A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons In Simplicity, Service, And Common Sense

by Robert Lawrence Smith

The kernel of George Fox’s vision was that God finds individual expression within each of our souls and within each of our lives.

nineteenth century, as the result of a schism in Quakerism, many Meetings in the midwest and western part of the country dropped the tradition of

Life experiences—particularly our own sufferings and those of people closest to us—exercise our hearts, and increase our wisdom.

“My activism did not spring from being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values instilled in me by the grandparents who reared me. Those values were based on the concept of a single human family and the belief that all members of that family are equal.”

The evidence of this altruistic instinct can be found in the fact that one in three Americans engages in voluntary community service, and collectively we donate billions of dollars a year to charitable organizations. But we are also driven by a countervailing instinct: our fear of the unknown, of people whose cultures and values we don’t understand. This tug-of-war between our fear of strangers and our need to connect with those outside our own experience is the dynamic force that draws men and women to each other, and drives them apart. It’s what moves us to travel to foreign lands and meet foreign people, and what compels us to erect Berlin Walls and adopt restrictive immigration policies. Service to others is the way we break down the walls that keep us isolated in our own lives and in our own communities. It’s how we grow as human beings.