Dear all,
Thanks for all your well-wishes about my talk on money, debt and liberation. I think it went well, and it can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8 (starting at minute 6.5). Looking farther back, Chuck and I and our son Tim’s family took a wonderful holiday road trip to be with our son Andrew and his family who are newly relocated in southern Ontario. The trip also provided lovely opportunities to visit with other family in New York and our indigenous friends in Ontario. So many riches of connection!
It was a blessing to finally come up for air after a very busy stretch, and have discretionary time this weekend to mend, write and read. And I’m trying to remember in everything I do that just who I am is exactly what the situation needs.
Love,
Pamela
Balance
We love watching people who can keep their balance in seemingly impossible situations. Think of gymnasts who do amazing feats on a balance bar, ice-skaters who leap and land with stunning grace, surfers who stay upright in the face of overwhelmingly giant waves.
So many forces in today’s world conspire to knock us off balance. The news seems designed to keep us in a constant state of upset. We reach frantically for some kind of mental/emotional equilibrium, get a precarious hold, then someone does or says the next unbelievably outrageous thing, and we’re off balance again.
It’s like being caught in the big waves at the beach. They knock you down and carry you crashing to the shore, leaving you battered, bruised and abraded. You get up, gather yourself together, determine to go back in, and are knocked down again by that overwhelming relentless force.
I remember how terrified I was of the waves when our family used to camp by the ocean when I was small. I would spend hours close by our tent, making designs in the sand with shells and rocks—small objects over which I had come control. It wasn’t until my twenties that I learned how to manage in those waves—going down under the water just as one was ready to crash, then coming up to calm on the other side.
What would it take for us to find a similar strategy with those relentless waves of bad news? What would it mean to stay in the water, but not take the full brunt of those breakers, not get continually body-slammed into the sand? (and not choose to play it safer and limit our news intake to the smaller, more manageable waves of sports, fashion or movies?) I actually wonder if the breakers are a distraction, and the bigger issues are to be found in deeper water. I think elements of such a strategy will include keeping a judicious distance from much of what is presented as “news” but is really just fear mongering, having places to take our outrage and heartbreak, and being very discriminating and proactive about how, when, from what sources, and in what dosages we take in the information we need in order to stay engaged. The world badly needs us upright, breathing, in touch with our love, and intact. Putting thought, time and energy into developing a practice and discipline around current events that works for us is a project well worth taking on. (Check out www.findingsteadyground.com for support.)
Then there is the question of how to handle the individuals who knock us off balance—the ones who are so clueless and say the most outrageous things; those who wield power at such high cost to others; the ones whose storms and personal drama engulf everyone in their orbit; those who have that uncanny capacity to leave us questioning our worth. We all have developed a variety of responses: fighting back with equal force; joining our outrage with others so we feel less alone; or just keeping our distance, as I did from the surf as a child.
But I think there’s a possible and much more powerful response here that’s similar to staying in the water and going under the waves in a high surf. A thought that a friend shared months ago continues to reverberate in my mind: If we can find a way to bring them deep inside us, into our hearts, they can’t knock us off balance. The physics is unassailable; you can’t be rocked from inside. The practice, however, is quite another thing. It seems like a super-human task to find our way to such a place.
Yet the need for keeping our balance in this world is compelling. And I think the gymnasts and skaters and surfers can point a way forward. None of them could stay balanced at the beginning. Their ability in the present is the result of a clear vision of a highly-prized goal, determination and tons of practice. They worked day in and day out to get to the point where they didn’t fall, where they didn’t get knocked off balance, where they could be and do what they held in their mind’s eye.
Intent
She towers head and shoulders over everyone—
among a class of eight year olds
at least thirteen.
They move in unison.
All her attention is on her moves
so she can be a credit to her class as they perform.
But when the need for concentration’s done
where does her mind turn? What story would she tell?
Child of a girl, who was kidnapped as a child herself
forced by rebels to the bush, to rape and servitude.
Only now, years after peace was signed
this girl has found her way to school, illiterate.
And so she learns with little children here.
Is she teased, looked down upon?
Looked up to, treated with respect?
Is she glad for this new chance? Hopeful for what might come?
Or just enduring one more trial?
All that shows is her intent
to do this one thing right.
Dare to imagine—a new economy is possible!
Spain's transition from coal
The Spanish government and unions have struck a deal that will close most coal mines and invest 250 million euros in mining regions over the next decade. The deal, which covers Spain’s privately-owned pits, mixes early retirement schemes for miners over 48 with environmental restoration work in pit communities and re-skilling schemes for cutting-edge green industries.
More than a thousand miners and subcontractors will lose their jobs when 10 pits close by the end of the year. Almost all of the sites were uneconomic concerns that the European commission had allowed Spain to temporarily keep open with a €2.1bn state aid plan. The agreement may be a model for other countries, showing that it’s possible to follow the Paris agreement without damage to people’s livelihoods.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/spain-to-close-most-coal-mines-after-striking-250m-deal
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
All the attention to the ideas of a Green New Deal, articulated by new Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with its four pillars of an economic bill of rights, a green transition, real financial reform, and a functioning democracy. http://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
All the people we met in East Africa who are excited about the prospect of bringing respect, attention and play to their interactions with children.
How a small religious Mexican border demonstration got picked up by news outlets across the country, highlighting basic humann values.
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2018-12-10/border-patrol-handcuffs-demonstrators-supporting-migrants
How cities are taking the lead on many economic and environmental issues that affect their citizens, as can be seen in the passage in Philadelphia of Fair Work Week leglsation. https://www.phillyvoice.com/philadelphia-city-council-passes-fair-workweek-bill-15-minimum-wage-bump/
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
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)
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