Reconciliation

I have a rather simple proposal to make this evening. Reconciliation is, at essence, a circular not a linear process.

While simple on the surface, the shift in metaphor requires us to rethink much of what we programmatically endeavor to take up, both in terms of research and practice of reconciliation. The shift I wish to explore this evening is to move our image of reconciliation from that of a line that moves from A to B, or from phases that advance 1 through 5, to the rather startling notion that reconciliation not only may be more akin to a circle, it may in fact not be a process in the common way the word process is understood. Let me start with what I would call the five most common misconceptions about reconciliation…