Dear all,
I’ve been treasuring some stunningly beautiful late spring days, even as we brace for the heat that is on the way. I’m loving my growing garden and ripening fruit, gathering stories from valiant childcare workers for our newsletter, making new friends, feeling well-used in a variety of other ways. Overall, I’m blessed to be moving through days rich with diversity, meaning and connection, finding a balance between the horrors in the news and so much everyday goodness.
As I clarify a goal of expanding my reach as a trusted source of information and perspective I look to you, in my inner ring, for help. (My my age-old habits of going it alone and trying to stay under the radar are just not serving me well here!) I’m hopeful that you may have resources or ideas to offer—people to invite to this column, places to share my writing/thinking, ways to enhance my author FB page, other electronic sharing tools with potential, promising conversation sites. Please take a moment to think if there’s anything you might have to offer. Thank you.
And I share the joy of a full moon whose beauty and steadiness are beyond words.
Love,
Pamela
Blank slate
I’ve been struggling with my approach to the little plot I tend in our community garden. I love it dearly, but worry that it sucks up too much of my time, and that I could be getting a better harvest with less effort if I made better choices or were somehow more efficient. It has more weeds than many of the neighboring plots. Why do I cling to tenaciously to an approach that can be faulted on all fronts? Part of it, of course, is that always having more that could be done in the garden provides a great excuse for taking a break from “important” work, and a pleasurable context for being outdoors. If I suppressed weeds with the latest products and organized my plants into orderly and well-spaced rows, there would be less reason to hang out.
But as I’ve lingered in the garden this early spring, I’ve come to see that it’s more than that. It’s about relationships. I move larkspur, that would take over my whole little plot but has such beautiful flowers, out to the big front flower bed where they can be enjoyed by passersby. I dig up a trowel full of tiny kale plants—from last year’s kale gone to seed—and transplant them to give away to other gardeners. I carefully move little raspberries that are intruding on the area where I want to plant sweet potatoes, finding a place for them back among the other raspberries. I dig an invasive weed out from among the little lettuces that have grown from seeds I had saved last summer and scattered in open spots in February. I dig up ever-spreading black-eyed Susans to pot and give to a group that plants community orchards, complete with native pollinator flowers, across the city.
I love the role I get to play in this rich circle of life. It’s true, I do have some agency. I do want my tomatoes (grown from last year’s seed) to produce. I do want the pleasure of eating all those other tasty veggies. I do pull weeds. But even so, I want to do my part in a vibrant living community that serves all its members.
There may be people who don’t have this luxury in how they grow their food—folks in the community garden whose lives are so stretched that they have only snatches of time for the garden, or small organic farmers who are tending too much land to pay attention to every square foot. But I think the motivation is sound. And as I think about it, this messy relational frame can be applied in other contexts.
Take children, for example. While treating them as the proverbial blank slate has gone out of favor in many circles, setting aside an overall habit of control and entering into their lives with open-ended, relationship-based curiosity is far from the norm.
Where else has our vision been distorted by assumptions around control and blank slates? I think of settlers coming to this continent, seeing a vast wilderness to tame—missing the productive and flourishing indigenous economies that were right before their eyes. I think of those who have engaged in “urban renewal”, razing whole communities to create a fresh palate on which to build their great dreams. I think of the fossil fuel industry which has no use for living ecosystems, but inconvenient parts of the land as obstacles to be flattened and overcome in pursuit of profit. The underlying perspective is that “There’s nothing here of value—nothing to compare with what I can create!” A master’s vision is centered as more productive and fitting.
The alternative of finding one’s place in a living system does sacrifice some efficiency and order—and at times there may be compelling reasons to assume mastering over another life form or community in search of a higher good. But if we can’t see the value of the life that is already there, we may find ourselves creating a monster whose impact over time will come back to haunt us. Valuing relationships, and observing life closely with great curiosity and respect, seem like more trustworthy guides as we chart our way into a future that is always unknown.
Bags
Almost out the door
put one more bag in my pocket
just in case
find another on the street
before I reach the park.
Fill one with the trash
that’s overflowing by the can—
the volunteers are strapped, I know.
Approaching where I clean each day
a man is struggling
with a scooter and torn paper bag
items falling out—
I have the means to help.
The good wishes we exchange—
heartfelt.
I try to pick this trash—my trash
without a bag,
find that I can, head home
a spare in my pocket,
warmth in my heart.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Basic income in Brazil
The seaside city of Maricá in Brazil (population 160,000, is by no means affluent, but compared with other similar cities it has a visibly higher quality of life. One reason is the basic income program initiated by its mayor nine years ago, inspired by his lifelong dream of an egalitarian society.
Low-income residents of Maricá who have lived in the city for at least three years and have signed up for the program currently receive a local social currency of 170 mumbucas a month, roughly comparable to the poverty rate. Accounts in this alternative currency are held by Banco Mumbuca, a city-owned bank. The money can be accessed in the form of a card and managed through the bank’s mobile phone app. The mumbuca is accepted within the city at approximately 3,000 establishments, such as hairdressers, grocers, and pharmacies.
The Maricá local government decided to open the bank to distribute money from royalties from oil sales found in the Santos Basin along the Maricá coastline in 2010, starting with residents living in extreme poverty. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maricá boosted its payments to help reduce the harmful effects of the pandemic on its citizens. At the end of 2021, the bank had 65,367 active accounts, and 2 billion mumbucas circulated in Maricá from 2018 through September 2021. In the past year, other cities within the state have been inspired to create their own community currencies based on the success of this model.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2022/05/26/basic-income-brazil?
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
An Indian court’s ruling that nature has legal status on par with humans, that humans are required to protect it, and government has power to act as a guardian for those who cannot care for themselves.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04052022/india-rights-of-nature/
The landmark collective bargaining agreement for the United States Women’s National Team that creates a blueprint for equity across global sports organizations.
https://inequality.org/great-divide/equal-pay-victory-soccer/
How workers in historically unorganized occupations are forming unions—and breathing new life into the U.S. labor movement.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-labor-movement-amazon-starbucks-union
An update on international appliance safety standards that allows the use of more climate friendly refrigerants in air conditioners and heat pumps which could pull hydrofluorocarbons—global warming agents far more potent than carbon dioxide.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052022/climate-refrigerants-air-conditioning-heat-pumps/
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
Get Down to the Rock; Addressing the Economic Roots of the Climate Emergency
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
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
No comments:
Post a Comment