February Slugs and Steins with Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Brown Childs
Kings of Infinite Space: Courageous Compassion Among Men in Soledad Prison
“I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself king of infinite space…”
–Hamlet
When I reflect on the expansively creative, compassionate, and transformational minds and actions of the incarcerated men with whom I have worked as a volunteer teacher of what I call “transcommunal peace and cooperation,” for some twenty years first in DVI Prison, and mostly Soledad Prison, the central image that strikes me is the first part of Hamlet’s statement, in the Shakespeare play, wherein he says, “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space….” The men with whom I work, despite their incarceration in narrow, constraining, routinized circumstances, are nonetheless able to reach out to, and draw from a wide and deep universe of humane love for all. Their organizing group, Cemanahuac (an Indigenous Nahuatl word meaning “One World”-all races, cultures, faiths, regions, and perspectives); is the foundation for the success of transcommunality. My book Transcommunality, from the Politics of Conversion to the Ethics of Respect, (Temple University Press, 2003), that is the basis for my teaching in Soledad and elsewhere, emphasizes ways of achieving mutual respect among diverse, even opposing vantage points, with an emphasis on being able to disagree over key matters while still working together. The concept of “transcommunality” is rooted in the brilliant, ancient Indigenous philosophy of the Haudenosauunee (“Iroquois”) Peacemaker, Deganawidah. Similarly, rather than being simple stereotyped negatives; these Soledad men are positives, who are providing important foundations for building bridges in a time of overall societal division, and emphasizing, in the midst of the national cauldron of hate, the healing power of love.
