Dear all,
it was a blessing to be in the midst of woods and water with family members last week, and to offer a set of workshops at a national Quaker gathering earlier in the month on “muscle-building for peace, justice and an earth restored”. Now my attention is turning to getting the word out about my new books (more in the Resource section). I’m planning to introduce them at an online birthday celebration (72—a good strong number) on Friday evening August 20. Save the date if you’d like to participate, and stay tuned.
Love,
Pamela
In motion
When a pond is still, the filamentous pond weed and the tiny dots of duckweed on the surface will multiply and take over, ultimately filling it in. When there is a strong enough current, however, they are washed through the outlet and the pond clears. While I don’t have the power, as one individual, to clean this pond, I can keep unclogging the outlet. As I free up the currents that would naturally be there, the weed flows steadily through. The motion that is critical for ongoing cleaning has been released.
The metaphor between pond weed and the world’s ills is not precise, but there is something about motion that I find compelling. Water in motion has the capacity to clean. Molecules in motion have the capacity of change their structure. People in motion have the capacity to transform—both themselves and the world around them.
Yet the forces in our society that push us toward immobility around big social and environmental issues are immense. A competitive and individualist culture focuses our efforts on personal goals. With extreme economic injustice, the energies of a few at the top go toward protecting the status quo, many at the bottom are putting all their attention to just getting by. As unrelenting and escalating bad news collides with our culture’s deep-rooted narrative of inevitable progress, we find ourselves disoriented—shell-shocked even—and desperate for relief. This narrative provides little space for engaging with loss and fear, leaving us vulnerable to the ever-growing lures of consumption, distraction and addiction—anything to numb us to emotions too painful to feel.
So what can we do to encourage motion? Water metaphors keep coming to mind. We can start by mining through those layers of consumption, distraction and addiction to the cool clear water of caring—in ourselves and others around us—and be refreshed by this good life-giving water. We all care. Each of us has stories about connection—to the natural world of which we are part, to the communities that nurture us, to a desire to align with justice. Scared by the depths of grief and fear, we can also look for ways to stick our toes in these big waters as a first step. Admit to a little fear. Pay attention to a little loss. Hold hands as we take another step.
Then we can start imagining the possibility of something being better, more whole. If we can’t imagine anything different, we’re stuck where we are. But the “what might be” calls forth motion from the “what is”, creating the beginnings of a current. (Imagining the apocalypse is a different story; though it may be easier, there is no agency involved and if there is any current it leads only to despair.)
We need a vision to hold in our mind—like that clear lovely pond—and we need some sense of ourselves as actors, as part of what creates the current. I think this may be at the heart of the work I am called to—inviting people to motion. Breaking through the story line of the permanence of what is, and holding out a vision of what could be—communities building their own wealth, non-extractive social relationships, regenerated soil, rewoven webs of life. Reminding others of their goodness and capacity. Staying in motion myself, both in ongoing efforts that call my name, and shorter-term calls to action too compelling to be ignored. Listening for what calls out to others and encouraging them to take the first step, knowing that one will lead to another. Broadcasting different possibilities of action linked to vision, hoping that some will land on fertile ground. Celebrating every tiny bit of new motion, while also tending to the well-being of those who have stepped out into the roughest currents, providing an anchor of solidity, a place to unload fears and losses and reconnect to possibilities.
I love freeing up that current at the pond. In a very similar way, I am passionate about helping each other out of the sticky immobility in which we have been ensnared, back into our true nature and in motion toward a world that rings true.
Canoe on a still pond
Eight year old in the stern,
radiating concentration
as the feel of navigation
finds its way into his bones
radiating concentration
as the feel of navigation
finds its way into his bones
Five year old, too scared
to venture in just days before
now gamely paddling in the bow
to venture in just days before
now gamely paddling in the bow
They wobble
circle
straighten
The universe breathes in
exhales
and is glad.
circle
straighten
The universe breathes in
exhales
and is glad.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Divine Chocolate in Ghana
The cocoa farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative in Ghana own 44% of their Divine Chocolate company. Their cocoa is not grown on plantations, which may require clearing of rainforest trees, but on individual smallholder farms which have been in farming families for generations. Cocoa grows best in the shade of the rainforest canopy and the humid environment the rainforest creates is best for the midges that pollinate the cocoa. This is a major reason why these farmers are actively conserving the tall forest trees. They are replacing old cocoa trees with new seedlings, and actually planting new hardwood trees. Divine chooses not to use palm oil in any of their products because of its destructive impact on virgin forest and its wildlife.
https://www.divinechocolate.com/us/divine-story
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The passage of a law in San Jose, California, requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/30/san-jose-california-gun-owners-liability-insurance/7822623002/
The pledge by the European Central Bank to inject climate considerations into its decisions, the first central bank to do so.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-08/ecb-pledges-to-inject-climate-considerations-into-its-decisions
A new law in Maine making it the first state to require its public employee pension fund and state treasury system to divest from fossil fuels.
https://www.sierraclub.org/maine/blog/2021/06/maine-becomes-first-state-pass-law-divest-fossil-fuels
The Welsh government's suspension of all future road-building plans.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/22/welsh-government-to-suspend-all-future-road-building-plans?
Resources
Alive in this World
A book of poetry in three parts: A Home with the Trees, Commuter Encounters, and A Home with the Earth
Available in paperback and e-book at barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.
That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times
A book of my essays, available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors
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 newish 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)
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 newish 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)
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