Saturday, December 19, 2020

#209 Well-being and the commons

 Dear all,


I’ve been surprised by how unsettled I’ve felt since the election. Maybe it’s like the lull between storms; you’ve made it through a big one, but are feeling a little battered and not quite ready to face what’s surely coming next. We’re all so tired. It’s been very good for me to start my day with an early morning walk, being present to the world as it turns from darkness to light. And here we are almost at the solstice, another opportunity to celebrate!

As many of us head into winter holidays, I wish us all good nourishment and refreshment, and times that help ground our spirits for the year ahead.

Love,
Pamela 





Well-being and the commons

A young woman I know is deeply engaged in the climate struggle. She has found a home, and increasing responsibility, in a youth movement that is playing a significant role in pushing climate issues toward the center of our political conversation. It’s hard. She works long hours. The stakes are high, there are many setbacks and it’s easy to get discouraged. She misses her family who live far away. She wonders if she’s doing the right thing, worries that she’s not doing enough.

Her therapist tries to steer her toward greater attention to her well-being: Think about yourself for a change. Don’t work so hard. Close your computer at 5:00. Do things that bring you joy. This all has the sound of good advice, yet she feels unheard somehow, dissatisfied.

As I listen to her explore this sense that something has not been acknowledged, the theme of individualism begins to rise to the surface. Everything the therapist has suggested assumes that the solutions will be personal: You are having a unique and separate problem of overwork and accompanying depression. We need to find ways that you, as an individual, can craft decisions and actions that will address this problem and make you feel better.

But what if the problem is not individual? The underlying reason that she is working so hard and feeling so badly about not doing enough is the threat of the climate emergency—the threat to the future of human life on earth. In the face of this threat, many people have responded by resolutely looking the other way, willing themselves to believe that they have no role to play, and pulling their attention away from the reality of what is unfolding around them through pleasurable distractions.

I imagine the therapist wasn’t suggesting that this young woman give up the work altogether. I imagine she was just trying for balance. But in her emphasis on finding a set of individual solutions, she was missing an obvious alternative perspective. If the problem is one that is widely shared, maybe the solution lies in community as well.

It may make sense for this young woman to do all the things the therapist suggests at times. It certainly wouldn’t be good for her to just put her head down, ignore the signs and continue down a path toward deeper depression, burnout and abandonment of the goal altogether. But there’s a third path, a way between endless lonely work for the public good and endless pursuit of private pleasures. It’s not well trodden, but her group is working in that direction, and it may be the one with the most promise for enduring happiness. This is the path of working together for a compelling cause, agreeing to long hours together during stretches when the stakes are particularly high, making shared agreements to rest deeply at other times, helping each other recognize what brings individual joy, and backing each other to do those things, all with a shared eye both on the goal and on each other’s welfare.

This is a path where everyone in a group effort is encouraged to stop and breathe, to share the tiniest successes widely, to leave no possible appreciation of someone else on the team unspoken; where small halts are called for everyone to pursue a private pleasure before getting back to work; where there is enough perspective to discern when longer breaks will add to the overall effort rather than hold it back; where everyone celebrates with abandon at times.

People used to work together to bring in the harvest. We now have a different form of common work to ensure our future. Not all of us will be full-time climate activists. But we could all benefit from bringing more of our work and our pleasures back into the commons. As we find our part in that work, we can sweat together through the crunch times, then dance and sing together in the lulls, gathering strength for what lies ahead.

  



 Crescent

The waning crescent floating low at dawn
fills me as I start my day.

To hope to see her one more time
before she turns away seems bold.

Braced for a moonless morning walk
I almost miss her

Such a tiny sliver, hung so low
my breath is caught.

New moon, then turn my sights to sunset
chafe at all that keeps me in.

Next night I plan an evening walk
timed for after dark, before moonset.

Heading west, I scan for gaps in buildings
knowing she’ll be low.

Press on and on, then find her
hanging beautiful

Serene and constant, steadying
a treasure to behold.

 



Dare to imagine: a new economy is possible!
Cooperative Energy

Cooperative Energy Futures is a Minnesota-based community-owned for-profit clean energy cooperative that focuses on developing renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other clean energy solutions while building community wealth. CEF has financed and developed 6.9 megawatts (about $16 million) of low-income-accessible community solar arrays that are cooperatively-owned-and-operated across urban, suburban, and rural Minnesota, offsetting the utility bills of over 700 Minnesota households for the next 25 years.

As the co-op generates profit, whatever is not reinvested is distributed as dividends to members through a combination of cash and equity. For equity, we invest in new activities that preserve and grow the wealth, for example by financing home insulation and other home upgrades to our members. The co-op creates a democratic process of deciding how much net profit we want to reinvest together versus distribute individually. We also pay community-based organizations for the service of helping us find subscribers, require all of our installation contractors to use at least 50 percent minority labor, and support partner organizations who provide solar workforce training by helping place trainees.

CEF is creating a model where teams of people in every community are working to produce, manage, and wisely use the energy that they need to thrive. We strive to give people and communities agency, power, and decision-making authority over the energy systems that sustain their homes, their communities, and their economy.

https://ips-dc.org/a-minnesota-cooperative-shares-the-wealth-while-advancing-a-clean-energy-future/?utm_campaign=ipsnews-120420&emci=d1f78969-5536-eb11-9fb4-00155d43b2cd&emdi=12d4c45d-5f36-eb11-9fb4-00155d43b2cd&ceid=4288612





Some things that made me hopeful about the election:

How Native American voters helped swing crucial states in the 2020 election.
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/native-american-voters-helped-swing-crucial-states-2020-presidential-election 

Orange County, Florida, the largest municipality in the United States, where voters overwhelmingly approved a "rights of nature” initiative,, recognizing rights of the county's rivers and streams, along with a right to clean water for its residents. 
https://bioneers.org/orange-county-fl-voters-overwhelmingly-approve-rights-of-nature-initiative/?mc_cid=fba9ad1555&mc_eid=862e32f332

Louisiana voters, who rejected a new corporate tax break in a landslide, after their lawmakers earlier this year voted overwhelmingly to ask voters to add a new tax break to the state constitution that would allow manufacturers to negotiate lower tax bills with local governments. Almost as many Louisiana voters rejected the proposed amendment as voted for President Trump.
https://www.theadvocate.com/content/tncms/live/ 

The vote in Portland Oregon’s county, Multnomah, to tax wealth to pay for childcare, including a pay raise for childcare workers.
https://inequality.org/research/tax-rich-school-children-pay-teachers/?






Resources 

Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com   

Other resources 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  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/ 

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

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)



Saturday, November 14, 2020

#208 Fear, love and leadership

 Dear all,


What a time we’ve been through! What an uncertain future we face together! I hope everybody is breathing deeply, finding ways to cherish connections, and taking joy in small pleasures.
I wasn’t sure what I had to offer this month till this came to me as I was waking up. It will be available to be shared on my blog site: http://pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com/2020/11/fear-love-and-leadership.htm

And if you’re looking to pay attention to something else entirely, here’s an opportunity to learn about and contribute to the urban farm that I have been working with for many years, Mill Creek Farm. If anybody would like to contribute to this fundraiser in my name, I would be honored!

Love,
Pamela





Fear, love and leadership

In the wake of this stormy election, and as the waters continue to swirl, what I can’t stop thinking about is how scared we all are. In a bitterly divided country millions of us have been scared that the other side would win. We are so separated, and the more separated we are, the easier it is to demonize. Our deepest fears get projected on the “other”.

I know this is an issue that has caused bitter conflict and divided families. So it was enormously heartening to hear from two people I know with family members who are solidly in the category of “other”. But these two women simply refuse to be divided. They decided that love could win over fear. They dug deep to stay grounded in their love, to stay confident that we are all good, to hold to a belief that ultimately we all want the same things. They decided not to try to convince their family members about the rightness or logic of certain beliefs or points of view, but to tend deeply to the relationships.

This is what I want for all of us. It requires a lot. When we’re scared, it’s easy to feel like victims, to feel jerked around by others who have more power, or are led by people who have more power. And when we feel jerked around, it’s not easy to stay grounded in love. It’s certainly not easy to practice new forms of leadership—to lead in places where we’re not used to leading, or to follow leadership that we’re not used to following. Yet our times are calling out for the courage to try.

In this process, we’ll have to give up some assumptions about “the other”. To lead well, we have to like people. We have to hold out a vision that includes them. We have to have some compassionate and respectful understanding of the ground on which their beliefs have grown. We have to cultivate the humility to be open to learning from them, even as we may continue to hold out a different perspective.

To be led may be even harder. What would it take to listen for truth in someone we’ve never considered as an equal, or have learned to despise? Can we face the possibility of being changed? What would it mean to be genuinely curious to learn how someone ticks—either from a position of trying to lead, or trying to follow? Can we imagine finding a heart connection with somebody we had thought was outside the fold and lost to us forever?

I have to believe that whatever we might be required to give up in this process is something that we would be better off without. No matter how closely we have clung to it, no matter how central it has seemed to our definition of who we are, if we approach this project of “de-othering” with integrity. nothing of enduring value will be lost and we will emerge more fully human.

This doesn’t mean everything else has to stop. We get to continue to mobilize around policies we care about. We get  to share our thinking as clearly and compellingly as we know how. We get to strategize about how to win. But ultimately, this deeper work of the heart may be what saves us as a people.





Election Day evening 

After that great storm of effort
comes a lull. Nerves are jangled
nothing left now but to wait.
The color of the sky calls out.
Another storm? I step outside
into a sunset so intense
it takes my breath away.
A man around the corner stands and looks.
I had to come outside, he says.
All around the block
beauty greets me every way I turn.
Heading west into its glowing fire
a stranger stops me, calls a blessing.
Touched, I take it in
and then continue, drawn on by the light.
Another block, another greeting
What goodness has this night called out?
The color slowly fades.
Back in the dark to neighbors on their porches
all amazed, connected, moved
by such a gift from earth and sun.
I breathe, then go inside and settle in to wait.






Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
A citizen’s right to food

Belo Horizonte, a city of 2.5 million in southeastern Brazil, has pioneered a food security system that has effectively eliminated hunger in the city. In 1993 Belo Horizonte enacted a municipal law that established a citizen’s right to food. Today, twenty interconnected programs connect food-producers directly to consumers; offer healthy, fresh food at fixed, low costs at public restaurants; provide food directly to schools, childcare centers, clinics and nursing homes, shelters, and charitable organizations; establish farmers’ markets and stands to allow farmers to sell directly to residents; regulate food prices for 25 specific items, which must be sold at 20-50% below market price; create food banks to distribute unused produce from those markets; and establish community and school gardens, in addition to providing nutrition education. The entire program requires less than 2% of the city’s annual budget.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2020/11/09/covid-brazil-food-security/

 

 

Some things that have made me hopeful recently

The overwhelming vote in San Francisco to tax companies whose CEOs make a hundred more than their lowest paid workers—or more.
https://inequality.org/great-divide/san-francisco-ceo-pay-tax/

How co-ops are showing resilience and community spirit as the pandemic goes on. 
https://blog.equalexchange.coop/pandemic-resilience/

The world’s largest seagrass restoration project, where 600 acres planted in waters off Virginia have grown to 9,000. 
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/largest-seagrass-meadow-restoration-in-the-world-in-virginia/

After months of organizing that included the establishment of two protest encampments, Philadelphia’s unhoused people successfully pushed the city to agree to provide housing through a community land trust.
https://truthout.org/articles/philadelphia-agrees-to-provide-community-housing-amid-unhoused-activist-push/
 



 
Resources 

Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com   

Other resources 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  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/ 

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

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)


Fear, love and leadership

 


Fear, love and leadership

In the wake of this stormy election, and as the waters continue to swirl, what I can’t stop thinking about is how scared we all are. In a bitterly divided country millions of us have been scared that the other side would win. We are so separated, and the more separated we are, the easier it is to demonize. Our deepest fears get projected on the “other”.

I know this is an issue that has caused bitter conflict and divided families. So it was enormously heartening to hear from two people I know with family members who are solidly in the category of “other”. But these two women simply refused to be divided. They decided that love could win over fear. They dug deep to stay grounded in their love, to stay confident that we are all good, to hold to a belief that ultimately we all want the same things. They decided not to try to convince their family members about the rightness or logic of certain beliefs or points of view, but to tend deeply to the relationships.

This is what I want for all of us. It requires a lot. When we’re scared, it’s easy to feel like victims, to feel jerked around by others who have more power, or are led by people who have more power. And when we feel jerked around, it’s not easy to stay grounded in love. It’s certainly not easy to practice new forms of leadership—to lead in places where we’re not used to leading, or to follow leadership that we’re not used to following. Yet our times are calling out for the courage to try.

In this process, we’ll have to give up some assumptions about “the other”. To lead well, we have to like people. We have to hold out a vision that includes them. We have to have some compassionate and respectful understanding of the ground on which their beliefs have grown. We have to cultivate the humility to be open to learning from them, even as we may continue to hold out a different perspective.

To be led may be even harder. What would it take to listen for truth in someone we’ve never considered as an equal, or have learned to despise? Can we face the possibility of being changed? What would it mean to be genuinely curious to learn how someone ticks—either from a position of trying to lead, or trying to follow? Can we imagine finding a heart connection with somebody we had thought was outside the fold and lost to us forever?

I have to believe that whatever we might be required to give up in this process is something that we would be better off without. No matter how closely we have clung to it, no matter how central it has seemed to our definition of who we are, if we approach this project of “de-othering” with integrity. nothing of enduring value will be lost and we will emerge more fully human.

This doesn’t mean everything else has to stop. We get to continue to mobilize around policies we care about. We get  to share our thinking as clearly and compellingly as we know how. We get to strategize about how to win. But ultimately, this deeper work of the heart may be what saves us as a people.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

#206 Wood chips, elections and miracles

 Dear all,


As we continue to be battered by bad news, back-to-school challenges, and growing fears around the election, I wanted to share a perspective on staying active and grounded. A gift for me recently has been the opportunity to get out each evening for over a week to greet the moon as it has steadily grown from the thinnest crescent on its way to fullness.

I wish you all the best as we find ways to stay upright, connected, and alert to the joy and beauty that is there to be claimed.

Love,
Pamela




Wood chips, elections and miracles

It’s a small dilemma. An enormous pile of woodchips has been dumped in the lot by the community garden, and needs to be moved quickly. We’re urged to all come out on Saturday to weed and haul loads of chips to mulch the paths and common areas. I want to do my part, but am not eager to work in a crowd. On a morning walk I look at the front garden. I know that garden better than anybody. I could come early, commit to finish weeding before the crowds so it would be ready to mulch. I breathe a sigh of relief. That’s the part of the job with my name on it.

What if we all could do the same on a larger scale? As we approach a momentous election, I keep being reminded of a message from theologian Walter Wink—that our job in this world is to listen for what is ours to do; do it faithfully, no less and no more; and then wait in quiet confidence for a miracle.

If we don’t take the first step, our plates can easily be filled with activities that ultimately have little meaning. If we listen but hold back because of our fears and do less than what is ours to do, then we are settling for a version of ourselves that disrespects our inherent power. If we try to do more, we are likely to end up vibrating to the siren of urgency, or laboring under the weight of guilt or obligation, which not only damages the quality of our lives, but limits our effectiveness.

The last step—to wait in quiet confidence for a miracle—seems hopelessly naïve yet somehow profoundly right. If we’ve done our best, then what choice do we have but to wait? And what more powerful way to wait than in quiet confidence? And why settle for anything less than the possibility of a miracle?

So let’s take a stand against the grip of helplessness and hopelessness, and stay open to the reality that there is always something for each of us to do. Hold on to the fact that what we do matters, even though it may be a small part of the whole. Then do it. Be willing to try hard things. Welcome the feelings of fear, loss and outrage that are loosened free as we push against old limits. Do more than we thought we were capable of.

But if we begin to be caught up in the whirlwind of urgency, or pulled down into the quicksand of burdened obligation, it’s time to stop and take a breath. We have entered into the territory of too much. Whether it’s too much work or too much unprocessed emotion, it’s a sign that we need to stop, get some attention, and listen freshly for what belongs on our plate.

I spend about four hours a week helping to ground a handful of climate activists in Sunrise who are mobilizing thousands of young people around the election. Rather than doing direct electoral work myself, I committed to actively sharing opportunities with people who were casting around for something to do. I’ve stayed in close with a diverse circle of friends, and when one shared her plan to encourage voting in a poor urban neighborhood, I did a little fundraising campaign to support her efforts. I decided to prioritize a weekly check in with a friend who is teetering on the brink of overwhelm in her youth work. I invited members of a class I teach to listen to each other on the stupidest things they could do this election season, and things that might be smarter. I decided to respond with an unqualified yes to a dear friend’s request for my thinking and writing support for his project on preparing for a possible coup.

All of this has a rightful place on my plate. It fits my unique circumstances and strengths, and it is not too much. Everyone’s plate will look different; everyone’s work will count. And I really believe that if I do what is mine to do, cheerfully, fully, and to the best of my ability, grounded and alert to the possibility that there may be something else with my name on it, there’s nothing left but to wait in quiet confidence for a miracle.

The pile of wood chips did not disappear that Saturday, despite the good intentions and hard work of many people. So I have had more opportunities to consider my part. The latest came early this morning when I was happily hauling mulch and reflecting on this question of what is ours to do. As phrases—about no more and no less, about the sirens of urgency and the weight of obligation—started coming into my brain, I realized that what was mine to do right then was to stop, go home, and write.

 



Hemlock cathedral

Step out of the bright hot sunshine
busy with sights and sounds
into the cool cathedral hush
of hemlock gorge
tall ceiling of green filtered light
quiet forest floor.





Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!

A People’s Economy in Toronto: 

The Parkdale People’s Economy is a network of over 30 community-based organizations focused on building just local economies and community wealth in the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto. During the pandemic, members of Parkdale’s People's Economy have been active in the fight against evictions in their neighborhood as they continue their long-term work to build a local solidarity economy ecosystem with participatory planning, community land trusts, community food distribution, local currencies, and more. Get policy tools to advance a People’s Economy in your own community.
http://parkdalepeopleseconomy.ca/ 
 

 


Some things that have made me hopeful recently:

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recently announced plans to ban sales of gas cars by 2035 in a state that has the fifth-largest economy in the world.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-to-ban-sales-of-new-gas-powered-cars-starting-in-2035-11600882738

How one small stretch of Italian coastline went from a hotbed of drug smuggling to a model of ecological restoration, with the fishing community playing a critical role
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/08/24/how-to-save-the-ocean-fishing-community-lessons/

How one small cemetery in Ohio preserved a natural prairie habitat that has allowed for the preservation of vital prairie species.
https://trekohio.com/2016/06/30/bigelow-cemetery-state-nature-preserve/

The statement of China’s President Xi at the UN General Assembly, that committed his nation, the world’s largest carbon emitter, to reaching net-zero emissions by 2060.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/china-s-push-puts-end-of-fossil-fuels-in-sight-20200925-p55zbv.html

 


 
Resources

NEW:  #ChooseDemocracy

Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com   

Other resources 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  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/ 

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

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)


Saturday, September 12, 2020

#205 Midwifery

 Dear all,


In my peer counseling class the other night, we listened to each other about what’s hard and scary in the world these days, took turns to notice things that are hopeful nonetheless, then each considered a range of ways we could respond to the election—from stupidest to smartest—and laughed together as we shared them out. 

Somehow that evening captures much of how I’ve been these days. I’m grateful for a week in the woods with family, good work, and the community that surrounds me in so many different ways.

(And if you’re scared about a power grab in November, check out www.choosedemocracy.us, the initiative of a friend that I’ve been helping out with.)

Love,
Pamela





Midwifery
 
A regular high point in my weeks is being in touch with a handful of young climate activists from the Sunrise Movement. Through a young man who stayed in our spare room while doing student fossil fuel divestment work then went on to be one of the founders of Sunrise, I met another young woman on their Pennsylvania staff, who introduced me to still others. Just getting to know these lovely and deeply committed people is a joy in itself. Being able to be of use to them is an honor.

I think of one of the young women with whom I now do weekly hour-long calls. We have developed a little routine. We start with self-appreciation, since it’s so easy to put all our attention on either our mistakes or the things we have not yet been able to accomplish. Then we exchange listening time, reviewing our emotional state and focusing on whatever we can vent or let go of to free up more attention and flexible thinking in the present. Finally we check whether there’s a puzzle she’s facing at work that needs solving, or a knotty problem that needs untangling.

Often there’s some small thing. She describes the situation. I listen closely, and ask questions to clarify. What does she want? Where does she feel on solid ground? Even if there are things she isn’t sure of, is there a piece of the puzzle she is able to hold out with complete confidence? What is a doable next step? What is the right time, and who are the right people to go to with it?

It’s clear to me that I don’t know the answers. There’s so much I don’t know! Their organizational structure, which is complex, has never been described to me. I’m not exactly sure of her job description or her relationship to decision-makers. I’m not an expert in the types of campaigns they are running and certainly can’t name the strategies that will allow them to succeed.

But I can provide an open space for the problem to be considered. I can ensure that this space is appreciative and free from prescription or judgment. I can listen and probe for what rings true. I can play the role of midwife. And more often than not the labor is quick and painless and the solution slips right out. What had been a worrisome muddle in her mind has become clear enough that she is ready—often eager—to take a confident next step.

Sometimes, of course, the problem is not one with a solution that is easy to think through. People lose track of themselves and each other in the midst of oppression and stress; they bring old and dysfunctional patterns of taking over or going quiet to their group interactions; old feelings of discouragement or desperation or self-blame gum up the works. There is time to tend to these issues in the middle section of our meeting, with attention to feelings of anger, fear, or grief that need to be released so that more space to think can be opened up.

This young woman, and the others that I listen to, are among the full-time staff of a movement that is mobilizing tens of thousands of young people in an effort that may play a critical role in securing a future for our species on this planet. As I do what I can to keep them working well together toward their goals—to increase clarity, restore confidence, amplify thoughtful voices, avoid missteps, seize opportunities, maximize the impact of scarce resources, strengthen relationships—I choose to believe that my small acts of midwifery are part of the labor process to bring a new world to birth. 





Gifts

On my morning walk I open myself up
take in what the world is offering
quiet my mind.

I never know what gift I might receive—
the moon, pink sky of sunrise
a new thought rising to the surface, calm and clear
sunlight on sycamores, a mist of rain
lines to a poem, a fresh breeze
an opening bud, an autumn leaf
the name of someone fallen from my view
a goldfinch, once a morning rainbow
the knowledge that I’m a part of all that is.

Sometime my mind is busy and it’s just a walk
but gifts are there, awaiting me.
My part is to be present, ready to receive.

 



Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible
Community wealth building

The Lancashire city of Preston, in England, has recently come to wider political attention. Starting after the financial crisis Preston’s civic leaders decided to experiment with a radical “community wealth building’ model that aspires to generate more resilient economic growth. The city’s community wealth building approach has five different components:
  • Rooted anchor institutions – identifying significant economic actors with a stable presence in the area and focusing economic activity around them.
  • Local procurement – which aims to encourage anchor institutions to use their purchasing power to influence their pattern of spending so that more wealth stays within Preston.
  • Local capital investment – to seek out new sources of patient capital so investment flows can be democratically directed and focus on keeping more wealth in Preston.
  • Worker cooperatives – to nurture new worker cooperatives to meet gaps in anchor institutions’ supply chains that cannot currently be met locally.
  • Municipal ownership - to explore and promote new models of local public ownership.
https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/June-Final-Web.pdf 

 

 

Some things that have made me hopeful recently (all among the grassroots this time):

A family on a quarter acre lot on a Florida barrier island who exchanged their lawn for native plants, and are now hosting a population of endangered butterflies. 

All the people who are pouring time, resources and heart into the children in their neighborhoods. (I’m thinking of three people in a nearby neighborhood in South Philadelphia, but I know there are others everywhere.)

The young climate activists in the Sunrise Movement who have built a base of thousands of energized young people, had remarkable success in getting out the vote for Green New Deal candidates in the primaries, and are now turning their attention to November.

All the people that I don’t know, in the Gulf and on the West Coast, who are extending themselves to others in the face of the devastation of floods and fire.





Resources

Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com   

Other resources 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  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/ 

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

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)



Saturday, August 8, 2020

#204 Being vulnerable

 Dear all,


I was struck recently by something I read about how attention to gratitude helps restore a feeling of abundance and attract what we most value. So, with this month very much like the one before, here are some things I’m grateful for. The summer vegetables are coming in. I’ve discovered that a weed we pulled out all through my childhood (called purslane) not only is nutritious, but makes a delicious pesto. I saw the almost-full-just-waning moon on an early morning walk this week, then two rainbows! 

Only having written this, do I remember that there is news—I’ve just received a contract for a book! It’s a collection of my columns: That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times. Now I just have to find my way through the challenges of publication and promotion. There are so many challenges in this world, big and small. I wish you well with your share of them.

Love,
Pamela


 


Being vulnerable

I’ve been puzzling over why white America was able to take in the killing of George Floyd in a way that opened our nation up to racial injustice at a whole new level. The same things had happened so many times before and we had managed to get back to normal within days.

I was wondering with a friend about whether it might have been the graphicly callous evil of the act, captured so starkly. It was way out there, completely unambiguous. But she reminded me that this was far from the first time that such callous evil had been played out for the whole nation to see. So it wasn’t that. It had to be the pandemic, a different context that allowed us to see differently. But what about it? 

Sharing my perspective on what we are facing with a group of peer counseling teachers that I lead, I found myself talking about vulnerability. Our vulnerabilities are so much closer to the surface than usual these days. Even those of us who are buffered by economic privilege—whose incomes are not in danger, who don’t have to go to work in ways that put us at risk, who are not trying to take care of children while doing our full-time work at home, who have enough indoor space to spread out—are still feeling vulnerable. Even if, whether by chance or fortune, we don’t know of someone who has died of COVID, who hasn’t wondered who among us might be carrying a disease against which we have no protection? Who hasn’t imagined what it would be like to die alone?

As we are more in touch with our own vulnerabilities, with those of our aged relatives and other loved ones, and those of the essential workers we may not know who are putting themselves at risk to provide what we need to live, our hearts are more open. While the impact of a brutal and senseless killing might once have washed over a smooth surface, our raw ends are now more exposed. We are feeling things, taking them in.

In the course of our conversation, other pieces of the puzzle came out. There was all the organizing that had been done over the last six or seven years by the Movement for Black Lives, creating the groundwork for mass protests. There was the fact that schools were closed and young people were restless and already upset. There was the new reality that we can’t just go back to living our regular lives after a day or two of outrage. There is no normal to return to, no readily retrievable status quo in which to take comfort.

One man mentioned something I hadn’t thought of: there were no sports to distract us. With no games, or scores, or plays, or players, or rankings or trades to fill their heads, he said, guys are talking about what’s really going on. It made me think about the incredible amount of addiction and distraction that is built into our daily lives, and how much that has been disrupted by the pandemic.

And so we are embarked on a journey into unchartered territory. It’s scary. There’s so much we don’t know. But maybe we can remember the value of our vulnerability, how it can allow us to pay attention in ways that connect us where we were not connected before, and offer up new opportunities for living together in this world.

 



Wood chips

This little pile of wood chips caught my eye
six weeks ago between the sidewalk and the street.
Were they trash or treasure of this house?
I eyed the pile, could make good use of it.
But when neglect had shown that it was trash
the days had grown so hot that moving it
would be a sweltering task.
Other outdoor needs called urgently
For those cool early morning hours,
and so the little pile remained
and life went on.

A big rain finally came and broke the heat
It brought another change as well:
Mushrooms sprouted from the wood chip pile!
Life had, indeed, been going on.
Fungal threads—mycelia—had taken hold
somewhere within the pile, and spread and spread
till finally, dense enough, they pushed the mushrooms out.

Without a doubt this pile is treasure now.
It’s come alive, is on its way to join the soil
that, with the water and the sun,
sustains us all.

I may dig into this pile or I may not.
Already it has nourished me
with its reminder of abundant life.





Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible
South Korean Coops

Cooperatives have played an important part in the Korean economy for generations. Established in the 1960s to uplift the still largely rural economy, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, for example, has grown to include nearly all rural households as its members. Alongside farmer-owned producer cooperatives the federation also runs a banking network which is the second-largest financial group in South Korea in terms of total asset value, but it is not the only cooperative in the financial sector: 900 credit unions in the country boasted 5.9 million members in 2012.  Membership in iCOOP KOREA, which provides consumers with reliable and eco-friendly agricultural products through direct dealing with producers, grew from 11,645 members in 2002 to 294,000 in 2019.

Cooperatives were previously limited to only a few industries, each with their own specific legislation, but this changed following the passing of the 2012 Cooperative Framework Act. Cooperatives can now be established in almost any sector, and requirements to launch one have been drastically reduced. For example, the previous laws required at least 1000 founder-members to form an agricultural coop, 300 for a consumer coop and 100 for a credit union. The passing of the new law reduced the minimum number of members to establish a cooperative to 5. Other substantial changes included recognizing worker cooperatives as a specific legal entity, and making them newly eligible for conventional bank loans for small and medium-sized businesses.

https://coop.exchange/blog/d8bf329f-c512-11ea-b711-06ceb0bf34bd/the-number-of-cooperatives-in-south-korea-has-exploded 





Some things that have made me hopeful recently:

Schools that are turning into solar power stations, saving money and shining a light on solar electricity. 
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/america-schools-turning-into-solar-power-stations_n_5f1f423fc5b69fd473105a63?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006   

The planning process the city of Amsterdam in engaged in to move from a growth economy to one that meets human needs while staying within planetary boundaries. 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/amsterdam-doughnut-model-mend-post-coronavirus-economy   

Cuba’s neighborhood public health doctors, who go to their patients, door by door, to provide preventative care and education.  short video

A Brazilian photographer and his wife, who planted two million trees and created a new forest. 
https://youtu.be/p0Aw3JEtQoU (video) https://allthatsinteresting.com/sebastiao-salgado-forest 





Resources

Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com   

Other resources 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  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/ 

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

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)