John O’Brien
Those of us who want to lead human services away from hurting the people who rely on them and toward decent responses to their situation need to learn to walk two paths. The path of detachment leads to decisions to withdraw our investment in practices that undermine commuruty by increasing social devaluation. The path of creation leads to commitment to strengthen community.
What we learn on each path strengthens our ability to walk on the oher. If we try to create without learning the lessons of detachment we are likely to recreate destructive patterns. If we stay too long on the patli of detachment, we alienate ourselves from the joy and pain of creation and deprive people with handicaps of our energy.
