societal transformation insists on personal responsibility for woundedness.”
These passages call forth a fresh way of seeing our world and invite a different approach to leadership that incorporates “personal responsibility for woundedness” and the recognition that “culture and systems are what create the large-scale evils that threaten us”. In the 21st Century, winning isn’t winning unless everyone’s winning. A fresh approach to winning starts with love and the heart felt recognition of every person’s innate worth, especially our most vulnerable groups and communities. Helping others feel trusted, respected, valued, and heard is the path. The future of transformational leadership centers around giving other people a stronger voice. This is also the pathway to better organizational performances. When the members of a community feel valued, supported, and empowered they lift up the community they belong to. Organizations can only truly soar on the wings of individually thriving humans. No one need be forgotten, marginalized, or left behind.
“Learning to live and lead with a bias towards the bottom” and “taking personal responsibility for collective woundedness” is a liberating combination of awareness. The whole planet could tip on these two contemplations alone as offered to us by a single Franciscan monk. But they must be given life through our actions. Contemplation and action are required for change. Thank you for contemplating this and then acting on it.
Love, light, and blessings to you!
— Kevin
