I’ve been thinking recently about how hard it is to confront reality.
My friend Geoff Gusoff made a comment last month about how hard it is to be honest with reality.
He mentioned there is a line of thinking in theology from Jon Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuria – two Jesuits from El Salvador — so I called him and asked him to unpack it for me.
Here’s an 8-minute recording of the conversation:
As you probably already know, I’m trying to grapple with the reality of how hard it is to shift our investments — even for folks like myself with deep conviction, belief and trust in God, and significant resources to help facilitate a change.
Geoff offered some helpful context:
The way that economics acts in a certain way. [It is]… a field that can very easily distort. They can use terms that minimize the humanity of people. They can defend themselves and their own assumptions in ways that totally treat people as if they aren’t people.”
The task of people in these fields is to speak truth to that reality. Even when it indicts us. Even when the traditions that we’ve been a part of have perpetuated those problems.
Then comes the real zinger:
If we are able to name reality — we’ll be part of that healing process… moving towards the transformation needed.
~Geoff Gusoff, MD, MTS
In the later part of this short conversation, Geoff unpacks Gandhi and Satyagraha or “soul force” — as being stubborn about what’s real.
“Just being stubborn about what’s real — this can be deeply transformative.”
Audio of the conversation here:
What part of reality are you being called to be stubborn about?
What ethical demands is reality making on you?