There are many great societal challenges ahead of us. In our rush to help we might only reach for big ideas and bold action. Too many times I’ve come to Dr. Pitts in this state.
Dr. Pitts listened patiently as I shared our organization’s – the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC)’s – plans to transform care for those with serious illness. He responded: that’s good, but there’s something missing. Dr. Pitts answered my puzzled look with a question: where does community come in?
Over the 14 years of Dr. Pitts’ mentorship, I have seen his strong belief and spiritual practice in community running through his work with the poor, the marginalized, and the forgotten. Community is critical for transformation – both for our society and ourselves.
Community for Dr. Pitts is a practical ethos. Dr. Pitts has taught that we must develop our solutions with, rather than for, those we are hoping to serve. Dr. Pitts has ensured that those who live with serious illness and have faced disparities are full participants in our decision-making at C-TAC, an organization where Dr. Pitts was a founding board member and has served as co-chair of our Interfaith Workgroup and Equity Taskforce. Community is critical for success. Without those we seek to help’s engagement, how can we hope to know what the problem is that we’re seeking to solve? And without the engagement of others in the community, clergy and others, how can we hope that the work will continue, once we move on?
But more profoundly, Dr. Pitts has taught that community is also a spiritual ethos. One that, if carried out, will lead to greater equity across society. We have created a wall between the helper and helped; between hospitals and the neighborhood, between policy makers and citizens, between clinicians and patients. Why? Because when we are the “helper”, we are in control, we have power, it’s comfortable. But Dr. Pitts has taught the principle of Ubuntu, “I am because you are. You are because I am.” That the helper now is also the helped; and the helped the helper.
I have seen Dr. Pitts introduce this idea by asking clinicians and clergy: what’s the difference between healing and curing? Curing is a one-sided relationship. If we are focused solely on curing problems and the illness that is in our fellow members of society, power is only with the helper. But Dr. Pitts has shown the reality that power is also in those we seek to help. When we focus on healing, becoming whole spiritually, we recognize that there is something in us that only those suffering at the margins of society can teach us; and in turn, we can hope that we might bring about healing in those we serve.
In communities across the country, Dr. Pitts has applied Ubuntu to remind the community of the power that they hold; not as the passive recipients of charity, but as equal partners with health systems, foundations, health plans and others. And in teaching this principle of community, we are reminded of our own humanity and interconnection.
On behalf of C-TAC, I am proud to see Rev. Dr. Tyrone Pitts as a Beautiful Are The Feet honoree. With this recognition it is our hope at C-TAC that more will hear about Dr. Pitt’s ethos of community, apply it, and share what they are learning in our collective efforts of helping our fellow members of society – and ourselves – heal.
Jon Broyles
CEO, Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC)
