On The Journey Toward Right Use of Power

Our leader said she had never seen it before. A small group of friends who gather weekly to dance as prayer were doing exercises to deepen our sense of connection. Facing each other in silent pairs, we were to make our way together to both ends of the room. And I assumed, though the assumption did not make me comfortable or happy, that it would be like a game of soccer or football, each of us trying to move our pair in the opposite direction, physical strength or cunning prevailing.
But instead of pushing or pulling me, my partner backed up and, with spontaneous but exquisitely beautiful movement, beckoned me to follow. We touched the sofa against the wall (her "goal"), then made our way in tandem to the other end of the room.
Most of us have the privilege of living in enough safety to have glimpsed in our own lives, to have seen in news and history about nonviolent peacemakers, to believe as a tenet of faith, that power-with, as opposed to power-over, is always a possibility. Certainly among my prayerful dancing friends, gentle persuasion was more easily accessible than it would have been to many of us in a harsher setting. Still, I simply took for granted that we would be in competition. The invitation to cooperate instead was a gracious epiphany to body, mind, and spirit.

Susan M. S. Brown