Perhaps the most basic need for each of us is to be known by our name—to be recognized as an individual, rather than simply part of a system. Numbers such as our driver’s license or social security number serve many useful purposes, but honoring the value of our unique inner being is not one of them.
When have you been treated as a name when you expected to be treated as a number, or vice versa?
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation―either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”
―Martin Luther King Jr.
How have you transformed suffering into a creative force?
A gavel is used to enforce order in the courtroom, which is a place for the orderly application of known laws. Except, of course, that who gets arrested and how they are treated once they get to court is far from orderly and impartial. Sometimes the standing order could use a little disruption.
How have you chosen to be disorderly for a good cause?
You are the axis, the center around which the entire universe revolves. So is everyone else, even those on planets we cannot even imagine.
How does your perspective on your life shift when you think of yourself as not being the center of the story?
Many of our deepest lessons—positive and negative—we learn from our mothers, who create much of the foundation of how we understand the world.
What lessons about justice did you learn from your mother, or a mother figure
