Allegra Jordan

A Splendorful Path Allegra Jordan

To have faith that something good will come, "even though it is the night," can be a daunting task. Poets and peacemakers offer us language to help. The Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote of "a further shore...on the far side of revenge." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis often referred to "Beloved Community." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called it a vision of the future through the lens of "the dissenter's hope." How do we get there? Are we crazy to think we can reach it? This short book plots the path in six words: Why bother? Lament. Hope. Lead. Persevere. Those words define a map taught by great reconciliation leaders around the world, from Selma, Alabama to the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo. These leaders were ordinary people until life pushed them to its edge. In their darkest moments, they reached for the further shore. In doing so, they invented "a new 'We.'"