Hope in a System

After returning in August from my first adventure to Thailand and Cambodia, the common question posed was: “So what did you learn? What have you concluded?” While I wish I could provide a grand picture of how God’s vision for my life was revealed, a burning bush woven across the tapestry of a foreign land, that was not the discovery.  

Instead, the revelation-reminder that has continued to stick in my mind is that the world we live in, in any country, functions on systems, and these systems are all by default oppressive. All political systems are in fact oppressive. I once held the belief that socialism could be the answer to our woes. Can you imagine: “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole”? Sounds delightful. A system wherein which the whole community regulates everything. However, even in this system, someone or some group of people still determines that equal distribution, and someone is being told that their decision or thought is not going to work out for the larger community. So even in a system that seems so encompassing oppresses someone. And if even one person’s voice is stripped, then that system should be considered flawed. So all political systems could be argued to be oppressive. 

Since I began my personal sabbatical, I have been intentional to engage in my personal “sankofa” as an educator - looking back so that I can move forward. In doing so, I have continued to arrive at a base fact: our great education system is unbelievably oppressive. I studied this reality in graduate school, realized it as I began my teaching, and watched it become amplified as an administrator. This oppressive system is hard to combat; sometimes there seems to be a crack available to pry open opportunities for equity, other times you whack at the system and hope to poke some holes. As a principal when I pushed against my supervisors, I often got “slaps on the wrists” and reminders to “mind my place.” But there was also the other extreme of receiving no oversight, which can be a positive thing (trust me, I ran with it) but what does that say about accountability and frankly, leadership? 

This system is so layered - the classroom, school, district, neighborhood, community, city, federal government. Yet with all layers, the persons ultimately most impacted and affected are our young people. And.that.just.sucks. 

 (The irony is that I initially wrote this entry mid-September, a month before our city’s teacher strike, which further reveals another layer of systemic oppression across so many systems.) 

Our society is a system that prioritizes production, busyness, product, numbers, output; these priorities live in the most disguised and beautiful forms by which we deceive ourselves. And the weight of the truth, the burden of the fatigue, the cost of this hopelessness creates a sightlessness of an end, where there should be and can be a source for liberation. 

BUT here is that radical reminder and realization: there IS a system that is NOT oppressive, that is liberating and offers hope. That is the gospel and kingdom work of God that we attempt to bring onto earth in our everyday shenanigans. When I was visiting in Thailand, I visited with the Hill Tribe people on a Sunday and had the opportunity to gather in worship alongside a group of students, ranging from 5 to 18 years old, in their dormitory community. These students, whose families live in the mountains and therefore cannot attend school as it would take hours to commute by foot to school and back, are provided with a choice to access education through a dormitory that was built to care for and support students while they attend school during the week. I saw a glimpse of God’s kingdom work happening in front of my very eyes - young people being provided with education, something that is expected in America and the city communities in Thailand. But it required people to think creatively about how to honor the Hill Tribe people and their children, collaboratively imagine what a solution could look like, and build a dorm where children could stay while they attend school, be fed and provided with care. This required developing relationships with parents and families so that they would entrust a Christian community to care for their children and follow through on that commitment to nurture students while in school and ensure students are able to travel home safely on breaks.

Radical thinking. Creative ideas. Justice-minded. 

There are many such institutions and organizations that engage in these life-giving, radically hopeful, and creative ways within our world. The reality holds, however, that we continue to live in a society comprised of oppressive systems that work to make sure you are worn down and that often pit like-minded and like-hearted persons against one another in order to break down and break apart these life-giving systems. Aside from imagining if Christians were to think creatively about doing kingdom work on a daily, minute-by-minute basis in our respective spaces and how that could radically change the landscape, I’m paying attention to those life-giving structures & systems that I believe exist in our world so that I can continue to engage in and work within oppressive systems for change. For me, I am learning the roles that nature, movement of my body, and community spaces have in my life as much as writing and mediation are life giving rhythms. Paying attention to these life-giving systems and rhythms give me hope that as I move forward, I can maintain hope and be grounded in the work I am called to next, and sustain a posture of seeking (and the occasional fighting for) equity in whatever space I occupy in spite of the oppressive systems at work.  

I believe that there is hopeful liberation when we embrace the “human system” (humanity) as a life-giving system, one that attempts to engage in consistent acts of love, kindness, & humanity and builds up cultures of kindness, generosity, hospitality. I am remain hopeful that these will counter the other, oppressive, systems. 

View from One of the Student's Dormitory

Thailand 2019