The book that is bringing me solace during these turbulent times is a new release from Sand and Sky Publishing called Desert Voices: The Edge Effect. It is edited and mostly written by my old friends and spiritual directors Father Dave Denny and Sister Tessa Bielecki, but it also includes essays by Oliver Sacks, Jo L’Abatte, James Fay and others.
At one point, Father Dave responds to the critique that those involved in interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural reconciliation are often considered by their mainstream culture “to have gone astray.” What Dave and Tessa counter is that those of you engaged in “restoring the flow” of ideas, compassion and collaboration on the margins of our society are creating a rich and fertile “edge effect” where both innovation and a radical return to the deepest wisdom traditions occur.
The edges are the seedbeds that provide us with the lost elements of health that have been weeded out or purged from the mainstream’s monoculture. We need those of you who work from and reach out “across the edges” now than ever before. A tangible example: we need “the Hamilton delegates” in the Electoral College to vote tomorrow with their conscience, even if it puts them on the “edges” of their own parties.
Thank you and bless you for your work on the edges, reaching out across boundaries.
Brother Coyote, OEF
