Judith Valente's Blog: Mindfulness in the Age of Twitter - Posts Tagged "kavanaugh"

Excitable, anxious, extreme, obstinate, jealous or overly-suspicious he or she must not be. Such a [leader] is never at rest.

That advice might sound as though it’s ripped from this week’s headlines. It actually come from an unlikely source: The Rule of St. Benedict, written 16 centuries ago for people living within monasteries. The enduring wisdom of these words resounded loudly for me this week as I watched with millions of Americans the wrenching spectacle of the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearing.

Re-reading the chapters of The Rule that deal with qualities of a leader, I was struck again not only by the forward-thinking of Benedict of Nursia, but how critical his message is for our time. Benedict advocates a profile in courageous leadership that seems to all but have disappeared from the U.S. political landscape.

“Only in this are we distinguished,” he writes, “if we are found better than others in good works and humility.” Good works and humility. Hardly the measurements in vogue these days. Hardly the qualities on display this past week in our national leaders.

Howard Schultz, the entrepreneur largely responsible for Starbucks’ distinctive allure, often speaks of “leading from the heart.” Schultz vision is echoed in The Rule. Back in the sixth century, Benedict applied an alternative name to the person entrusted with a leadership role: that of servant.

In a Benedictine world view, true leaders don’t place their personal interests above all else. Winning isn’t everything. Working for the good of all is. The best leaders, Benedict says, are teachers, not dictators. To those of whom much is given, much is expected. Perhaps the most revolutionary of all Benedict’s ideas is the model he asks leaders to imitate: that of Christ.
Speaking of the monastic context, he says, “The prioress or abbot must always remember what she or he is . . . aware that more will be expected of one to whom more has been entrusted ... Anyone who receives the name of prioress or abbot is to lead...by living example.”

Benedict also reminds us that leaders mustn’t become so obsessed with results or coming out on top that they neglect the well-being of those around them. Whether one’s arena is politics, business, academia, the not-for-profit sector, or a monastery, a leader’s foremost concern is people. Or, as Benedict puts it so beautifully, the care of souls. “Above all, they must not show too great concern for the fleeting and temporal things of this world, neglecting or treating lightly the welfare of those entrusted to them,” he writes. “Rather they should keep in mind that they have undertaken the care of souls for whom they must give account.”

The best leaders I’ve worked with in my journalism career were those who cared as much about my personal development as my professional output. They were the editors and news directors who understood that people aren’t interchangeable parts. They gave me assignments that engaged the best of my talent.

Far ahead of his time, St. Benedict recognized that human beings are complex creatures who don’t all respond to the same prompts. Good leaders, he says, “will accommodate and adapt themselves to each one’s character and intelligence.”

The most effective ones “must know what a difficult and demanding burden they have undertaken: directing souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing, reproving and encouraging them as appropriate." Above all, he emphasizes kindness, noting “A kind word is better than the best gift.”

Perhaps the Benedictine Rule should be required reading for every member of Congress, the judiciary and executive branch. Perhaps then kindness will replace anger in our public discourse. Consensus will overtake conflict. Service will outweigh self-aggrandizement. Dignity and decorum will define our democracy. Is that too much to ask?

Some of you who kindly read this column each week wrote asking why I didn’t post anything last Sunday. At this time last Sunday, I had the privilege of guiding a Renewal Day for a vibrant group of lay associates at Glastonbury Abbey outside Boston. The main reason, though, is that I was shaken by the wrenching tableau of the Kavanaugh confirmation. I needed time to process my thoughts. I wanted to examine what we all witnessed through a Benedictine lens.

I keep returning to a few lines in The Rule of St. Benedict. No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead what he judges better for someone else from Chapter 72, “The Good Zeal of Monastics.”

And these lines from Chapter 4, “The Tools for Good Works:” Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way … You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge. Rid your heart of all deceit … Speak the truth with heart and tongue.

With half the country opposed to the Kavanaugh nomination, what if the judge had withdrawn his name as a first step way toward healing? What if a majority of senators had sought to begin the process again with a new nominee, giving the country time to move on?

Instead, winning became the only thing. Now the divisions are deeper. The wound larger.
Some of our leaders continue to refer to the women who protested in Congress and at the Supreme Court as “an angry left-wing mob.” Crowds in some cities respond with chants of “Lock her up.” The women protesters – many of them sexual assault survivors – are people who felt silenced for too long. They are our fellow citizens crying to be heard.

I am convinced that had a woman shown the same amount of rancor, defensiveness and disdain that Judge Kavanaugh did in making his case, that person surely would have been disqualified as unfit for a seat on the highest court.

If Dr. Christine Blasey Ford had behaved with as much rage, she, too, likely would have been soundly criticized by the men on the Senate panel. This is the unfortunate double standard to which women are held. This is a double standard I’ve seen throughout my career in journalism working mostly for male editors.

Where do we go from here? The Rule offers a way forward for both sides. Humility isn’t a popular notion in our American culture. However, humility in a Benedictine context isn’t humiliation. The Latin root for humility means “of the earth.” We are all of this earth. Our world thrives when we remember our common bonds and need for one another.

In any decision-making process, The Rule calls for all community members to have a chance to express their views. But there is a right and wrong way to do it. They are to “express their opinions with all humility, and not presume to defend their own views obstinately.” In other words, forget going lower when the other side strikes a low blow. That’s just a prescription for additional chaos, and ultimate disaster.

Listen to one another, The Rule says. Do everything with counsel and you will not be sorry afterward, Benedict writes. Do not repay one bad turn with another.

This is not to say be passive or lose hope. Rather, it’s a plea to work peacefully and with dignity for the things we believe in. When I was graduating from college, the great peace activist Father Daniel Berrigan gave a commencement address in which he noted one of the most destructive tendencies is to divide the world between winners and losers.

One of Berrigan’s proteges, the spirituality writer Jim Forest, said something similar when I interviewed him last year. Though he had participated in many anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam era, he said he thought angry protests in these times will provoke little change. Instead, they give one’s opponents ammunition to deride an otherwise just cause.

“It is time for prayer,” Forest told me. “It is not a time to get out into the streets and create a climate of greater rage. That adds to the polarization which is one of our major problems.” Then he asked, “Do we want to participate in a process that facilitates dialogue and understanding?”

That is the question I will be asking myself this week, and I suspect for weeks to come. I am just as disappointed as millions of Americans in the outcome of the Kavanaugh confirmation. I refuse to cave into to anger or despair. Forest, in my interview with him, also talked about “Learning to walk more slowly. Learning to breathe more mindfully, taking unwelcome tasks and making them into sacramental events, praying instead of grumbling.”

Advice the could have come directly from The Rule. Each of us, Forest says, has the capacity to become “a kind of island of peace.” A worthy aim in these chaotic times. How can we each become “an island of peace” wherever we are?