Pendle Hill Pamphlets
Practicing Compassion for the Stranger
Nancy C. Alexander
Who is my neighbor? Who do I consider a stranger? Since coming to work with the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C., I have broadened my definition of neighbor to include all the world’s people – especially the poor and estranged. My responsibilities are to help bring peace to the Middle East, self-sufficiency to the Third World, and effectiveness to international organizations. Friends do set herculean goals. This work has shown me that most conflicts, from the interpersonal to the international, stem from the way that we human beings set up “we/they” situations which make the “other” – other nation, community or person – a stranger.
To me, a stranger is someone who is unacceptable as is, to be isolated and avoided. How can we transcend our proclivity to think in we/they terms? One answer is to embrace estranged aspects of ourselves. When the stranger is within us, and is ignored and repressed, then we cannot act from our center. When acting out of a divided self, our motives become unclear at best and warped at worst. If we embrace the stranger within ourselves, we gain access to great stores of compassion for the strangers in our life, and power to transform our community. But many of us feel blocked from reaching out compassionately to the stranger within. We are unforgiving with ourselves, and, as a result, unforgiving and angry with others. Loving one’s neighbor as oneself is harder than it sounds.
Part I of this pamphlet seeks to provide ways to broaden the definition of “neighbor” and learn to embrace the stranger within and without.
In Part II, it is suggested that our culture’s lack of compassion is due, in part, to the way we have estranged the “feminine” principle, or what I term the “heart sense” in love, work and religion. If men and women reintegrate the “heart sense,” then someday, goals of a compassionate world may be within our grasp.
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2015
Series
Pendle Hill Pamphlets
This edition
Format
32 pages, Kindle Edition
Published
April 2, 2015 by Pendle Hill Publications
Language
English
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2015
Series
Pendle Hill Pamphlets
This edition
Format
32 pages, Kindle Edition
Published
April 2, 2015 by Pendle Hill Publications
Language
English
