Dr. Adam Clark: Election Brave Space Series

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and structures of belonging.

This 8 weeks series consists of mini episodes which are being produced in partnership with The Hive, A Center for Contemplation, Art, and Action, as a part of an ongoing class they’re offering locally called Election Brave Space: Compassionate Resilience For Our Shared Future. The intention of these episode is to introduce a variety of simple tools and practices to help you navigate this politically tumultuous moment, leading to and through the election.

Adam Clark is Associate Professor of Theology at Xavier University and is committed to the idea that theological education in the twenty first century must function as a counter-story. One that equips us to read against the grain of the dominant culture and inspires one to live into the Ignatian dictum of going forth "to set the world on fire." To this end, Dr. Clark is intentional about pedagogical practices that raise critical consciousness by going beneath surface meanings, unmasking conventional wisdoms and reimagining the good. He currently serves as co-chair of Black Theology Group at the American Academy of Religion, actively publishes in the area of black theology and black religion and participates in social justice groups at Xavier and in the Cincinnati area. He earned his PhD at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was mentored by James Cone.

The Hive is a grassroots mindfulness community curating multi-week classes, workshops and a Membership community. It has been formed by facilitators asking the question, "What are the resources that lie within our vast lineages, traditions, and modalities of healing, and how can we place them in service of the common good?" In this series we’re hearing from The Hive’s 6 core faculty members.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.

Transcript

 In this political season, many people are so caught up in the rancor, in the division, the turmoil of these 2024 elections. So much so that many people are just reactionary to the candidate that they don't like and feel kind of consumed and the division is like consumed their own kind of persona and their character. What I find with a lot of people is that many people. Are very clear about what they don't want, and are less clear about the type of world that they're trying to generate. Oftentimes, we are playing  defense. We're trying to defend territory. But the defense consumes so much of our energy that we don't have the type of emotional bandwidth to try to create the beautiful and good world that we're trying to live into. So what I want to do is suggest a certain type of practice that might enable us to try not to think about these November elections as the end all or be all, because most of our highest moral choices are not even on the ballot but I see us as being kind of containers of an alternative possibility that needs to be actualized. So here's one type of contemplative practice that I think can bring us to a more visionary possibility. It's called the circle of ancestors practice, Sometimes I call it the cloud of witnesses, depending on our tradition, but what this practice actually does As we start off by imagining our ancestors, and when I talk about ancestors, I'm talking about moral exemplars, not so much your biological heritage, Mentors,  historical figures, or individuals who've had an influence on your value system, specifically the values of love, of justice, of compassion, of liberation, of freedom. Take a moment to envision these people. For me, it's people like Howard Thurman, it's Martin Luther King, it's Thomas Merton, it's Dorothy Day. These are prophetic figures that I include in my cloud of witnesses. So take some time to imagine, to recreate the presence in your headspace and feel into that. 

These people shape a moral framework and they give us value clarification of how to navigate uncertain times. When you felt their witnesses, imagine what specific quality does each person have. in your cloud of witnesses. What quality do they embody?  Is it courage?  Is it compassion?  Is it freedom?  Is it community? What quality do they embody?  And what guidance or visions do these individuals offer for the future? 

After you've done that, what I would encourage you to do is to take a notebook and write down these qualities. For each person in your cloud of witnesses, write down one specific quality that deeply with them. 

After that, what does this  teach you about your leadership or the type of leader you should be? And when I say leader, you don't have to have a formal position of leadership. But leadership could be in your own family, in your own community. In your circle. How would you embody that quality in your own leadership 

after you finish questioning that what questions arise when you consider this quality and how does it shape your vision of the future. For example, when I think of Howard Thurman. I think a spiritual depth. When I consider this quality of spiritual death how does this shape my vision of the future? Do I have a one dimensional vision? Do I have a multi dimensional vision? 

After I've considered this and probably wrote them down, my next question would be, how could I cultivate this quality to help bring into a being an emergent future? And this becomes key, Because many times what we see in front of us are two bad options, and we're forced to choose from the least worst option. What we want to cultivate in the emergent future may be something that's not on the table, but we still want to have a clear vision of that. So we are the carriers of an emergent future. So instead of being stuck in patterns of the past, we want to see ourselves as custodians of an emergent future. through this contemplative practice. So what future will we help bring into being when we embody this quality? So for me, when I talk about spiritual depth, What type of future if we have a very depthful idea of human community? What kind of future will we have?

That's a collective question. Now the personal question, what do I have to become in order to manifest this vision? What do I personally have to do? Do I have to cut some things out of my life that block this from coming into being? Or do I have to add to my skill set, Do I have to release something? Or let something go to become aligned with this type of vision. What resources do I have to do to support this vision? And what type of gifts do I already have that can serve this purpose? 

And then the last, most pragmatic question. What are three ways I could practice this quality in the next 24 hours? And as I say practice, I mean, what can I do in my life that actually leads to spiritual depth in the next 24 hours? Can I read some type of contemplative literature? Can I practice a meditative or contemplative practice, What are some things I can do to actually practice this in the next 24 hours, We want to do this immediately, and then hopefully it becomes  into our lives in a way that we become the very quality that we admire. 

By grounding in this form of practice of embracing our lineage, our cloud of witnesses, we could actually have clear, visionary forms of, leadership and bring into being the  want and deserve to live in.