#199 A break

Dear all,

I was setting up to send something about an experience of being deeply challenged by an issue of oppression and getting a gift from my willingness to face it squarely. It was going to be a break from COVID-19. But as I took a walk this morning, I concluded that putting attention to a different serious thing may not be the break that people need. A woman in our Quaker meeting (which has suspended gatherings for the forseeable future) has been sending out some of her quirky little poems, and people have been receiving them with great appreciation. So, as I think of and value you all, here are some poems that have given me pleasure, as well as some hopeful things.  (If it’s a disappointment not to get more, please let me know, or feel free to browse through old posts at www.pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.)

If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend www.findingsteadyground.com, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. I wish you many moments of deep appreciation for the people you know and love—and bottomless creativity in finding ways to connect—as we journey through this great unknown.

Love,
Pamela





Enough

He doles out the little plastic animals with care.
We each get two, then five, nine, eleven.
He counts each time to be sure.
We each have eleven. Now we can start the game.

He considers his pile.
“Eleven is too many. Let’s each just have four.”
We choose which ones to keep.
He counts again. “Now we’re ready.”

Our animals surround the ramp
begin to jump and play at our command.
He stops. “Four is too many. Let’s just have two.”
Now he can settle and enjoy the game.

A small miracle. This child, in this culture,
resists the soul-sucking pull of more,
sees his self-interest in downsizing
to enough.





Boardroom rumble

The measured words
about audit
and fiscal prudence
float above
a clattery rumble
as a distinguished elderly banker
with large hands
pulls chips
one by one
out of a small
foil
bag.





Sighting

As a species
the mail carrier
is a loner
marking his own territory
making his rounds
in solitary self-sufficiency

Yet here was a pair
male and female
each marked with that distinctive
uniform and bag
moving side by side
down the street
up steps together
and back down
as if inseparable

A remarkable sighting
An invitation
to turn what we know
on its head--
imagine the impossible.





Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!

National Recycling
After two years Lithuania has a recycling rate of 91.9% for all bottles and cans and 74% for plastic packaging—44% higher than the EU average. When the consumer buys a product packaged in a returnable recyclable container, they pay a €0.10 tax which is held in trust until the consumer returns the packaging to a special reverse-vending machine, whereupon the ten cents is repaid. Consumers are paid in vouchers that can be redeemed in store as cash or credit toward their shopping bill. According to the EU’s Circular Economy platform, 97% of the country’s consumers were satisfied with the deposit-return system, which has collected over 2 billion returns and 56,000 tons of material since its deployment in 2016, a figure of mass equal to 6 Eiffel Towers.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lithuania-steals-crown-for-best-european-recycler/





Some things that have made me hopeful recently

166 million tons of coal and 4.5 gigatons of CO₂from Latin America’s largest open-pit mine that will stay in the ground, the fruit of a partnership between climate justice groups in Brazil, a local Indigenous association, and others.
https://350.org/coal-goliath-has-lost-2/?akid=114669.48046.uARLHD&rd=1&t=8

Students in Ottawa, who will now read Canadian indigenous authors in their literature classes.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/grade-11-students-in-ottawa-are-ditching-shakespeare-for-canadas-indigenous-authors

The news that Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. has withdrawn its application to build a massive oilsands project in northern Alberta, citing the ongoing debate over climate policy in Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/teck-frontier-1.5473370?

An integrated effort in Hawai’i to educate and empower youth, fight hunger and injustice, improve health and nutrition, and grow a local, organic and fair agriculture industry.
https://www.maoorganicfarms.org/our_valueshttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/dutch-supreme-court-upholds-landmark-ruling-demanding-climate-action?CMP=share_btn_link





Resources

Money and Soul
My new book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.")

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance 
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
    • offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
    • frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
    • suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
    • invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.


More resources

www.findingsteadyground.com  

Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide 

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust

        http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)