Dear all,
I’m finding myself a little disoriented in this in-between time: Between avoiding human contact in the pandemic and the possibility that it might be safe again. Between the end of a very challenging and fulfilling project—teaching an understanding economics class to over a hundred non-economists from around the world—and what come next. Between the promise of spring and the reality of summer. Between the promise of a new administration and the reality of its limitations. Between ever-clearer glimpses of the possibility of living outside the constraints of conflict aversion and the weight of the Protestant work ethic, while the patterns of a lifetime still exert their force.
And so I focus on the present, with all its hour- and day-sized joys and challenges and opportunities. Wishing you grace in your in-between times as well.
Love,
Pamela
Creating the conditions for repair
Our grandson fell and broke a folding wooden table that holds a computer when we work in the bedroom. This table has served us well for decades, though never more intensively than during these months of pandemic. I finger the broken pieces and moving parts, wondering if I have the skill to make it whole again. Yet I value it and am not willing to just declare its usefulness over and throw it out—wherever “out” might be. So I get out the wood glue and the clamps, and fit the pieces together as best I can. The next day it still wobbles and I work on it some more. The repair is far from perfect, yet we are back in a working relationship and I am thankful.
I have struggled in a new relationship that crosses divisions of race and class. The opportunity to be close to this person is a precious gift. I am astonished at how she moves in the world—it is so different from my experience. We take on a project together and come to a point of conflict. Wishing in every bone in my body that this were not the reality, I wade in, knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that keeping my distance could easily be a mortal blow to the life of the relationship. I do my best, but the way I approach it leaves her feeling unseen and disrespected. I feel devastated.
I listen, try to understand, hold off on my urge to explain and defend, focus on the part that is mine to work on. I try hard to stay open to to everyone’s goodness, including mine, open to new perspectives and opportunities for growth, open to truth. As I learn, acknowledge, apologize, responding in the most open-hearted way I can summon, power dynamics are illuminated, the hard knot of conflict loosens, and the rift begins to mend. Incredibly, we find ourselves stronger on the other side.
I’ve known repairs that were simpler—sewing a button back on, taping a torn page, making an apology for a small thing in a solid relationship. These two were at the edge of my abilities and included some pretty rough edges. If we raise our sights to the repairs that are needed in the world, how much more daunting is that prospect? Trust has been shattered. Entire peoples—and the very earth—have been grievously wronged. We see damage so great that wholeness can seem like an impossible dream.
Yet I believe that the principles remain the same. And I can see only two choices here: to despair and give up, or to gather all the lessons we can from what makes repair possible and turn out lives in that direction. What does this look like? It means valuing what has been broken, understanding how the break has happened, feeling a sense of connection to our place in the brokenness, and being able to imagine the possibility of wholeness.
Ultimately, it involves believing we have the capacity, individually and collectively, to engage in the process of repair. This means not being so focused on our own grief, shame, or guilt at the break that we are immobilized and can’t pay attention to anything except ourselves. It means not being so intent on avoiding the pain of looking straight at great damage that we can’t grieve the loss. It means having access to the relationships that are key to the repair—including with those that we or our people have wronged. Finally, it means deciding to stay awake and alert to possibility, to stay in motion in the direction of repair.
As I reflect on that good little table, on that priceless relationship, and on all the possibilities for wholeness in a broken world, I can’t help but wonder if there is any more important skill than that of repair.
Hope in flight
The fate of the bald eagle shadowed my childhood.
Could we allow this great bird to go extinct
through careless inattention,
blind pursuit of lesser goals?
Their comeback sent a message:
maybe we could be redeemed.
I read of nest sites
slowly growing closer to this populated place.
Would I ever catch a glimpse of one myself?
A nearby bit of woods and water
ringed by airport, oil refineries, development
has managed to endure against all odds.
Late April, the day alive in every way
blue sky, spring green, high wind
I sighted one, then two
circling the water, beating back against the wind.
Decades of grieving laid to rest
waiting over, hope fulfilled
in that soaring flight.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Coop internet service provider
Hundreds of cable technicians have banded together to create an affordable, pro-people telecom option in New York City. People’s Choice Communications is the culmination of years of research, organizing, and outreach by striking Charter-Spectrum workers as a lower-cost, publicly-owned alternative to the big players. “We are the workers who built a large part of New York City’s internet infrastructure in the first place,” PCC’s website explains. This employee-owned social enterprise is intended to “bridge the digital divide and help our neighbors get connected to the Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.” So far, PCC has installed mass WiFi hubs at multiple schools and supportive housing buildings in the Bronx and Manhattan, allowing the group and its customer-owners to make use of thousands of miles of free conduit there, among other available infrastructure.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2021/04/13/spectrum-strikers-launch-public-isp-for-and-by-the-people-of-nyc/?sh=321a5ed46494
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
How a union drive at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, though unsuccessful, made global headlines, with workers in Italy, Germany and India joining into an international struggle against the company’s harsh working conditions.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/workers-world-unite-amazon-union-busting-organizing-labor-rights
A river in Quebec that has been granted legal rights as part of global 'personhood' movement.
Hundreds of cable technicians have banded together to create an affordable, pro-people telecom option in New York City. People’s Choice Communications is the culmination of years of research, organizing, and outreach by striking Charter-Spectrum workers as a lower-cost, publicly-owned alternative to the big players. “We are the workers who built a large part of New York City’s internet infrastructure in the first place,” PCC’s website explains. This employee-owned social enterprise is intended to “bridge the digital divide and help our neighbors get connected to the Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.” So far, PCC has installed mass WiFi hubs at multiple schools and supportive housing buildings in the Bronx and Manhattan, allowing the group and its customer-owners to make use of thousands of miles of free conduit there, among other available infrastructure.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2021/04/13/spectrum-strikers-launch-public-isp-for-and-by-the-people-of-nyc/?sh=321a5ed46494
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
How a union drive at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, though unsuccessful, made global headlines, with workers in Italy, Germany and India joining into an international struggle against the company’s harsh working conditions.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/workers-world-unite-amazon-union-busting-organizing-labor-rights
A river in Quebec that has been granted legal rights as part of global 'personhood' movement.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/magpie-river-quebec-canada-personhood-1.5931067
Progressive gains in Philadelphia’s primaries for judges and District Attorney, indicating widespread support for broader reforms in the criminal legal system.
https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/philadelphia-results-krasner-wins-judges/
The small town of Batesville, Arkansas, which installed fifteen hundred solar panels in and around a school, saving it more than $600,000, and allowing for massive salary raises for teachers.
https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/solar-panel-saves-arkansas-school-enough-for-teachers-get-up-to-15k-in-raises?
Resources
The Financial Roots of the Climate Crisis
Link to a talk I gave at a church in Houston
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7910215
Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in
An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/
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.
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/
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)
Progressive gains in Philadelphia’s primaries for judges and District Attorney, indicating widespread support for broader reforms in the criminal legal system.
https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/philadelphia-results-krasner-wins-judges/
The small town of Batesville, Arkansas, which installed fifteen hundred solar panels in and around a school, saving it more than $600,000, and allowing for massive salary raises for teachers.
https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/solar-panel-saves-arkansas-school-enough-for-teachers-get-up-to-15k-in-raises?
Resources
The Financial Roots of the Climate Crisis
Link to a talk I gave at a church in Houston
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7910215
Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in
An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/
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.
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/
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)
