#224 Influence

 Dear all,

As health and well-being are steadily being restored on the homefront I breathe more deeply, very aware of others who are not so fortunate. I think of the suffering of war that has broken through into our consciousness, even as conflict is raging in parts of the world that seem too far away to care. I soak up the miracles of spring, even in the midst of ever-more-sobering climate reports. 

With crocuses and daffodils everywhere, trees in bloom, pea seeds in the ground, worms in my good compost, people flocking to the parks, I stick to the promise of life. And, after a misty morning, I hope to catch a glimpse of the full moon tonight.

Love,
Pamela




Influence

I recently spent some time at the end of my morning walks picking trash out of a little triangle at the intersection of two city streets, just beyond the park and across from a gas station and convenience store.  Love had gone into the plantings in the past, but it had succumbed to the neglect that can take over so easily when resources are thin.

It was covered with a thick and ugly layer of trash when I started, the accumulation of months of inattention. I took the approach I learned as a child when we were set out to weed in our lawn: Choose one small area and clean out every single thing that doesn’t belong, then turn your attention to another small area. It took quite a while, but progress was visible and a sense of accomplishment steady. When one morning I was finally done, I looked at this little triangle, now restored to the original vision, breathed deeply, and rested in its beauty.

The next day I was not surprised to see that a few more pieces of trash had accumulated, but the day after, there was a lot! I had a sinking feeling and realized that this might be harder than the lawn, where it takes some time for the weeds to get reestablished. Could it have been the wind? But there was still not too much to fit in one of the little grocery bags I now kept in my pocket. When there was another strong wind one afternoon several days later, I wondered what I would find the next morning—and indeed the little triangle was awash in trash, with most on the side that faced the gas station.

I wasn’t just picking up the trash that people threw in that one place; I was picking up everything that blew in as well. While this could be discouraging, I also had a quite unexpected and somehow bracing vision of my expanding influence. Just by tending that one small spot, I was having a wider impact. How much more of the city’s trash would I be cleaning up?

As I considered other examples of expanding influence, my mind went to the hemlocks around the cabin we share in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania that have been threatened by a small invasive insect. In my search for a way to respond, I came across a group that raises the beetles that are its natural predator—and fortunately don’t eat anything else. We contracted with these folks to provide us with three little populations of beetles for the most vulnerable parts of the hemlock woods, and they seem to be keeping the damage at bay. But what will they do when they have eaten all the insects within range and start to get hungry? I think of all the hemlocks in that part of the state, all facing the same threat, and imagine our little population of beetles spreading out in an expanding circle of influence.

Of course there are more familiar ways of thinking about circles of influence. I’ve always loved the image of the pebble dropped in the pond, and the ripples that spread out in ever-widening circles. There are many ways to be a pebble—sharing a good idea that gets picked up by one’s inner circle, then the circle around them; listening in a way that increases the capacity of others to listen as well; a kindness that touches someone’s heart and encourages them to do the same.

But my trash example is less like a pebble rippling out and more like a magnet drawing in. As I think about it, there are many ways to be a magnet as well. I can be a magnet for good news; a magnet for stories that are attracted to a listening ear; a magnet for things in need of repair. I can be my own personal magnet for wonder and beauty: the more I make space for it, the more I notice.

I haven’t quite worked out the physics of how being a magnet for trash can transform into pebble’s widening ripples of trash clean-up, but I have a hunch there might be a way. In the meantime, there’s nothing to stop us from exploring the limits of our capacity to influence—as pebbles, or magnets, or both.




Tarp

A bundle of old tarp, pulled aside
yields a patch of pale yellow shoots,
a sickly contrast to the hardy green
of those that took in sun
and flourish on all sides.

Each time I pass, they’ve grown
but not in health.
One day I see the slightest hint
of green on those pale shoots.
I wait and watch. Another week
and steadily more green,
and then the buds—
of daffodils.

The sun has done its work,
brought them back
from the living dead
as I, a member of the audience,
cheered on.

 

 

Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Pay for child care workers

Thousands of child care workers in Washington, D.C., will receive checks for at least $10,000 following a unanimous vote by the D.C. City Council to "create an early educator pay parity program that will provide direct payments to employees of early childhood development providers" in fiscal year 2022. The payments will be made using revenue from a tax increase on wealthy households in D.C. that was passed by the city council last year. When they approved the tax increase, the council voted to set aside approximately $53 million of the revenue in the first year to raise pay for the city's child care workforce, which includes more than 3,000 workers.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/592466-dc-council-votes-to-send-10000-checks-to-day-care-workers

 

 

Some things that have made me hopeful recently

The passage of a bill creating the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority—the first step toward a municipal public bank—by an overwhelming 15-1 vote.
https://publicbankinginstitute.org/philadelphia-public-financial-authority-bill-passes-in-an-overwhelming-15-1-vote/

The inclusion in President Bidens Infrastructure law of $1.7 billion to fulfill Indian water rights settlements.
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/tribes-receive-17-billion-president-bidens-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-fulfill?

Rights of Nature laws: Panama’s new law guaranteeing the nation’s land, trees, rivers, coral reefs and mountains the ‘right to exist, persist and regenerate’; and Ecuador’s court ruling that the mining industry must now prove that its projects won’t harm ecosystems or endanger species.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25022022/panama-rights-of-nature/?
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21022022/rights-of-nature-laws-ecuador/?

Fishadelphia, a wildly creative project in which school students work with local fisher-people on the Jersey shore to provide affordable fresh seafood to their immigrant families and neighbors and others across Philadelphia (started by a friend of mine…)
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/fishadelphia/

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

https://bookshop.org/books/alive-in-this-world/9789768273260

That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times
A book of essays from this blog.

https://bookshop.org/books/quaker-quicks-that-clear-and-certain-sound-finding-solid-ground-in-perilous-times/9781789047653

Public Banking Has the Potential to Truly Revolutionize Our Economy
An article on my experience with the public banking movement as revolutionary reform.
https://truthout.org/articles/public-banking-has-the-potential-to-truly-revolutionize-our-economy/

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/  

The Financial Roots of the Climate Crisis 
Link to a talk I gave at a church in Houston 
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7910215

Money and Soul; Quaker Faith and Practice and the Economy
If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small. 

https://bookshop.org/books/quaker-quicks-money-and-soul-quaker-faith-and-practice-and-the-economy/9781789040890

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; Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.

https://bookshop.org/books/toward-a-right-relationship-with-finance-debt-interest-growth-and-security/9789768142887

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 read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.

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) 


More 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/  

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