Heal the Healers Profile: John Prendergast

And then as the outsider peace advocate, it's been the contribution I've made to the development of a constituency of people who are against genocide. We've watched this extraordinary term genocide unfold over the last half century—the holocaust itself, the Yugoslav slaughters in Bosnia, beginning in Kosovo, then Cambodia and so many other places—and in none of these places did we ever see a timely effort to stop it. We have finally begun to build a popular constituency of people, ordinary citizens, who are willing to stand up and say that even with all the problems in the world, even with all the budget issues and financial craziness, we still think the proper role of the United States would be to take a meaningful stand against genocide and horrific crimes against humanity.

I've also remained the Big Brother in the Big Brother program for all these years. In fact, my first little brother I met in a homeless shelter when he was six and living on a plastic bag. He and I are writing a joint memoir about our lives together over these last 25 years, which is going to come out next year.

PH: If you weren't in a healing profession, if you weren't working to help the way the world that you do, what would you be doing?

JP: I had dreams of being a three-point specialist in the NBA. That didn't quite work out and, but I do retain my utter devotion to a number of professional sports and I would have probably transferred that devotion to sports writing. I would have probably been a guy who traveled around with a team and dedicated my life to uncovering the truth of professional basketball, or professional football. The insider story, you know.

PH: When you see so much suffering, how do you answer the question "Why is this happening?" I'm not asking for your incredible knowledge of all the societal reasons, but in a broader sense, why is there suffering in the world?

JP: For many years, I had no answer and it made me even angrier. It's only been in the last few years, corresponding to this other transformative period, that I've come back to a particular faith. There's a lot of mystery in Christianity surrounding why things happen in this world and what, if anything, happens beyond it. But I believe that the suffering that occurs here in some way prepares us for better things, and that my faith gives me a real, living model for unselfish, committed, loving, sacrificial living.

That's on Mondays and Wednesdays. And then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I think it's basically chaos, and this world is driven by greed and all the worst things. It's utterly mystifying, and all I can really do is reset the control knob everyday and say that even though I don't really understand where suffering comes from and why it happens, I want to try to do all that I can with the gifts I've been given to ameliorate it, either in my immediate vicinity or across an ocean in Africa. Ultimately the most fulfilling thing I can do for myself is to give to others, to try to be that healer, in personal terms or vocational terms, to invest my life in a spirit of compassion and solidarity and generosity. I feel very strongly that my role-without knowing its limits or even rationale-is to address suffering in ways that make a difference.

I am also always hoping redemption and transformation somewhere around the corner. Like in Liberia, like in South Africa. If Haiti is where it is today, Liberia was there ten years ago. We all know people who have been haunted by the demons of depression, or have lived through cancer and then survived it and gone onto live extraordinary lives. You exist within a big puddle of mixed up good, bad and ugly and perhaps it is possible, instead of rebelling against it, to understand that it is part of this mystery of life and somehow soldier on. The model of the crucifixion and resurrection, that statement on suffering and redemption, is certainly as potent a one as we have in the history of the world.