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Something Beyond Greatness

Submitted by Judy Rodgers on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 9:30am.
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My friend Gayatri Naraine and I have spent a good part of the past four years searching for, and then writing about, the essence of altruism and heroic acts.  For much of 2006 we traveled the world talking to heroes of various sorts and asking them about what happens inside of them in the moment they commit acts that others describe as great.

We quickly found that the problematic thing about truly great people is that they have no interest in talking about their heroic acts and often claim not to have done anything in particular.  Confounded by the mysteries of the inner dynamics of generosity and heroism, we asked two of our favorite wise friends to reflect with us on what we were finding:  cognitive biologist Humberto Maturana and spiritual leader Dadi Janki.  The result is a book, Something Beyond Greatness:  Conversations with a Man of Science and a Woman of God.

I won’t give away the whole book here except to say that the book comes to an end with a question that resonates for all of us.  In our final interviews with Dadi Janki in India she observed that while Gandhi was a true hero and great soul (literally a mahatma), what he had really wanted to do was not only liberate India, but to create heaven on earth (Ramraj).  And this he was not able to do.  Both she and Maturana agree that at this time, it is not enough to be great; we have to create communities of greatness. 

This is the kind of question that journalists and media makers all over the world might want to consider, as we have:  What does it mean to create communities of greatness?

The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from the publisher, HCI.  Join our FaceBook group and mull this question over with us.  Also see www.Beyondgreatness.wordpress.com

The Thought Leaders Dialogue

Submitted by Judy Rodgers on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 9:17am.

One of the most interesting initiatives IVoH has undertaken in the last few years is the convening of thought leaders in journalism – something we are doing in partnership with the Fetzer Institute and, in 2009, with the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.

On June 25, 21 of us convened at the Prindle Institute to reflect on how the upheaval in the world and in the field of journalism are affecting us.  Over the three days of intimate conversation as a group and in clusters, it became clear that our values, sense of vocation, and beliefs are our moorings in these times.  The experience of closeness and friendship are impossible to translate.  I came to know and appreciate each one in the room.  The clear highlight for me and the “linchpin” of the dialogue was the writing and then the reading aloud of our own “This I Believe” essays.  Though I feel I work from a clear base of beliefs most of the time, writing this essay forced me to do some thinking and integrating of beliefs I have not done before.  The most powerful experience was hearing others read their beautiful pieces. Sitting in a circle, bent over our laptops or notebooks, we quietly read these most personal of reflection pieces.  For over an hour there was pin drop silence, punctuated by explosions of applause. Over the weeks ahead, we hope to be able to post some of these pieces to this site so that others can enjoy their beauty and richness.