It was a great honor to listen to Reverend Desmond Tutu address the American College of Psychiatrists in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Reverend Tutu inspires his audience to strive to create more goodness in the world. He believes we were made for goodness. We as therapists embrace this philosophy and are called upon as professionals to help our patients find their goodness and build upon it. What a refreshing change to focus on mental health and human potential instead of disease processes. Reverend Tutu has seen more suffering in his life than most of us can even imagine yet he remains so optimistic.
He urges us to continually pledge forgiveness. Never forget but forgive and continually practice amnesty. "My humanity is caught up in your humanity. When I dehumanize you, I dehumanize myself." He advocates for restorative justice, "heal the fracture". He further advocated that the values of forgiveness, compassion, gentleness, are critical to our future.
As psychiatrist, psychologists, and other mental health professionals we must work with patients, family, friends and ourselves to reach these heights and remove the obstacles which in turn will create more goodness in the world. His words are therapeutic. He graces the stage with tremendous presence. We as therapists have much to learn from his teaching. He preaches that it is what we give that defines us and call upon all of us to give more of ourselves.
He concluded his lecture with the story below. The cognitive behavioral therapists among us would recognize this technique. I share this story with you as my way of giving back. To help the Reverend on his journey to create more goodness in the world, I found my work with patients today to be easier, more effective, and more profound. I feel blessed by his wisdom and his extraordinary ability to create change in the world. I hope his parable helps you too.
You know the story of the farmer, who in his back yard had chickens, and then he had a chicken that was a little odd looking, but he was a chicken. It behaved like a chicken. It was pecking away like other chickens. It didn't know that there was a blue-sky overhead and a glorious sunshine until someone who was knowledgeable came along and said to the farmer, "Hey, that's no chicken. That's an eagle. "Then the farmer said, "Um, um, no, no, no, no man. That's a chicken; it behaves like a chicken. And the man said no; give it to me please. And he gave it to this knowledgeable man. And this man took this strange looking chicken and climbed the mountain and waited until sunrise. And then he turned this strange looking chicken towards the sun and said, "Eagle, fly, eagle. "And the strange looking chicken shook itself, spread out its pinions, and lifted off and soared and soared and soared and flew away, away into the distance. And God says to all of us, you are no chicken; you are an eagle. Fly, eagle, and fly. And God wants us to shake ourselves, spread our pinions, and then lift off and soar and rise, and rise toward the confident and the good and the beautiful. Rise towards the compassionate and the gentle and the caring. Rise to become what God intends us to be -- eagles, not chickens."
