Spirituality in Public Service: A Dialogue

This chapter focuses on a dialog between two people named John and Willa. John says when he read Willa&s;s essay, he was far from comfortable with the idea that spirituality is a missing ingredient in public service. Willa replies yes, spirituality is an abstract concept—much easier to talk about than to operationalize she expect. When she talks about spirituality, she&s;s defining it as a "search for meaning and values, which includes some sense of the transcendent". Spiritual persons are more likely to deal with one another out of love. They are more likely to be patient, respectful, and empowering. However, spiritual persons are as human as everyone else. They are not perfect, and bad things happen to them, too. The main reason to be spiritual, she think, is that spirituality offers hope. For Willa, spirituality is a part of the cake, itself. Cakes are made of flour, baking powder, butter, eggs, sugar, milk, and salt.