For Our Grandchildren & Theirs:
Navigating Shadow, Us-vs.-Them, & Other Threats to Democracy
Online – 10 Sundays: May 31, 2026 – August 9, 2026 (No Class on July 5) | 1:00 – 3:00pm EST
Welcome. Below are: the course description & outline, how to register, and tuition. If you’d like more information, check out whether the course might be right for you, the course’s origins & philosophy, & what it invites.
Explore some of the voices that inform the course, and a working bibliography.
Description & Overview
This multidisciplinary course considers the United States of America today and who we think we are as citizens and humans through the integration of history, culture, developmental worldview, politics, shadow, & spirituality. The course content emerges through Reggie Marra’s 2022 book, Healing America’s Narratives: The Feminine, the Masculine, & Our Collective National Shadow, four semesters of an evolving curriculum at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Waterbury campus, and the integration of what has occurred since the book’s publication including what’s happening as you read this.
“I don’t believe there is any problem of American politics and American public life which
is more significant today than the pervasive civic ignorance of the Constitution of the
United States and the structure of government….an ignorant people can never
remain a free people. Democracy cannot survive too much ignorance.”
– David Souter, Retired U. S. Supreme Court Justice,
University of New Hampshire Law School, September 14, 2012
The course is predicated upon two competing truths:
- Every human being—every sentient being—has dignity and deserves to be treated in a dignified way.
- Historically and currently, the foundational flaw inherent in the power structures of the United States and observable to any good-faith observer is that money, things, and beliefs are more important than humans, other living beings, and the planet itself.
If we are to understand and respond effectively to current conditions, it is necessary that we understand history and that we become increasingly aware of our individual and collective worldviews, biases, and blind spots—our dignities and our disasters—as we interpret historical fact. It’s important that we acknowledge and remove the sequoia that’s in our eyes before attempting to point out the seedling in the eyes of others (and vice versa).
“When you say ‘I think’ it is often not you who think, but ‘they’—it is
the anonymous authority of the collectivity speaking through your mask.”
– Thomas Merton, “The Inner Experience” (1967)
Different fields of view – January 20, 2017
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
– Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, (1951)
Sessions will be recorded and available to download for registered participants.
10 two-hour sessions include*:
- Introduction – What this is and is not; language & concepts; basic premise;
- U.S. Constitution: Sacred Scripture, 18th-century relic, something else?
- America’s foundational and subsequent subjugations: who the “People” are
- The Vote: Who wants free and fair elections, who doesn’t, and why
- The Christian Right, Project 2025, Donald Trump, & the “tyranny of the minority”
- The Damage Done & Being Done: 2017 – today
- What Do You Mean by That? “Elites”, “woke”, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Critical Race Theory
- States’ rights, the Federal government, and the (pesky) 14th Amendment
- And That’s Not All: Had Donald Trump never been elected: metacrisis; planetary ambivalence, corporate personhood and governance; lack of health and caring; violent culture; increasing income and wealth disparities; depression, anxiety, addiction; origins and authors of Project 2025; corrupted information environment; artificial intelligence; narrow, short-sighted approaches to problem solving; consolidated media ownership…
- Ownership & Integration: Who and how we are, our stories, what we’re missing, our impact, our people, how we’re in relationship (with all of this), and what we might do
*We may adjust content and sequence, and any adjustments will be consistent with the course description and outline.
Logistics, Registration, & Tuition
Beginning Sunday May 31, 2026 and ending Sunday August 9, 2026 we will meet weekly 1:00pm until 3:00pm EST in an online classroom. In addition, we may add a final 90-minute “debrief” at a date and time we’ll determine together. There is no class on July 5.
Enrollment is limited to 40 participants.
The final half hour of each session will explore “us” through questions and statements like Who am I, really? How should I be? Everything is a story. What am I missing? What’s my impact? Who are my people? I am going to die. How am I in relationship with all of this and the rest of my life?
Tuition is on a sliding scale from $750.00 to $350.00 for 10 two-hour class sessions.
Registration: If you are ready to register, you can do so here. (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/B8CXL78CYGLUL)
Not sure? Complete this brief survey and we’ll schedule time to chat, if you like.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
– Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 1992 / 1946
Workers at Yosemite Protest the Gutting of the Federal Workforce – 2025
Working Toward Balance & Trust and Acknowledging the Freedom to Fall
The course does not provide formal CEUs for specific professionals (educators, therapists, coaches, etc.). It may meet the Resource Development / Ongoing Education requirements for various organizations that oversee ongoing education for professionals.
Some Background and Additional Information:
Healing America’s Narratives on YouTube: Short (most under 6 minutes), unedited videos that unpack the book, one concept or issue at a time, from November 10, 2022 through December 29, 2023.
Healing America’s Narratives on Substack: Weekly written newsletter and unedited audio of Reggie reading the newsletter, beginning November 1, 2023 through the present, that explore the book, how current events continue to reflect the book’s themes, and emerging themes not explored in the book. The most recent four postings, as well as selected others, are free to the public. Archives are available with a (very reasonably priced) paid subscription. Both the About page and the introductory November 1, 2023 post provide detailed overviews of intention and content and are public.
Healing America’s Narratives Book website: Basic information about and testimonials for the book, past and upcoming classes and lectures (you may be reading this on the website). https://healingamericasnarratives.com/
Working Bibliography: https://healingamericasnarratives.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/post-han-bibliography.4.26-1.pdf
Thanks for reading this far.
Healing America's Narratives 