Speaker: Matthew Lee
Flourishing: Designing Systems for Love, and Measuring What We Truly Treasure
Life's one non-negotiable is to be loved and to see our love make a difference. - Matthew T. Lee
"Are we becoming more fully alive through Education?" After a decade of conventionally successful research and university teaching as a sociologist, Matthew T. Lee, Ph.D., found himself meditating upon this existential question. It triggered a shift in how he showed up in class, and what emerged at Akron University from collaborations with colleagues were Unclasses. He began to meet the students downtown instead of in a classroom. Each class would begin with a heart check-in (and sometimes haikus!). Open space was carved for silence, contemplation, and even rest. As he changed the context, shifts in content naturally followed. His intense course "Conflict and Justice" at Harvard University expanded to "Conflict, Justice and Healing".
A sociologist and former criminologist, Matt is one of the leading experts in research on human flourishing - a relative state in which all aspects of a person's life are thriving, including the contexts in which that person lives. To "measure what we truly treasure", he took an interdisciplinary approach integrating quantitative social sciences with the deep wisdom of humanities. Currently, he serves as a Research Associate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and is co-leading the working group on love and care for the Global Study of Human Flourishing, one of the largest studies of its kind. He is also the Director of Flourishing Network, the program's community of practice. Alongside, he is a Professor of the Social Sciences and Humanities at Baylor University and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Health, Flourishing, and Positive Psychology at Stony Brook University, as well as a Visiting Scholar at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Matt has extensively researched and written on shifting current extractive systems towards regeneration and "daring to say love". How do we bring the grammar of business into a constructive dialogue with the grammar of love? How might we re-imagine health as flourishing that locates the individual in social, ecological, and spiritual contexts beyond merely the absence of disease? What's the role of creating open spaces in education for greater self-discovery and transformative growth? His most recent three books are: Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities; The Heart of Religion; and Transcending Crisis by Attending to Care, Emotions, and Flourishing.
Underneath the long list of his leadership positions, courses taught, papers published and awards, a simple insight grounds his daily actions - "Every person is infinitely valuable." Join us for an illuminating conversation with this inspiring teacher dedicated to fostering flourishing and well-being in our world.
This call will be moderated by our past guest and volunteer Navin Amarasuriya, who is passionate about bringing scientifically evidenced practices of well-being to schools around the world, and into his own heart.
[Some useful resources - Measure Your Flourishing Score, Flourishing App, Articles and Journals by Matt. And a couple of recent articles by others that Matt invites you to pre-read for this call --From Accessing Your Ignorance to Accessing Your Love and Fixing The System.]
Five Questions with Matthew Lee
What Makes You Come Alive?
Whether I am co-creating an educational journey with students, conducting research ("pursuing truth in the company of friends," as one College so eloquently phrased it), or collaborating to serve a community, I feel most alive when I sense that love is fully present. Love, in its various manifestations -- as a way of seeing, a way of relating, a Sacred force for flourishing, the ground of Being, a feeling, and much else -- is of course always present. But in our daily experiences we might not always sense love fully or see it manifest at the deepest level. I smile whenever I feel that I have contributed to the emergence of a more loving social container: a space that helps us love each other, and the conditions that nurture all of life, more fully into being. As a dear friend who passed away last year said to me, "we do not aim for the comfortable life of 'happiness,' but for a heart that falls in love."To translate this abstract discussion into something that is perhaps more practical, I might gently suggest that at least some of my research has been informed by both the deep wisdom of the disciplines of the humanities, such as philosophy and theology, and the rigorous methods of science. My PhD happens to be in sociology, but I have always been interested in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiries. No single scholarly discipline has a monopoly on love, so if we desire a more loving world, then it makes sense to connect insights and modes of inquiry across disciplines. We aspired to do this in collaborative books like "The heart of religion: Spiritual empowerment, benevolence, and the experience of God's love," "Measuring well-being: Interdisciplinary perspectives from the social sciences and the humanities," and "Transcending crisis by attending to care, emotion, and flourishing."A central goal of loving service to others is the promotion of their deepest flourishing. And as another friend put it, "In the giving of self lies the unsought discovery of a better self." The 'other' that we love could be a person, a place, all creation, or the Sacred. Research shows that the promotion of well-being is an essential element across all types of love, including romantic, parental, neighborly, spiritual, and so on. We don't mean jealous love, violent love, or "graveyard love," to borrow the memorable words of Joyce, a woman serving a life sentence in prison. Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed timeless wisdom when he said, "Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice." And Dr. Bob, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, saw very clearly that AA's Twelve Steps, "when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words 'love' and 'service.'" I feel most alive when I am participating in powerful acts of love and service.
Pivotal turning point in your life?
It is difficult to name a specific turning point. So many people have been generous with me and helped me to see a possibility that was initially outside my line of sight. I attempted to enroll in a graduate program with a very limited focus and the core faculty realized that if I pursued that path that I would likely become unfulfilled in the long run. They could have taken my tuition, but they cared about my flourishing and suggested a program that their university did not offer. I only spent 30 minutes with them, but they wanted the best for me. I was not just a number in a spreadsheet. People have related to me in that kind and generous way many times and it reminds me to relate that way too. Those are always turning points that help me back onto the right path.
An Act of Kindness You'll Never Forget?
My mom has been kind to so many people over the years. I am thinking of the many sacrifices that she made for me and my sister when we were growing up, and also about the way she cared for a relative with advanced Alzheimer's, which included dealing with complicated legal issues involved in settling the disposition of an estate. These are not glamorous acts that lead to fame or fortune, but her kindness is grounded in a firm commitment to the good of the other.
One Thing On Your Bucket List?
My professional life has been abundant, and I aim to spend more time with my family.
One-line Message for the World?
Life, at its core, is about love and service.
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