It's (Almost) Here!

The Wicked Truth 2e launched with a great fanfare and will be available soon!

I’m excited to announce that the new edition of The Wicked Truth is complete and that the book will be available to order soon! And oh, how we celebrated that in Chicago on July 7! Thank you so much to everyone who attended!

I scheduled the launch party on the eve of the annual meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R), to honor the wonderful scholar-practitioners of the Colloquium who have formed me intellectually and spiritually in the art and mystery of peacebuilding. I am who I am today because of having known them for over twenty-five years.

I wanted the event to be about more than the book itself. I wanted to celebrate the weird and winding path to peace that we are called to follow, each in our own way. I was inspired by the esteemed leader in conflict transformation, John Paul Lederach, who said, “There is no scientific evidence that seriousness leads to greater growth, maturity, or insight into the human condition than playfulness.”

So, we played! We enjoyed having our minds boggled by professional magician James Warren and delving into mysticism with Tarot readings by Sally Graciela Ramirez. I revealed the new book cover and shared why I am especially proud of the new edition.

My pride comes mostly from three collaborators I didn’t have the first go-around, and who helped me bring this book closer to my original intent: for it to make a meaningful contribution to the search for peace with justice.

My first collaborator is Lyle Enright, my amazing editor, a brilliant Girardian, and a far more talented writer than I ever will be. My second collaborator was Zach Rupert, who designed both the new cover and the new interior for the book and managed to incorporate both the whimsy of Oz and my hopeful vision for peace!

And my third collaborator is the whole community of peacebuilders I have met in the 20 years since the first edition was published. They have nurtured me in the art and mystery of peace, and were represented at the launch party by Dr. David Anderson Hooker.

Because I wanted to include a study guide component for this new edition, I drew on David’s process for conflict transformation called Transformative Community Conferencing (TCC). David spoke in detail about TCC the next day at the COV&R meeting, so at the party I asked him to tell us some stories from his experiences using the arts in his work. He told us that his best professional training over 40 years helping transformation happen as a mediator, community builder, scholar and advocate, and as an understudy in community theatre. In fact, he sees his work as an understudy to be perhaps the most important part of his whole formation as a peacebuilder:

“Being an understudy” is the metaphor for the work of community-builders, which is to know the background story, to know the lives, to know the interests and the concerns of every party, and to be able to be quiet if you’re not necessary — to not have any kind of resentment about not having a public stage, or not having a place to speak, to not even have a seat at the table. But as necessary, if somebody isn’t currently being represented, you can represent that voice, establish some measure of testimonial authority, until they are able to get there.

David’s joy was infectious. We left with a renewed sense of hope that we can learn to inhabit other people’s stories with love. My hope is that the new edition of The Wicked Truth becomes a resource for a whole new cohort of individuals and communities seeking to heal divides and create the conditions for just peace for all people.

I’m so glad to share the video of David’s remarks with you. Make sure you listen to the end, for his incredible and uproarious insight that he was not “black enough” for some of the communities he spoke with!