Daniel Lubetzky

Art is a lie. A lie that makes us realize the truth.

- Pablo Picasso

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thx to Natalie, Erica and Kim for pointing me to this one and including it in the Essence of KIND presentation – very much in sync with KIND and the KINDED campaign.

Dan Bar-On was an extraordinary man who, together with Sami Adwan, conceived a powerful shared narrative project, where Israelis and Palestinians read about their and their counterparts’ historical narrative – helping them understand they don’t need to give up their patriotism to better understand the other side.  Bar-On, who gave his life to peace efforts and who was an inspiration to OneVoice, lost his battle to cancer last fall.  He once wrote:

"[Hope for achieving co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians may in the end depend on] giving up the romantic, monolithic desires of the idealized past in favor of a less perfect but more complex understanding of the world and ourselves, an understanding that can create new possibilities for dialogue within our selves, among ourselves within a collective, and with the Other."

From "Tell Your Life Story" by Dan Bar-On, as related by Dr. Saliba Sarsar

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From a wall in the John F. Kennedy Museum:

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 6 1966 (South Africa address)

From an article in the NYT by Ron Lieber, good financial advice from unusual sources – religious:

Those who structure their standard of living to allow a little surplus control their circumstances. Those who spend a little more than they earn are controlled by their circumstances. They are in bondage.

By N. Eldon Tanner, Church leader

Roger Martin, Dean at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, gave an interesting presentation at the Opening Plenary at the Skoll World Forum today:

Whether or not Barack Obama is your President or, as is the case for me, another country’s leader, most of you, I suspect, watched the President’s inauguration speech and did so with rapt attention. It was certainly a lovely, inspiring and motivating speech. I cried a few times, even though guys aren’t supposed to do that. I suspect each listener took away something special and unique to you from the speech. For me, one sentence grabbed my attention; that riveted me:

“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

I study and write about leadership, which of course makes it a privilege for me to be among all the great leaders in this room. And in my study of highly successful leaders across a wide variety of organizations, I found the most common theme – the most universal characteristic – to be a form of thinking exemplified by President Obama’s quote.

That common theme was when highly successful leaders are faced with an apparent choice between two opposing and unsatisfying options, they show the inclination to refuse to choose and the capacity to instead engineer a course of action that is superior to each of the apparent options.

…

...In my work, I found that great leaders harness the inherent power in the tension between opposing ideas, options or models to forge a new better model. That is the Power of Paradox.

Here is a tidbit that Tom Pickering, the ultimate American Diplomat and member of the PeaceWorks Foundation’s Honorary Board, shared with me last time I met him:

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is like riding a bike: if you are not going forward, you are falling down.

Susan Collin Marks, a dear friend and John Marks’ partner at Search for Common Ground, sent a beautiful note to baby Roman when he was born last December (which also explains why I have not gotten a chance to blog for a while – and may have less in the future also).  It is worth sharing:

Welcome dear Roman. I am so grateful to you for coming to our planet at this critical time in the development of human consciousness. I know your lineage through your mother and father so I know that you bring purpose and love. I will know of you as you grow. Meantime, you are small … this is what the great Persian poet and mystic Rumi has to say about that.

     I am so small I can barely be seen
     How can this great love be inside me?
     Look at your eyes. They are small,
     But they see enormous things.

You will soon grow into your eyes, and see this amazing world in all its beauty and difficulty. Here is what we are being called to do, and what you may want to remember when you are old enough to choose your life:

We have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour
And there are things to be considered.
Where are you living?
  What are you doing?
  What are your relationships?
  Are you in the right relation?
  Where is your water?
Know your garden.
  It is time to speak your truth
  Create your community.
  Be good to each other.
  And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
  This could be a good time!
  There is a river flowing now very fast
  It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
  They will try to hold onto the shore.
  They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly.
  Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, and push off and into the river,
  Keep our eyes open, and our head above the water.
  See who is in there with you and Celebrate.
  At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
  Least of all ourselves.
  For the moment that we do,
Our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over, Gather yourselves!
  Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
  All that you do now must be done in a sacred manner
  And in celebration.
"We are the ones we’ve been waiting for…"
          The Elders, Hopi Nati

Some powerful precepts from a conversation I had with Chief Rabbi David Rosen, President of the ICJRC and the pre-eminent leader in relations between different faiths:

There is a lot that divides us [of different faiths], but more which unites us [as human beings with a shared destiny].

If we affirm an omnipresent deity that relates to us in all our diversity, then there must be diverse ways of relating to God.

The idea that you can encapsulate the divine within one religious tradition, or that any tradition should have a totality of the truth about the divine, should be absurd.

Not all religious figures agree.  Some insist they have a duty to try to convert you, like an early encounter that Chief Rabbi Rosen had when he was the Chief Rabbi in South Africa.  South African Dutch Reform Church Minister (Doeminee) reacted with disagreement to the above precepts, ardently insisting, "No, it is my role and duty to convert you in order to save you."  To me, this encapsulates the opportunity and challenge that organized religion has for society.

Another important religious precept from the conversation with Rabbi Rosen:

‘be wary of responding to an extreme action with an extreme reaction.’

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

- Anne Frank