It involves drastic alteration

Transformation stands head and shoulders above most other words. It involves drastic alteration more than change. It is more than changing from one thing to another, such as changing clothes when you come home from work. It means more than moving from one situation to another, like working as a competent professional, then coming home and being just plain mom or dad.

Transformation is based on deep inner change. It makes sense, then, that at Reckoning we teach through process-art-making where we can help youth and their parents go deep within to resolve conflict and to establish new patterns of behavior.

For example, the Apostle Paul was transformed from a legalistic Jew who perse- cuted Christians to a Christian who gave up his life so that others could meet the living Christ. Or transformation might begin as quietly and as slowly as a sun- rise. For Ghandi transformation began a fraction of an inch at a time as he tried to process the prejudice he experienced in Europe. This eventually led him to a radical change in his perception and lifestyle.

Social transformation

Social transformation is bound to take longer because it involves many people, people from many different cultures. Consider the Bos en Lommer neighbor- hood with 160 ethnic groups packed into one small place and with no accepted universal guidelines for how people want to treat each other! How does trans- formation happen in that situation?

Universal guidelines

Reckoning has found the necessary universal guidelines for ethical behavior. And we are prepared to stay in the neighborhood until we have developed the necessary leadership there to sustain the universal guiding principles to build and maintain transformation.