#87 Approach & Embrace Challenges

     “When human development happens well, we embrace a new way of interpreting the world because it can account for things that the old way no longer could. We can acknowledge considerations previously ignored, take more facts into account, and extend hospitality to questions that earlier we could not entertain.

     … requires incessant recomposing of what is true for the self in relationship to a world of others. ...
      Within (this) moment of disequilibrium … lies a threefold task. First, the conflict and the questions it awakens must be allowed, felt, and made fully conscious. Then it must be clarified: what is really amiss? Third, the conflict must be tolerated with openness to a solution – no matter how remote it seems. That is, the conflict must neither be glossed over nor otherwise suppressed, and it must be held in a sense of hope.

     The conflict must also be wrestled with. The moment of conflict cannot serve the process of transformation so long as there is only a contradiction of vague generalities. One must enter into the particulars of the puzzlement, tugging unruly thoughts and feelings into view. The elements of the conflict need to be put at right distance – ‘putting the phenomenon, so to speak, out of gear with our practical, actual self’ and thereby looking at it in a new way.

     … it may be exhilarating. On the other hand, facing a new complexity and the specter of a new truth may sometimes also require a measure of courage.

     learning that matters is ultimately … transforming … intimately linked with the whole of life.”

     Parks SD. “Big questions, worthy dreams. Mentoring young adults in their search for meaning, purpose, and faith.” John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, 2000.