Fiction as Fodder

A book I read recently,Cutting for Stone,by Abraham Verghese,takes place mainly in a cash-strapped hospital in Ethiopia,and has one of the best literary commentaries on philanthropy that I’ve read in a while. It’s a great scene in a thought-provoking,blush-inducing way – a passage that would make wonderful fodder for discussion in a college class or (even better) a staff meeting.

In the scene,the hospital’s beloved nurse has just died a horrible death while giving birth to twins who aren’t expected to survive,and its famous and talented surgeon – presumably the father of the babies – has fled. The hospital is in disarray,its remaining staff devastated,and its head Matron trying desperately to figure out how to carry on. At this horribly inopportune moment,a representative from the hospital’s major funder appears for what we might call a “site visit”. The scene goes on for some pages,but I’ll just quote one of the passages that most struck me:

She walked over to the door and beckoned him to join her outside. “Let’s take a walk,” she said. “Look,” Matron said when they were in the hallway,pointing to a sign above a door:OPERATING THEATER 1. The room was a closet,jammed full of Bibles. Wordlessly she pointed to another room across the way which Harris could see was a storeroom for mops and buckets. The sign above it read OPERATING THEATER 2. “We have only one theater. We call it OPERATING THEATER 3. Judge me harshly,if you will,Mr. Harris,but I take what I am given in God’s name to serve these people. And if my donors insist on giving me another operating theater for the famous Thomas Stone,when what I need are catheters,syringes,penicillin,and money for oxygen tanks so I can keep the single theater going,then I give them their operating theater in name. ”

When my book group read this book,no one else seemed to have the shiver squirm of recognition that I experienced. I found myself yearning to talk it over with a group of colleagues.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that literature’s a fantastic resource when it comes to some of the more nuanced and esoteric learning challenges we face in philanthropy and civic life. The Project on Civic Reflection provides short pieces of literature and facilitation guides to provoke thoughtful reflection about life’s central questions. The website hosts a searchable archive of pieces of literature tied to important questions such as:“How do we respond to those who do not want our help?” and “Can we give without undermining equality?”

There are ideas,emotions,fears,and assumptions that are simply easier to tap into and examine through the clarifying lens of a story,poem,or essay.

How has your foundation or organization used literature for learning? And what are some of your favorite philanthropy-related literary works.