Everyday Peacemaking

In my graduate school days, C. Wright Mills was a giant. He was the sociologist who challenged the status quo. The Power Elite rattled cages. I loved his distinction between “personal troubles” and “public issues.” I look back now and wonder how it was that my doctoral dissertation landed so far from public issues. Somehow, I managed to write a dissertation which dealt only with a methodological problem. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that I managed to write 300-plus pages about the translation of one word from German to English. It was an important word – Weber’s word – and Max Weber was probably the most important of the classic sociologists. Even the chapters on personal troubles – mine and Weber’s – landed on the cutting room floor at the insistence of my dissertation committee.

Years later I found my way to Zen practice and Bernie Glassman. Bernie was a champion of public issues and a major voice in what was becoming known as socially engaged spiritual practice. He was creating jobs and housing and health care options for some of the most marginalized people of Yonkers. Bernie wanted to feed all the hungry ghosts and was envisioning a “container,” the Zen Peacemakers, which could provide a safe harbor and a source of energy for social activists worldwide.

At least, that was the image of peacemaking which I embraced. As we built our network of charter schools, we were taking on big problems, neglected public issues. We began with a Bernie-like mission of “bringing to the societal table those who have been excluded.” We welcomed students who were living with mental illnesses and emotional challenges, the kids who most schools were hiding in “special classrooms” until they dropped out of school and disappeared completely from the societal radar. We ended up embracing the challenge of creating great schools for teachers as well as students. We were transforming the personal troubles of atypical students and their parents and the demoralizing experience of young teachers – 60% of those entering teaching left within five years – into public issues.

Our network grew because the issues we were tackling were so big. When I noticed that our charter school initiative was bigger than Bernie’s Greyston, I thought, “Wow.” I was proud of that. And at the same time, I was becoming aware of a disconnect. I was meeting people who’d seen what Bernie was doing or what I was doing and felt called to be peacemakers. There was a disconnect which I hadn’t begun to understand. These people had heard the peacemaker call but weren’t called to social entrepreneurship. Often, they felt mired in Mills’s world of personal troubles.

It’s taken me years to see that there is a peacemaking of personal troubles as well as a peacemaking of public issues. Caring for one or two or five friends and relatives in need is peacemaking too and can be more challenging than high-glamour social entrepreneurship. It is often a very lonely practice. What I loved the most about our school building was the collaborative collective practice. I loved our team, still do. The private-trouble peacemaker often tends her garden alone, without the support of teammates and without the awards or acclaim which can encourage public-issue peacemaking.

Are you a private-trouble peacemaker? I'd love to hear about your practice. Just click the comment button.