“My Interview with Parker J. Palmer”
By Ron Jackson
zero@collegechurch.com
Preparation
The apostle Paul begins most of his letters with the greeting, “grace and peace.” Those two words best describe my interaction with Parker J. Palmer during our recent interview. Parker J. Palmer was named one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education, this from a survey of over 10,000 administrators and faculty. The survey was conducted by The Leadership Project in 1998. Parker J. Palmer is also a noted author and has written may book among them, To Know as we are Known and The Courage to Teach have had a profound impact on my ministry and my calling. So naturally when YWJ asked me if I would like to interview him I immediately said, “Yes!”
Later, it hit me. “Yes? What was I thinking? I’ve never done this before. Oh sure I’ve interviewed teenagers and college students, and even a few adults, but never someone as important or influential as Dr. Palmer. Who am I? I’m not going to be able to keep up with this guy. I’ll run out of questions to ask after the first five minutes.”
So, feeling a bit intimidated and somewhat overwhelmed I did what I normally do when I feel that way, I rounded up a couple of my friends and asked them form some help. I decided to ask Mark Hayse and Mickey Cox to give me some advice and suggestions. Mark Hayse is a professor at the college next door to our church. He is a former youth pastor and has been my friend and colleague for over 15 years. Mickey Cox is 35 year veteran youth worker and has also been a friend and mentor to me for most of my ministry. Thank the Lord, for good friends and mentors. It would cost me two lunches and a couple of meetings but their advice and encouragement was invaluable to the project. Together we began to devise a plan for the interview. I came up with an initial list of questions. Mark added a few more and together we categorized the questions and placed the most important ones near the top. Mark and I even speculated on the answers to some of the questions and formulated a few follow up questions biased upon Dr. Palmer’s potential answers. Mickey and Mark helped build my confidence and both of them agreed to be present with me during the actual interview.
The day of the interview
I’d been instructed by YWJ that the interview would be by telephone and that I had 30 minutes to complete the interview. I had already planed to record the interview on audio tape, however YWJ requested a second digital recording as a backup which Mark had agreed to do. Mark and Mickey showed up and I placed the call to Dr. Palmer. I was nervous but almost immediately I was charmed with Dr. Palmer’s hospitality. He was incredibly gracious and helpful. We had planned to begin with a couple of “fun” questions. Beginning with those “softball type” questions enabled me to get into a rhythm and his answers allowed me to hear him laugh. Oh, that helped! Dr. Palmer also seemed very relaxed and if it is possible to hear someone smile I’m certain I did and that more than anything calmed me down as well.
I now moved on to the “meatier†questions. I was clipping along pretty good until I noticed that in answering my first two questions Dr. Palmer had actually answered about four or five of my other questions. “Just breathe,” I thought, “We’ve got a few questions to spare. I will be alright.” I asked my third question which he seemed to like and seemed almost eager to answer. However, as I was listening to his answer, I panicked once again because I noticed that we’d been talking for almost 23 minutes and that meant I only had 7 minutes left! “I have at least three more questions I really wanted to ask him, what am I going to do?” I thought to myself.
So, I got a little jumpy and when he paused a moment to collect his thoughts, I interrupted. I told him I wanted to be respectful of his time and that if we could I like to change subjects and ask a few more questions. He said he really liked the question, and wanted to answer it as well. His next comment took me back a bit, “Let’s take all the time we need,” he responded, “we want to do this right.” I misunderstood him to say “I want to do this right.” So I responded, “Yes sir, I want to do it right too!” To which he replied, “That’s why I said we. We want to get this right!” That little exchanged gave me a tremendous amount of insight into his character. Dr. Palmer doesn’t simply teach about teaching he lives teaching. I realized at that moment that he’d been working the entire time to insure the interviews success. He had been spelling the names of people and places to make certain I got them correct. When I asked for clarification on a couple of questions, his response was almost always, “Oh, sure…” as if to say, “I see why you’d asked and here’s what I meant by that.”
Finally, I asked him for more time and once again he graciously consented. The interview lasted a total of about 45 minutes. I must admit that I was enriched by his wit as much as I was by his wisdom. However, it was his integrity that made the greatest impact upon me. Dr. Palmer showed throughout the interview that he doesn’t simply write about integrity he lives it. The man doesn’t merely “Teach and write about teaching,” he is a teacher and a gifted one at that! The interview has not simply enriched my life but has inspired and spoken to my spirit. I’ll be a better person and teacher because of the interview and my interaction with him.
