Harmlessness and the Leadership Spectrum

But what about harm? Do our actions (our dropped pebbles) cause harm or are they helpful and healing? In part this depends on how we interpret the impact that has been made. Do we want the sand to remain pristine and do we worry about the rock being eroded? Over the short run, the indentations and erosions might be fine, but the sand might eventually be lost (especially with much more extreme generation of ripples and waves with the introduction of motorboats to the lake). The rocks are needed to ensure the structural integrity of the lake and play a role in sustaining the lake’s biology.

There is also the matter of what happens to the ripples as they cross the lake. They are rarely allowed to proceed without disruption. There are other ripples being produced by other pebbles being dropped by other people at the edge of the lake. Winds are blowing across the lake. Currents are generated by the water entering and leaving the lake. A lovely loon might be crossing the lake, or a fish splashes the surface of the lake or generates movement of the water far below its surface. And let’s not even begin to unpack the effect of a butterfly’s fluttering wings from the other side of our planet on the lake’s surface.

All these other factors influence the nature and impact of the ripples we have produced. They also have something to say about whether our ripples are doing harm. we would suggest that it is not so much a matter or recognizing that over the long term, the water (and our universe) has lost all memory of the ripple, but that our actions are rarely themselves solely determinative of their impact. As Tillich, Palmer, Erikson, Menakem, and Robinson’s Jack Boughton have all noted from their own distinctive perspectives, the impact of our actions is most likely to be internal. The harm, ultimately, befalls each of us in an immediate, intimate and transforming manner. Existence causes harm and forgiveness is a forever required element of this existence.

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