"Creativity is the practice of mystery, for to truly embrace the human imagination is to embrace the presence of the transcendent in our midst, a presence that creates untold possibilities capable at any moment to move beyond the narrow parameters of limited choice toward creativity, adaptation, and innovation."
The text I just read came from my journal reflections, written in April 2002. The informal “taxi survey” that I conduct on every trip and most anywhere I travel usually comes filled with on-the-ground assessments, not always scientific, but more often than not a window into reality, a social litmus test. In the phraseology of this particular taxi driver, the litmus test bears the mark of what formal survey research would surely affirm: At a popular level, Colombia, like many other places, lives with a profound deficit of authenticity when the subject of peace is broached.
This is not uncommon for many of the places I travel to and have worked with over the past twenty years. Though more peace agreements have been signed in the last decade than in the previous three, people living in settings of deep-rooted conflict are cautious about the promise of peace. Violence creates a hard school that leaves the imprint of pessimism and with good reason…
Lederach, John Paul. “Peacebuilding Today: An Appeal for the Moral Imagination.” Lecture presented at the Sider Institute Lecture, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, November 20, 2002.
Written while stranded in Guatemala after September 11, an essay suggesting a number of lessons learned from peace initiatives where terrorism was employed as a tool of struggle and calling for new approaches to combating the challenge.
An article imagining a courageous alternative to the then pending U.S. war with Iraq.
A summary of the book, The Moral Imagination, which draws forth and describes the essence of each chapter.