Dear all,
I had a lovely time in the days before Valentines Day sending out our annual love letter to many many friends. With each name I felt the connection and was grateful to have that person in my life. (If you’d like to read it, just let me know.)
This has been an intense month of writing for me, following through on my summer speaking adventure in the Southwest with three projects on faith, economics and community. Winter is a great season for writing, but I’m hoping to wrap them up soon, since my mind/heart is beginning to turn toward the spring. So I wish you, as well, the joys of winter and the pleasures of anticipating spring.
Love,
Pamela
In focus
There is something about being in a very different culture that gives the connections one is able to make—across great differences in life experience—an extra sweetness and poignancy. My relationship with one young man in Northern Uganda stands out. Somehow we were able to find each other. You could call it a miracle. None of the host of forces that can so easily block one human being’s access to another was able to prevail. Without the distractions and assumptions of daily life at home, I was reaching for connection and ready to see. After years as an orphan, being treated as an inconvenience and a burden, he was more than ready to be seen. The love in two hearts found a way to flow clear and unobstructed, as refreshing as good water in parched earth.
I believe it was a miracle, as it continues to be. And I am starting to believe that such miracles are waiting to be found at every turn. Just as this young man came into such clear focus for me, in all his goodness and worth, I think this is something we would all want and choose with everyone. The key is to bring our loving attention to the challenge of focusing in on the reality of another human being.
So, what does it mean to see people in focus? Perhaps the better question is what gets in our way? Sometimes we just don’t see at all. Our attention may be focused so far out, on the great mysteries or evils of the world, that the people close in around us are just a blur. Conversely, it may be focused so deep within, on our own internal state, that we can’t really see anybody outside of ourselves clearly. In neither case is our focus on the people in our midst, and we catch glimpses of them only by chance.
Sometimes we are ready to focus at that range but, rather than putting attention to what is actually happening for the person in front of us, we look to see a reflection of what we want or need. This often happens with babies. In our eagerness to take in a vision of precious innocence and sweetness that nourishes our souls, we may totally miss seeing that individual human being and what they are showing on their own behalf. Or we look at a potential romantic partner, not as he or she actually is, but as a reflection of our own hopes and dreams.
We may know that there’s a real live person in front of us whom we could theoretically look at, but just not be able to face what we would see if we looked. Maybe they are hurting too much for us to know how to take it in. Maybe we feel inadequate in response to their needs. Maybe they remind us of our failings, or call out anger that we don’t know how to control. So we blur our vision intentionally or turn away.
Sometimes, our intention is to be present and have the other person in focus, but we’re trying to do other things at the same time. This can easily happen to parents, trying to catch enough of the drift of what a child is doing or saying that we can respond appropriately, as we try at the same time to attend to another task. Or we converse with somebody while our minds are being tugged by our cell phones or our worries or by somebody else who is in the room.
All of these are real challenges. But I’m finding myself taken by the power of what can happen when we choose to not be limited by them, and dare to put our full attention to the person in front of us. Being seen that way, in full focus, will surely be a gift to them. For some it will be another always-welcome affirmation that they have been seen. For others it may be life-changing, like the water on dry earth that allows a struggling plant to bloom.
But perhaps more important, really seeing others is a gift to us. (I remember going into cataract surgery with vision in one eye so cloudy that I couldn’t distinguish faces and coming out to find the world crystal clear. Talk about miracles!) Though it may be painful, and may require us to grieve, ultimately seeing calls out our love. And that means more love, not only out in the world, but at our disposal in our hearts.
Catching the wind
Far from the daily cares of home
Beauty all around
A hard task to do, but do-able
Loving people gathered round.
The wind fills my sails
I lean out
Balanced, intent
In motion
At rest.
Imagine: A New Economy is Possible!
Investing locally
The City Council of Preston, in northern England, inspired by the work of The Democracy Collaborative in Cleveland, Ohio with the Evergreen Cooperatives, has returned almost £200 million to the Lancashire economy and supported more than 1,600 jobs by using the town’s anchor institutions and local government contracts to keep money in the local economy and develop worker-owned cooperatives.
Preston council's local economic development strategy includes:
• Becoming the first Living Wage employer in the North of England (in 2012);
• Setting up a credit union to compete with payday loans companies;
• Persuading six large local public bodies, or “anchor institutions”, to commit to buying goods or services locally wherever possible;
• Helping to set up worker cooperatives to provide goods and services to public bodies.
In 2013, the six local public bodies spent £38m in Preston and £292m in all of Lancashire. By 2017 these had increased to £111m and £486m respectively, despite an overall reduction in the council’s budget.
https://democracycollaborative.org/content/democracy-collaborative-joins-jeremy-corbyns-new-community-wealth-building-unit-advisors
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee’s rejection of a permit to build what would have been the nation’s largest oil-by-rail terminal.
https://earther.com/washington-governor-shuts-down-gigantic-fossil-fuel-pro-1822527972
The Uruguay Care Act, under which all children, persons with disabilities and elderly persons, have the right to get care, with the state not only providing care services but also guaranteeing their quality by providing training and regulations.
http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/2/feature-uruguay-care-law
The action by the French parliament to ban all production of oil and gas by 2040.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/20/france-bans-fracking-and-oil-extraction-in-all-of-its-territories
A wise, funny and compassionate open letter to Louis C.K. on sexual harassment by a NYC theater artist.
https://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2018/01/03/youre-my-sexist-dumbass-louis-c-k-and-heres-what-i-need-from-you-now/
Resources
Money and Soul
A transcript of a keynote address I delivered at a Quaker conference in New Mexico, June 2017
https://westernfriend.org/media/money-and-soul-unabridged
Toward a Right Relationship with Finance
Check out this new 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.org
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
Recent 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: https://www.trainingforchange.org/publications/muscle-building-peace-and-justice-nonviolent-workout-routine-21st-century (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
