Dear all,
With a recent scan giving Chuck a clean bill of health (yay!), the new challenge is how to not overfill my life going forward. There are so many attractive options! I’ve been doing some speaking and workshops—thanks to the wonder of Zoom—trying to build people’s capacity as actors in a challenging world; tending to abundant life in the garden (planting, harvesting, weeding, transplanting); puzzling over the knotty questions of promoting my writing (and getting help!); loving friends and family; doing my share in ongoing roles; trying to be responsive to new opportunities and urgent needs, while letting so many others go by.
It seems that we are going to miss seeing our moon full and in eclipse this evening because of cloud cover. It will be a loss, but I’m still glad to know that she’s there.
Love,
Pamela
Pruning
Scanning my experience of pruning, I notice that most of it has left a bad taste in my mouth. As a young adult I hung out for several years around a community of apple-pickers. One group had learned an extreme pruning technique, whose focus on increased production and easy access left the trees so ugly that it hurt the eye to look. I always wondered if it could really be worth it. Moving to a city whose streets were lined with beautiful old sycamores, it hurt my heart to see them chopped and disfigured in service to the power lines. Later, the lovely linden in front of our house was cut so brutally to fit below the wires that it couldn’t recover and died a slow death. Then there are all the smaller losses, like forsythia whose branches are meant to arch and flow being shaped into sharp-edged boxes. Surrounding and permeating these experiences is the smell of hard, unloving hubris and domination.
It was a revelation, and balm to the soul, to participate in a fruit-tree pruning workshop several years ago where the leader so clearly loved the trees. He invited us to see our goals as helping the sun to kiss the fruit and inviting children to climb. I took everything I learned there to the little orchard we are creating in the front of our community garden. Looking at the peach tree that I had planted as a little sapling and has now been bearing abundant and delicious fruit year after year, I knew this was a sacred task. How could we cut in such a way that the sun would have easy access, people could reach to pick, and the tree’s integrity would be preserved? Each cut was an exercise in loving discernment, with the intention of cutting back for the purpose of creating more.
This metaphor of pruning is a powerful one for human beings as well. If we tend toward accumulation, our lives can become so overgrown with possessions or obligations that the light is obscured and parts of our natural inheritance of meaning and joy have grown out of reach. In such situations we may need to take on the discipline of pruning. What clutters our way and keep the sun from being able to kiss the fruits we most value? What could we cut out in the service of having more? How do we remove that which obscures our fruits and our true shape, reaching through the pain of loss to become more fully ourselves?
If we tend toward spareness, on the other hand, we may find ourselves cutting out life-giving branches, or pruning with a vengeance in single-minded pursuit of a personal ambition or a noble cause. Ruthlessly cutting out everything that gets in the way, we may find ourselves disfigured in the process. In other contexts, we may succumb to fear, and shape ourselves to what others will think is attractive or acceptable, sacrificing our natural arch and flow to square edged conformity.
Then there is the question of pruning others. This is a sacred responsibility, not something to be taken on lightly. Yet much pruning is done heedlessly, as we use our power to shape the environment around us to suit ourselves. In our yards and gardens, perhaps we should offer an explanation or an apology with each cut. It is easy, as well, to prune people who have less power in our midst—children and others over whom we exert authority. Some can bounce back, or conform without changing their essential nature, but cutting off branches that are essential to their well-being—leaving a lasting impact on their shape—is a serious thing. As those who would be pruned by others, we all have a right to stand against forces that would disfigure or diminish us.
At its heart, good pruning calls for close observation of the true nature of a person (or tree), growing out of great love and commitment to their unique shape and sacred wholeness, only in pursuit of more light, sweeter fruits.
What exercise?
Early in the morning
amidst dog walkers and runners
I feel naked, incomplete.
What am I giving exercise
on this walk?
I realize that it is my mind, my heart—
waking it up
getting it moving
opening it to the possibilities
of a new day.
I have to believe
that this exercise,
without apparent goal,
is worth the time.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Public Banking
A growing awareness of the potential benefits of public banking has sparked grassroots movements across the country in recent years. In 2021, eighteen public banking bills were introduced at state, municipal, and federal levels. Bills were introduced in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, and Washington; at the municipal level in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco; and at the federal level in the House of Representatives.
The Public Banking Institute serves as the hub for public banking information, expertise, and resources, supporting advocates in their outreach work. With calls for a global “reset” mounting, PBI is working to facilitate the transformation of our society into one that is truly in the hands of the people. Critical to that transformation is a transparent national public banking system with a mandate to provide access to affordable credit to local governments, small businesses, and residents.
https://publicbankinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PBI_Annual_Report_2021_final_WEB.pdf
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
A Brazilian federal court that has upheld the suspension of an environmental license for what would be the largest open-pit gold mine in the nation’s Amazon rainforest, dealing a blow to the Canada-based company behind the project.
https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-forests-brazil-belo-sun-mining-corp-132865d50e57bb5c50b4a0b7e9d2c80e?emci=dc3eaa77-d9c7-ec11-997e-281878b83d8a&emdi=c5e5a1c0-e4c7-ec11-997e-281878b83d8a&ceid=4288612
A foundation in California that is building into its finances a land tax to the indigenous people on whose original territory it operates.
https://medium.com/justice-funders/from-learning-to-action-a-foundations-journey-to-paying-shuumi-land-tax-f78f738c3880
The government of Quebec’s recent explicit ban on oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups—a first in the world.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/04/14/news/citizens-officially-win-fight-ban-oil-and-gas-development-quebec
An interactive map developed by the Melbourne Urban Forest that provides an email address for each tree, and all the love letters that have been received in response.
http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/
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
That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times
A book of essays from this blog.
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.
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.
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
I realize that it is my mind, my heart—
waking it up
getting it moving
opening it to the possibilities
of a new day.
I have to believe
that this exercise,
without apparent goal,
is worth the time.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Public Banking
A growing awareness of the potential benefits of public banking has sparked grassroots movements across the country in recent years. In 2021, eighteen public banking bills were introduced at state, municipal, and federal levels. Bills were introduced in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, and Washington; at the municipal level in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco; and at the federal level in the House of Representatives.
The Public Banking Institute serves as the hub for public banking information, expertise, and resources, supporting advocates in their outreach work. With calls for a global “reset” mounting, PBI is working to facilitate the transformation of our society into one that is truly in the hands of the people. Critical to that transformation is a transparent national public banking system with a mandate to provide access to affordable credit to local governments, small businesses, and residents.
https://publicbankinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PBI_Annual_Report_2021_final_WEB.pdf
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
A Brazilian federal court that has upheld the suspension of an environmental license for what would be the largest open-pit gold mine in the nation’s Amazon rainforest, dealing a blow to the Canada-based company behind the project.
https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-forests-brazil-belo-sun-mining-corp-132865d50e57bb5c50b4a0b7e9d2c80e?emci=dc3eaa77-d9c7-ec11-997e-281878b83d8a&emdi=c5e5a1c0-e4c7-ec11-997e-281878b83d8a&ceid=4288612
A foundation in California that is building into its finances a land tax to the indigenous people on whose original territory it operates.
https://medium.com/justice-funders/from-learning-to-action-a-foundations-journey-to-paying-shuumi-land-tax-f78f738c3880
The government of Quebec’s recent explicit ban on oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups—a first in the world.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/04/14/news/citizens-officially-win-fight-ban-oil-and-gas-development-quebec
An interactive map developed by the Melbourne Urban Forest that provides an email address for each tree, and all the love letters that have been received in response.
http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/
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/9789768142887A 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
