Dear all,
Looking work with the weather in this current heat wave, I've been getting out to do gardening in the very early morning, and spending more time in our coolest downstairs room under the fan (where I am now as I write).
It's been a pleasure to hang out with my grandchild in the garden, noticing the sure progression of many plants from bud to flower to fruit, and to watch fruits get steadily bigger, learning to wait with patience for them to ripen. While other change activities we engage in may require our more active participation and have less certain outcomes, it's lovely to have and share this sure place where we can soak up goodness and rest in confidence. I wish you the same.
Love,
Pamela
Turning the collar
This was a favorite shirt. When the elbows wore though years ago, I cut them off and transformed it to short sleeves with minimal fuss. (And then I had the pleasure of using the sturdy fabric from the lower arm and cuffs for quilt squares.)
But when the collar began to fray, it wasn’t so simple. If I didn’t do something it would soon be suitable only for wearing around the house. But if I put a patch over that frayed spot, I still couldn’t wear it to work in an office downtown.
Then I remembered the possibility of turning the collar. People used to do it all the time. After all, back then, how could you imagine abandoning a perfectly good shirt if just one side of the collar was showing some wear? Surely I had the skills to pull this off?
Once the idea entered my mind, it took root. I waited impatiently for a time when I could justify turning away from “more important work” to engage in such a luxury. After all, I do have other shirts. I looked at it many times lying there on the worktable between the computer and sewing machine, and itched to see what could be done.
Finally a window opened. I found my scissors with the tiny sharp blades, perfect for cutting thread, and got to work, carefully snipping the collar loose from the rest of the shirt. It wasn’t hard at all. Later I stole a few minutes at the machine to sew it back on the other way, with the frayed part now invisible underneath. I could have left it at that, but the hidden frayed spot on that good shirt called out for better treatment. So I found a bit of bias tape, and once again waited till I could justify taking the time to make a neat little patch.
The mend was now complete. The shirt could be worn to work again without apology. And I was pleased. In fact, I was extremely pleased—more pleased than a simple mend should warrant. I kept looking at it, folding that fine new collar down, running my finger over the unfrayed fold, turning the collar up to see the patch that would be visible to no one but me.
Why such inordinate pleasure? As I sat with this question, it came to me that it has something to do with claiming my connections in space and time. That collar connects me to our ancestors who knew the value of a well-made garment. They turned collars as a matter of course, turned dresses, mended cleverly and invisibly if possible, and neatly if not.
It connects me to our neighbors as well, to those who have less means in the present, and know the value of a good mend. I remember seeing carefully mended dress shirts in Africa, and being touched by the attention that people took to looking neat in the midst of poverty. And some of my most satisfying excursions when visiting our son in Nicaragua have involved shoe repair. More than once I brought down old shoes that would be discarded as worthless in this country. At the market, however, we always found men who saw the value of those shoes and were glad to use their skills to make a sturdy and serviceable mend.
It also connects me to our descendants. The time will arrive when we finally come to our senses and realize that we are living beyond our ecological means, when—willingly or unwillingly—we in the wealthier nations adjust our life-styles to a level that the planet can support. When that time comes, a good shirt will have a value that may be hard to imagine in our present-day orgy of consumption and waste. Looking down that tunnel of time, I can see our descendants turning the collars of their shirts once again—and I will be with them in spirit. I just hope it might give them a fraction of the satisfaction and pleasure that it has given me.
Expressway after a storm
Crawling along
the expressway
in rush hour
with nothing but—
a
rainbow.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Complementary currencies
Curitaba, Brazil was an impoverished city in 1971. But new initiatives by Mayor Jaime Lerner leveraged some of its strengths--access to fresh food and an underutilized bus system--to address pressing urban issues.
Garbage trucks couldn't get into the narrow favela streets, but anyone who deposited a bag full of pre-sorted garbage received a bus token which they wouldn't have had access to previously, or chits exchangeable for fresh fruits and vegetables. Recycled materials at schools were exchanged for notebooks, a boon to many poor children. Many initiatives—environmental cleanup, city restoration, job creation, improved education, disease intervention, hunger prevention—were tackled in this way without having to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, issue bonds, rely on charity or obtain loans from the federal government or organizations such as the World Bank. In the process, the average Curitaban came to earn more than three times the country's minimum wage.
Curitiba discovered a means by which to match unmet needs with unused resources to provide much needed improvements to the local economy, and vastly improve their economic condition. They did so by making use of complementary currencies—monetary initiatives that supplemented the national currency system.
http://www.lietaer.com/2010/09/the-story-of-curitiba-in-brazil/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
A new law in France that requires supermarkets to donate or recycle unused food rather than destroying it.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/french-law-says-supermarkets-must-donate-recycle-food/
The Norwegian parliament's approval of a measure calling for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund—the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with holdings of approximately $890 billion—to begin divesting from companies heavily involved with the mining, transportation, or burning of coal.
www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/05/norway-goes-big-fossil-fuel-divestment-now-whos-next
A village in India that plants 111 trees every time a girl is born.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/a-village-that-plants-111-trees-for-every-girl-born-in-rajasthan/article4606735.ece
Boulder, Colorado’s innovative carbon tax, which levies a tax on energy use and used the proceeds to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_21941854/boulder-issue-2a-carbon-tax-appears-likely-be
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
#143 The Golden Rule
Dear all,
Our two-year-old grandson has learned to say complete sentences that start with the words "I want". He's very clear, passionate, and direct about what he wants--and, despite all the inconvenience and the tears, I would wish that for all of us.
I also wish that we could all get better at noticing the tiny and subtle beauties around us, as well as the striking and obvious ones. I've been trying to take in the amazing process of leaves opening up day by day--it's an endless source of joy if only I can pay close enough attention.
Love,
Pamela
The golden rule
I was busily treating a dear friend the way I would like to be treated. But we were in closer quarters than usual, and I kept getting messages that this was not working. My attempt to calm ruffled feelings was irritating her. How could this be? I was being so diligent in following the Golden Rule of my childhood. Could this rule, one that I had lived by all my life, be wrong?
As I thought about it, I realized that there are at least five possible rules on how to treat other people, with the one I knew best right in the middle.
“Treat others in a way that maximizes your advantage.” Use them. I imagine that few of us aspire to this first rule, though the behavior is not uncommon. I know that I often end up following the second rule: “Treat others in a way that minimizes your disadvantage.” It seems more like an unaware fall-back position. Try not to get them angry or upset, or otherwise set them up to cause you trouble. Protect yourself.
Then there’s the rule of my childhood: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” This rule is a great advance, setting us up to be active, thoughtful and positive in our relations with others. I’m discovering, however, that it has a serious flaw. People have different experiences and preferences. Think of the child who wants to give a parent the gift that he or she would be excited about receiving. Giving what you want for yourself often just doesn’t work. This was what I was running up against with my friend. I like to get my ruffled feathers calmed. I like reassurance. She, on the other hand, would prefer to be joined in her upset. The smoothing makes her feel patronized and unseen.
So we arrive at the next rule: “Treat others the way they indicate they would like to be treated.” This seems pretty advanced. I’m taking myself out of the center and trying to really think about the other person. I have to acknowledge our differences in culture and experience. I have to consider the power dynamic between us, and maybe between our people. This is an exciting possibility, and I stretch toward it with my friend, stepping way outside my comfort zone, and trying out behaviors that are counterintuitive at best, and risk humiliation at worst. Yet things go better! I’m happy to claim this new rule as my own.
Even as I do, I can glimpse another one far out on the horizon: “Treat others in a way that allows them to flourish.” I’m not rushing to get there. I still need plenty of time to practice with the fourth rule. But this one calls for seeing beyond what people say to who they really are and what they really need; it calls for recognizing that their words and attitudes may not tell the whole story. It involves being willing to challenge what they say they want. I’ve done this a few times with small children, putting my arms around a beloved child who has been taken over by distress and saying, "No, I’m not going to let you do that. You may not like it, and I'm glad to listen to you be upset, but I'm just not going to let you do it."
For this to work, we have to by crystal clear about the other person’s goodness. We have to be so solid in the relationship that we can dare steer it into uncharted waters (and humble enough to know when we’re going out of our depth). We have to take complete responsibility for holding onto our own goodness, so we can take the brunt of their upset without getting rocked or hurt.
This is aspirational to be sure—maybe too much so to be called a rule. But who wouldn’t want to build those muscles—in all our relationships? It certainly makes the rule I grew up with seem like just the beginning rather than the end in our journey toward treating others well.
Oak cycle
Through fall
when other leaves turn red and gold
then, knowing that their time is done
gently disengage and float away
oak leaves fade to brown and hold on tight.
Through winter cold when other trees
reveal their splendid bones
in graceful silhouettes against the sky
oaks keep their clumpy ugliness
of rumpled brown.
Even in early spring
when all the world is new
and mists of green are spreading everywhere
those tired old leaves hold tight.
Only when new growth
deep inside the tree
starts to clamor for its turn,
only then do they cede their place
release their hold
and fall.
Branches are bare now
for a short few days
then buds begin to swell
and tiny perfect oak leaf babes
peek out, uncurl,
join the glory of the spring
and start the journey of another year.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Challenging corporate personhood
Over a decade ago, to protect small and family farms from industrial factory farming, a handful of Pennsylvania townships took the unprecedented step of banning corporate farming within their borders. Communities in eight states have followed their lead, banning corporate “fracking” for shale gas, factory farming, sludge dumping, large-scale water withdrawals, and industrial-scale energy projects.
These actions challenge an edifice of corporate legal doctrines – like corporate ‘personhood’ – that has been built over the past century to protect corporate prerogatives. The goal is to reclaim a legal structure that allows for the building of economically and environmentally sustainable communities free from corporate interference.
Recently, a Pennsylvania county court gave this new movement a boost. The judge ruled that corporations cannot elevate their “private rights” above the rights of people. The Pennsylvania Constitution, she declared, only protects the rights of people, not business entities; the article of the state Constitution which reads, “All men are born equally free and independent,” cannot apply to business entities because they were not born at all.
While some state governments are trying to limit these local initiatives, this ruling represents a significant crack in the judicial armor that has been so systematically welded together by major corporations, and affirms that change occurs only when people begin to openly question and challenge such legal doctrines.
http://www.positivenewsus.org/new-civil-rights-movement.html
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The leadership that Pope Francis is taking on climate change.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pope-francis-poised-to-weigh-in-on-climate-change-with-major-document/2015/04/27/d5c268b2-df81-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html
The entry into the US presidential race of Bernie Sanders, bringing a fresh and progressive voice--and one unbeholden to current power holders--into the Democratic primary.
The growth of opposition to the hugely anti-democratic Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which seemed unstoppable just a few months ago (to learn more and take action: http://act.350.org/sign/congress-tpp/)
All the farmers who know, respect, love and care for the land that supports them (and all of us).
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Our two-year-old grandson has learned to say complete sentences that start with the words "I want". He's very clear, passionate, and direct about what he wants--and, despite all the inconvenience and the tears, I would wish that for all of us.
I also wish that we could all get better at noticing the tiny and subtle beauties around us, as well as the striking and obvious ones. I've been trying to take in the amazing process of leaves opening up day by day--it's an endless source of joy if only I can pay close enough attention.
Love,
Pamela
The golden rule
I was busily treating a dear friend the way I would like to be treated. But we were in closer quarters than usual, and I kept getting messages that this was not working. My attempt to calm ruffled feelings was irritating her. How could this be? I was being so diligent in following the Golden Rule of my childhood. Could this rule, one that I had lived by all my life, be wrong?
As I thought about it, I realized that there are at least five possible rules on how to treat other people, with the one I knew best right in the middle.
“Treat others in a way that maximizes your advantage.” Use them. I imagine that few of us aspire to this first rule, though the behavior is not uncommon. I know that I often end up following the second rule: “Treat others in a way that minimizes your disadvantage.” It seems more like an unaware fall-back position. Try not to get them angry or upset, or otherwise set them up to cause you trouble. Protect yourself.
Then there’s the rule of my childhood: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” This rule is a great advance, setting us up to be active, thoughtful and positive in our relations with others. I’m discovering, however, that it has a serious flaw. People have different experiences and preferences. Think of the child who wants to give a parent the gift that he or she would be excited about receiving. Giving what you want for yourself often just doesn’t work. This was what I was running up against with my friend. I like to get my ruffled feathers calmed. I like reassurance. She, on the other hand, would prefer to be joined in her upset. The smoothing makes her feel patronized and unseen.
So we arrive at the next rule: “Treat others the way they indicate they would like to be treated.” This seems pretty advanced. I’m taking myself out of the center and trying to really think about the other person. I have to acknowledge our differences in culture and experience. I have to consider the power dynamic between us, and maybe between our people. This is an exciting possibility, and I stretch toward it with my friend, stepping way outside my comfort zone, and trying out behaviors that are counterintuitive at best, and risk humiliation at worst. Yet things go better! I’m happy to claim this new rule as my own.
Even as I do, I can glimpse another one far out on the horizon: “Treat others in a way that allows them to flourish.” I’m not rushing to get there. I still need plenty of time to practice with the fourth rule. But this one calls for seeing beyond what people say to who they really are and what they really need; it calls for recognizing that their words and attitudes may not tell the whole story. It involves being willing to challenge what they say they want. I’ve done this a few times with small children, putting my arms around a beloved child who has been taken over by distress and saying, "No, I’m not going to let you do that. You may not like it, and I'm glad to listen to you be upset, but I'm just not going to let you do it."
For this to work, we have to by crystal clear about the other person’s goodness. We have to be so solid in the relationship that we can dare steer it into uncharted waters (and humble enough to know when we’re going out of our depth). We have to take complete responsibility for holding onto our own goodness, so we can take the brunt of their upset without getting rocked or hurt.
This is aspirational to be sure—maybe too much so to be called a rule. But who wouldn’t want to build those muscles—in all our relationships? It certainly makes the rule I grew up with seem like just the beginning rather than the end in our journey toward treating others well.
Oak cycle
Through fall
when other leaves turn red and gold
then, knowing that their time is done
gently disengage and float away
oak leaves fade to brown and hold on tight.
Through winter cold when other trees
reveal their splendid bones
in graceful silhouettes against the sky
oaks keep their clumpy ugliness
of rumpled brown.
Even in early spring
when all the world is new
and mists of green are spreading everywhere
those tired old leaves hold tight.
Only when new growth
deep inside the tree
starts to clamor for its turn,
only then do they cede their place
release their hold
and fall.
Branches are bare now
for a short few days
then buds begin to swell
and tiny perfect oak leaf babes
peek out, uncurl,
join the glory of the spring
and start the journey of another year.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Challenging corporate personhood
Over a decade ago, to protect small and family farms from industrial factory farming, a handful of Pennsylvania townships took the unprecedented step of banning corporate farming within their borders. Communities in eight states have followed their lead, banning corporate “fracking” for shale gas, factory farming, sludge dumping, large-scale water withdrawals, and industrial-scale energy projects.
These actions challenge an edifice of corporate legal doctrines – like corporate ‘personhood’ – that has been built over the past century to protect corporate prerogatives. The goal is to reclaim a legal structure that allows for the building of economically and environmentally sustainable communities free from corporate interference.
Recently, a Pennsylvania county court gave this new movement a boost. The judge ruled that corporations cannot elevate their “private rights” above the rights of people. The Pennsylvania Constitution, she declared, only protects the rights of people, not business entities; the article of the state Constitution which reads, “All men are born equally free and independent,” cannot apply to business entities because they were not born at all.
While some state governments are trying to limit these local initiatives, this ruling represents a significant crack in the judicial armor that has been so systematically welded together by major corporations, and affirms that change occurs only when people begin to openly question and challenge such legal doctrines.
http://www.positivenewsus.org/new-civil-rights-movement.html
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The leadership that Pope Francis is taking on climate change.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pope-francis-poised-to-weigh-in-on-climate-change-with-major-document/2015/04/27/d5c268b2-df81-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html
The entry into the US presidential race of Bernie Sanders, bringing a fresh and progressive voice--and one unbeholden to current power holders--into the Democratic primary.
The growth of opposition to the hugely anti-democratic Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which seemed unstoppable just a few months ago (to learn more and take action: http://act.350.org/sign/congress-tpp/)
All the farmers who know, respect, love and care for the land that supports them (and all of us).
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Thursday, April 2, 2015
#142 Is life sacred?
Dear all,
I can't express how excited I am to be witnessing the early signs of spring. And what with the garden calling, and our son Tim and his partner and toddler back from Nicaragua and staying in our house, it's hard to remember to pay attention to the rest of my life!
I'm also excited about the possibilities of doing scary things together. What could be more human than banding together to try things that test our skills and courage? I'd just love to see that energy directed toward the really big and real challenges in our world, rather than made-up ones. On that note, what I'm trying in this essay seems a little scarier than usual--but I'm on the lookout for other things as well, and other people to do them with. I wish you the same!
Love,
Pamela
Is life sacred?
One of our proudest accomplishments as an advanced technological society is our ever-advancing ability to save human lives. When an individual life is at stake, especially in a medical situation, our willingness and our capacity to harness enormous resource to save that life is incredible. There is much here to value. Yet some distortions have crept into our attitude about life that have disturbing consequences in the long term.
As a species, we are under a delusion that we’ve broken free of the web that constrained all life before us. We think we have changed the rules of the game, with a powerful new card that we can play forever. In reality, what has enabled us to get to this point of technological and biomedical sophistication has been the ability to link advances in human knowledge with the abundant energy of fossil fuels. Our distant plant relatives, millions of years ago, were unknowingly creating with their dead bodies a legacy for the future, and our species discovered the buried treasure.
It was this legacy that has allowed us the luxury to take on our current attitudes. We have the knowledge and technological capacity to save damaged human lives and prolong fragile and old ones beyond what those who came before could dream of. In the process, we have come to see death as a defeat, as the ultimate affront in our quest to master our environment. With such an attitude, life becomes a test: the longer we can prolong it, the greater our success.
It seems critical to acknowledge that such assumptions about life are supported by this one-time legacy, and that our free turns are running out. Among our best gifts to the future may be a sturdier and more lasting vision of what is sacred about life, less fragility in the face of loss, and more willingness to ascribe sacredness to other life forms.
Families who have undergone terrible losses and found their way forward to a place of resilience can be models for a new normal. Their strength and courage are our birthright. They have learned something that our overall culture is desperately in need of: beloved life is lost, and we have the capacity to come out stronger for it. Death is not a defeat. Loss is something than can enrich the whole if we’re willing to love all out, and face the suffering head on. Rather than being dependent on—or feeling entitled to—outside forces to fix or avoid hard things, we need to build up the courage to face them.
What if the frontiers of our evolution lie not in technical advances to prolong fragile human lives more successfully, but in better maintaining the health of the whole biosphere, in claiming all life as sacred? And if all life is sacred, then death is part of what makes it possible. I think of the ancient trees that fall and nurture life on the forest floor. I think of how we human beings are all made of recycled materials, all part of that same miraculous whole.
I believe there will have to come a time when we are more willing to let an individual human life go. What this means for decisions about prolonging any one life I can’t see clearly, but I would rather start having these hard conversations than pretend they’ll never have to happen. Otherwise, it will continue to be the poor and the powerless—both human and non-human—whose lives become expendable by default.
With a shift away from a single-minded goal of prolonging human lives, we may find our concept of the sacred both expanded out to include the whole web of life and honed in to those moments when we are most fully alive. After all, what could be more sacred than the opportunity to connect, the opportunity to love and be loved, the opportunity to serve, the opportunity to appreciate the joys of life while we are here?
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Rolling Jubilee and Strike Debt
Strike Debt was launched on the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s eviction from Zuccotti Park—with a fundraising effort for a new Rolling Jubilee. Through accumulated donations of $700,000, they have now cancelled almost $32 million in debt. Starting with medical debt, they moved on to student debt, using $100,000 to buy $4 million in privately-owned debt owed by more than 2,700 Everest College students. Purchasing this debt from secondary markets for pennies on the dollar—just the way collection agencies do—they then simply canceled it.
Moving on from Rolling Jubilee, Strike Debt’s latest project is the Debt Collective, which aims to build collective power in the face of personal debt. As we learn where our money goes, who is profiting from those payments, and who stands to lose when we don’t pay, we can work together to renegotiate our payments or even demand the cancellation of illegitimate debts.
http://rollingjubilee.org/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
Prince Charles of England, whose recent speech in Kentucky raised penetrating questions about the economic and philosophical assumptions that have brought human civilization to our current showdown with the earth. http://wfpl.org/transcript-prince-charles-speech-louisville/
The capacity of cities to demonstrate pragmatism and lead the way in solving critical social problems, i.e., with immigration IDs, and increases in the minimum wage.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/cities-are-now/look-to-the-cities-tackling-our-biggest-problems
Rajendra Singh, who has been working to reestablish traditional water catchment systems in an arid state of northwestern India, and has brought an eco-system—and whole villages with it—back to life. http://tarunbharatsangh.in/dark-zone-to-flow/
How my decision to say hello to everyone I sit next to on the trolley—and be open to more—has challenged my perception of myself, and opened up new connections and possibilities.
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
I can't express how excited I am to be witnessing the early signs of spring. And what with the garden calling, and our son Tim and his partner and toddler back from Nicaragua and staying in our house, it's hard to remember to pay attention to the rest of my life!
I'm also excited about the possibilities of doing scary things together. What could be more human than banding together to try things that test our skills and courage? I'd just love to see that energy directed toward the really big and real challenges in our world, rather than made-up ones. On that note, what I'm trying in this essay seems a little scarier than usual--but I'm on the lookout for other things as well, and other people to do them with. I wish you the same!
Love,
Pamela
Is life sacred?
One of our proudest accomplishments as an advanced technological society is our ever-advancing ability to save human lives. When an individual life is at stake, especially in a medical situation, our willingness and our capacity to harness enormous resource to save that life is incredible. There is much here to value. Yet some distortions have crept into our attitude about life that have disturbing consequences in the long term.
As a species, we are under a delusion that we’ve broken free of the web that constrained all life before us. We think we have changed the rules of the game, with a powerful new card that we can play forever. In reality, what has enabled us to get to this point of technological and biomedical sophistication has been the ability to link advances in human knowledge with the abundant energy of fossil fuels. Our distant plant relatives, millions of years ago, were unknowingly creating with their dead bodies a legacy for the future, and our species discovered the buried treasure.
It was this legacy that has allowed us the luxury to take on our current attitudes. We have the knowledge and technological capacity to save damaged human lives and prolong fragile and old ones beyond what those who came before could dream of. In the process, we have come to see death as a defeat, as the ultimate affront in our quest to master our environment. With such an attitude, life becomes a test: the longer we can prolong it, the greater our success.
It seems critical to acknowledge that such assumptions about life are supported by this one-time legacy, and that our free turns are running out. Among our best gifts to the future may be a sturdier and more lasting vision of what is sacred about life, less fragility in the face of loss, and more willingness to ascribe sacredness to other life forms.
Families who have undergone terrible losses and found their way forward to a place of resilience can be models for a new normal. Their strength and courage are our birthright. They have learned something that our overall culture is desperately in need of: beloved life is lost, and we have the capacity to come out stronger for it. Death is not a defeat. Loss is something than can enrich the whole if we’re willing to love all out, and face the suffering head on. Rather than being dependent on—or feeling entitled to—outside forces to fix or avoid hard things, we need to build up the courage to face them.
What if the frontiers of our evolution lie not in technical advances to prolong fragile human lives more successfully, but in better maintaining the health of the whole biosphere, in claiming all life as sacred? And if all life is sacred, then death is part of what makes it possible. I think of the ancient trees that fall and nurture life on the forest floor. I think of how we human beings are all made of recycled materials, all part of that same miraculous whole.
I believe there will have to come a time when we are more willing to let an individual human life go. What this means for decisions about prolonging any one life I can’t see clearly, but I would rather start having these hard conversations than pretend they’ll never have to happen. Otherwise, it will continue to be the poor and the powerless—both human and non-human—whose lives become expendable by default.
With a shift away from a single-minded goal of prolonging human lives, we may find our concept of the sacred both expanded out to include the whole web of life and honed in to those moments when we are most fully alive. After all, what could be more sacred than the opportunity to connect, the opportunity to love and be loved, the opportunity to serve, the opportunity to appreciate the joys of life while we are here?
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Rolling Jubilee and Strike Debt
Strike Debt was launched on the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s eviction from Zuccotti Park—with a fundraising effort for a new Rolling Jubilee. Through accumulated donations of $700,000, they have now cancelled almost $32 million in debt. Starting with medical debt, they moved on to student debt, using $100,000 to buy $4 million in privately-owned debt owed by more than 2,700 Everest College students. Purchasing this debt from secondary markets for pennies on the dollar—just the way collection agencies do—they then simply canceled it.
Moving on from Rolling Jubilee, Strike Debt’s latest project is the Debt Collective, which aims to build collective power in the face of personal debt. As we learn where our money goes, who is profiting from those payments, and who stands to lose when we don’t pay, we can work together to renegotiate our payments or even demand the cancellation of illegitimate debts.
http://rollingjubilee.org/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
Prince Charles of England, whose recent speech in Kentucky raised penetrating questions about the economic and philosophical assumptions that have brought human civilization to our current showdown with the earth. http://wfpl.org/transcript-prince-charles-speech-louisville/
The capacity of cities to demonstrate pragmatism and lead the way in solving critical social problems, i.e., with immigration IDs, and increases in the minimum wage.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/cities-are-now/look-to-the-cities-tackling-our-biggest-problems
Rajendra Singh, who has been working to reestablish traditional water catchment systems in an arid state of northwestern India, and has brought an eco-system—and whole villages with it—back to life. http://tarunbharatsangh.in/dark-zone-to-flow/
How my decision to say hello to everyone I sit next to on the trolley—and be open to more—has challenged my perception of myself, and opened up new connections and possibilities.
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Monday, March 9, 2015
#141 Pioneers
Dear loved ones.
In reflecting on the past month, I have three offerings. First, I'm proud to have contributed my editing skills to a new booklet, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow, by my friend Daniel Hunter. Check it out at Amazon. Second, I'm excited about how an understanding of the connections between racism, justice and environmental threats seems to be exploding these days. Finally, I've been noticing how scarcity holds the seeds of thankfulness: a bad cold has made me more than usually appreciative of returning health; bitter weather makes above freezing temperatures seem downright balmy; having family far away makes every contact more sweet. I wish you all healthy doses of scarcity and thankfulness.
Love,
Pamela
Pioneers
I’ve always struggled when the conversation turned to ethnic identity. My family has been in this country so long that it’s hard to name anything outside of some generic connection to the British Isles. I remember the surprise of visiting my husband’s Pennsylvania Dutch relatives and discovering that they, and the whole community around them, had distinctive foods, expressions, art forms, and customs—something that seemed totally lacking in mine.
I’ve had a similar struggle around reclaiming language. I love language, and would love to reclaim one but, so far as I know, my family has always spoken English. Yet there’s a big idea here that resonates with me: in order to think well about people from other countries, and about the larger environment, it helps to have some emotional connection to “home” and “people” ourselves.
I had the opportunity in a small group recently to explore this issue of claiming our people. My grandparents grow up on dirt farms in the Midwest, and I’ve always felt a connection with the pioneers. I particularly love pioneer women, with all their strength, resilience, creativity, versatility and capacity to work hard. My grandmother is the one I knew who was closest to that experience.
I thought of the loom that my great uncle built for her, that she used for making rag rugs. I remember how she taught us as children to weave those rugs, using long balls of rag strips and working the simple but serviceable loom that my great uncle had figured out how to make. What a great lesson in competence, thrift and agency! What a heritage to treasure!
As I thought of my great-grandparents settling in Kansas and Oklahoma, suddenly, and for the first time, I made the connection with my history lessons. I remembered the image of covered wagons lining up on the Oklahoma border, ready to stake a claim to the newly-available Indian land. These good people, my people, were taking land that was available because the Indians were being removed.
The earliest story that’s told of my family, probably from the mid-1800’s, is of a premature baby who was bundled into a feather comforter and put in the wagon heading west and, amazingly, survived. It’s a story of resilience. So now I’m thinking, they were living in Ohio or Indiana, which used to be where Indians lived, and they’re heading west, to another place where Indians lived.
In an effort earlier this fall to try to breathe some life into who my people were, I found a book in the library of letters from a Quaker woman who moved from Maryland to eastern Ohio in the 1820’s. She talks about how hard her husband worked grubbing stumps out of the earth, so they could plant their crops. And now I’m thinking, those were the eastern woodlands that some group of Indians loved and called home.
It grieves my heart. While they may never have personally killed Indians, there they were, right in the middle of a genocidal movement across the country. I can’t give up on the goodness of my people. Those qualities that I have cherished, and that were significant in shaping who I am—strength, resilience, love of good work, an ability to put hand and mind together to create something new, an appreciation for the gifts of the land—can still be cherished. But the story of my people, working to create good lives as they moved west, cannot be separated from the unbearable losses suffered by the natives of this land as a result of that movement. Somehow I have to hold them both.
I’ve known for a long time that we need to do a better job of coming to terms with our nation’s history of genocide, but it’s been a theoretical understanding. Now, as I reach to claim my people more fully, suddenly it has become real.
The knock
My eye was caught
by the women’s stillness.
Why would she just stand there
in our little city park
gazing up
in the bitter cold?
I passed
and then my ear picked up
the hollow knocking
of a woodpecker.
I turned back to join her
looking up
into the tall tall trees.
We never saw that woodpecker
but together
we were witnesses
to life abundant
in a city park
in winter.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Anchors and coops
An "anchor institution" is a large non-profit institution, classically a university or hospital, that is bound by place--unlike a corporation which has a lot of resources, but can easily move. Anchor institutions have more job creation potential and stability than most corporations, which local governments are always trying to lure away from their neighbors with sweeter tax deals. Supporting the community economy can come to be seen as a basic part of being such an institution.
In Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood—which is a poor, mostly black neighborhood with high unemployment and an average income of about $20,000—there now exists a complex of worker-owned and environmentally conscious companies called the Evergreen Cooperatives. The greenhouse, the laundry and the solar installation company employ over 80 community members, and all serve the three anchor institutions in the neighborhood—two major hospitals and a university. Those anchor institutions, which together purchase about $3 billion in goods and services a year, did their purchasing until recently almost entirely outside the community.
http://www.garalperovitz.com/2014/06/cooperative-economy-conversation-gar-alperovitz/ http://evergreencooperatives.com/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
President Obama's veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Also the victory of a local group, Earth Quaker Action Team, in their five-year campaign to get PNC Bank to stop investing in Appalachian mountaintop removal. http://www.eqat.org/
Chile's decision, following three years of nationwide student protests, to make college tuition-free and to prohibit for-profit school from receiving public funds.
http://www.attn.com/stories/836/chile-makes-college-tuition-free?utm_source=social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=usu
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission's vote to classify the Internet in such a way that it can be regulated like a public utility with protection for all users (Net Neutrality), despite extreme opposition from the wealthy telecom industry, but with enormous grassroots support.
The word that Norway's sovereign wealth fund -- at $850 billion, the world's largest -- is divesting from coal and tar sands companies on climate grounds. 350.org
The expansion to Nigeria of an enormously effective Quaker-based grassroots peace-building effort in East Africa, in cooperation with Brethren and Mennonites. http://aglifpt.org/rfk/?p=440
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
In reflecting on the past month, I have three offerings. First, I'm proud to have contributed my editing skills to a new booklet, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow, by my friend Daniel Hunter. Check it out at Amazon. Second, I'm excited about how an understanding of the connections between racism, justice and environmental threats seems to be exploding these days. Finally, I've been noticing how scarcity holds the seeds of thankfulness: a bad cold has made me more than usually appreciative of returning health; bitter weather makes above freezing temperatures seem downright balmy; having family far away makes every contact more sweet. I wish you all healthy doses of scarcity and thankfulness.
Love,
Pamela
Pioneers
I’ve always struggled when the conversation turned to ethnic identity. My family has been in this country so long that it’s hard to name anything outside of some generic connection to the British Isles. I remember the surprise of visiting my husband’s Pennsylvania Dutch relatives and discovering that they, and the whole community around them, had distinctive foods, expressions, art forms, and customs—something that seemed totally lacking in mine.
I’ve had a similar struggle around reclaiming language. I love language, and would love to reclaim one but, so far as I know, my family has always spoken English. Yet there’s a big idea here that resonates with me: in order to think well about people from other countries, and about the larger environment, it helps to have some emotional connection to “home” and “people” ourselves.
I had the opportunity in a small group recently to explore this issue of claiming our people. My grandparents grow up on dirt farms in the Midwest, and I’ve always felt a connection with the pioneers. I particularly love pioneer women, with all their strength, resilience, creativity, versatility and capacity to work hard. My grandmother is the one I knew who was closest to that experience.
I thought of the loom that my great uncle built for her, that she used for making rag rugs. I remember how she taught us as children to weave those rugs, using long balls of rag strips and working the simple but serviceable loom that my great uncle had figured out how to make. What a great lesson in competence, thrift and agency! What a heritage to treasure!
As I thought of my great-grandparents settling in Kansas and Oklahoma, suddenly, and for the first time, I made the connection with my history lessons. I remembered the image of covered wagons lining up on the Oklahoma border, ready to stake a claim to the newly-available Indian land. These good people, my people, were taking land that was available because the Indians were being removed.
The earliest story that’s told of my family, probably from the mid-1800’s, is of a premature baby who was bundled into a feather comforter and put in the wagon heading west and, amazingly, survived. It’s a story of resilience. So now I’m thinking, they were living in Ohio or Indiana, which used to be where Indians lived, and they’re heading west, to another place where Indians lived.
In an effort earlier this fall to try to breathe some life into who my people were, I found a book in the library of letters from a Quaker woman who moved from Maryland to eastern Ohio in the 1820’s. She talks about how hard her husband worked grubbing stumps out of the earth, so they could plant their crops. And now I’m thinking, those were the eastern woodlands that some group of Indians loved and called home.
It grieves my heart. While they may never have personally killed Indians, there they were, right in the middle of a genocidal movement across the country. I can’t give up on the goodness of my people. Those qualities that I have cherished, and that were significant in shaping who I am—strength, resilience, love of good work, an ability to put hand and mind together to create something new, an appreciation for the gifts of the land—can still be cherished. But the story of my people, working to create good lives as they moved west, cannot be separated from the unbearable losses suffered by the natives of this land as a result of that movement. Somehow I have to hold them both.
I’ve known for a long time that we need to do a better job of coming to terms with our nation’s history of genocide, but it’s been a theoretical understanding. Now, as I reach to claim my people more fully, suddenly it has become real.
The knock
My eye was caught
by the women’s stillness.
Why would she just stand there
in our little city park
gazing up
in the bitter cold?
I passed
and then my ear picked up
the hollow knocking
of a woodpecker.
I turned back to join her
looking up
into the tall tall trees.
We never saw that woodpecker
but together
we were witnesses
to life abundant
in a city park
in winter.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Anchors and coops
An "anchor institution" is a large non-profit institution, classically a university or hospital, that is bound by place--unlike a corporation which has a lot of resources, but can easily move. Anchor institutions have more job creation potential and stability than most corporations, which local governments are always trying to lure away from their neighbors with sweeter tax deals. Supporting the community economy can come to be seen as a basic part of being such an institution.
In Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood—which is a poor, mostly black neighborhood with high unemployment and an average income of about $20,000—there now exists a complex of worker-owned and environmentally conscious companies called the Evergreen Cooperatives. The greenhouse, the laundry and the solar installation company employ over 80 community members, and all serve the three anchor institutions in the neighborhood—two major hospitals and a university. Those anchor institutions, which together purchase about $3 billion in goods and services a year, did their purchasing until recently almost entirely outside the community.
http://www.garalperovitz.com/2014/06/cooperative-economy-conversation-gar-alperovitz/ http://evergreencooperatives.com/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
President Obama's veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Also the victory of a local group, Earth Quaker Action Team, in their five-year campaign to get PNC Bank to stop investing in Appalachian mountaintop removal. http://www.eqat.org/
Chile's decision, following three years of nationwide student protests, to make college tuition-free and to prohibit for-profit school from receiving public funds.
http://www.attn.com/stories/836/chile-makes-college-tuition-free?utm_source=social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=usu
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission's vote to classify the Internet in such a way that it can be regulated like a public utility with protection for all users (Net Neutrality), despite extreme opposition from the wealthy telecom industry, but with enormous grassroots support.
The word that Norway's sovereign wealth fund -- at $850 billion, the world's largest -- is divesting from coal and tar sands companies on climate grounds. 350.org
The expansion to Nigeria of an enormously effective Quaker-based grassroots peace-building effort in East Africa, in cooperation with Brethren and Mennonites. http://aglifpt.org/rfk/?p=440
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, February 1, 2015
#140 Love and mastery
Dear all,
We are freshly home from a rich ten days with our son Tim and his family in Nicaragua, thankful, as always, for the role of loved ones in helping us find our way more deeply into the hearts of local communities than we could ever do on our own. Coming home to cold and wealth, it was the wealth that was harder to adjust to.
It took me hardly any time this month to think of four things that made me hopeful. In the face of challenges that seem overwhelming, change may be afoot in this world.
Love,
Pamela
Love and mastery
The conversation had turned to trauma and healing, and a pastor of an urban church was asked how he approached the perpetrators of trauma. “That’s a hard one”, he said, and he paused. “I just try to love them, right where they’re at.” He took a deep breath and leaned back. “Just love them, love them, love them, love them.” He paused again. “I can’t heal them. God is the one who does the healing. But if I can do my part, and love them just the way they are, then maybe they will be more open to God’s healing work.”
On the way home, my friend, another pastor who knew this man, said, “You know, that’s really what he does. His theology is pretty conservative. He has a struggle with my work of welcoming GLBTQ folks. But he keeps reaching out in love.”
As I soaked up the simplicity of the model this man had offered, my thoughts turned to mastery. I can’t imagine many other career helpers responding with such humility. How many more would have jumped right in and explained their particular methodology or fix? How did we come to be so committed to—and seduced by—the vision of mastery?
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising. We seem to have a built-in drive toward mastery when we are born—to master mobility, to master language and communication, to master an understanding of our environment, and then to bend that environment to our will to the extent that we can.
Yet we have ended up with delusions of grandeur. With all the expanded knowledge of the scientific revolution, and all the added power of the industrial revolution, we’ve come to believe that we can bend the most complex systems to our will, that we can gain mastery over anything. The things we are able to do are incredible—and scary. The misjudgments we have made as a species on the basis of an assumption of mastery are coming back to haunt us more and more.
Perhaps our ultimate challenge is to understand what is not ours to master, and where our role may be to simply build our connections and our love. I think of our children and what they most need from us. I think of our earth and what will allow it to flourish. I think of those around us who do things beyond our understanding and how they might heal. I think of this good man taking a deep breath, leaning back, and deciding just to love.
Breadcrumbs
Almost home from the park
recycling our holiday greens
I met a pair with a Christmas tree
told them where the pile was growing
then, looking down
saw a tiny pinecone.
Our branches had been festooned
with ones just such as this.
I could see another a little way beyond
and then another.
I followed the pinecones
as they led me surely, surely
to the steps of a house—
our house—
covered in a generous layer
of needles and pinecones.
It was a sure sign
I had found my way home.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
Fair Food
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has pressured Florida’s tomato growers, through enlisting the might of major restaurant chains and retailers, to increase wages for their 30,000 workers, and to follow strict standards that mandate rest breaks and forbid sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
The Coalition started with a four-year boycott of Taco Bell, which agreed in 2005 to pay an extra penny a pound for tomatoes to help increase workers’ wages. Through their expanded Fair Food Program, the big companies have pledged to buy only from growers who follow the new standards, paying them an extra penny a pound, which goes to the pickers, and to drop any suppliers that violate the standards. Since the program’s inception, its system of inspections and decisions issued by a former judge has resulted in suspensions for several growers, including one that failed to adopt a payroll system to ensure pickers were paid for all the time they worked.
“When I first visited Immokalee, I heard appalling stories of abuse and modern slavery,” said Susan L. Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School, a public policy institution in Santa Monica, Calif. “But now the tomato fields in Immokalee are probably the best working environment in American agriculture.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/business/in-florida-tomato-fields-a-penny-buys-progress.html?_r=0
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
A Nicaraguan fisherman who knows and loves the mangrove swamp ecosystem that supports his livelihood.
The election in Greece that successfully harnessed a popular desire for the government to serve the welfare of the people rather than the interests of financial institutions.
An initiative near Albany, New York that combines black farmers, teen restitution, prison visiting and healthy foods.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/radical-farmers-use-fresh-food-fight-racial-injustice-black-lives-matter
The continued growth of the fossil fuel divestment campaign, with around 200 institutions globally, with a combined asset size of well over $50 billion, having now committed to divest. http://gofossilfree.org/media/, and http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
We are freshly home from a rich ten days with our son Tim and his family in Nicaragua, thankful, as always, for the role of loved ones in helping us find our way more deeply into the hearts of local communities than we could ever do on our own. Coming home to cold and wealth, it was the wealth that was harder to adjust to.
It took me hardly any time this month to think of four things that made me hopeful. In the face of challenges that seem overwhelming, change may be afoot in this world.
Love,
Pamela
Love and mastery
The conversation had turned to trauma and healing, and a pastor of an urban church was asked how he approached the perpetrators of trauma. “That’s a hard one”, he said, and he paused. “I just try to love them, right where they’re at.” He took a deep breath and leaned back. “Just love them, love them, love them, love them.” He paused again. “I can’t heal them. God is the one who does the healing. But if I can do my part, and love them just the way they are, then maybe they will be more open to God’s healing work.”
On the way home, my friend, another pastor who knew this man, said, “You know, that’s really what he does. His theology is pretty conservative. He has a struggle with my work of welcoming GLBTQ folks. But he keeps reaching out in love.”
As I soaked up the simplicity of the model this man had offered, my thoughts turned to mastery. I can’t imagine many other career helpers responding with such humility. How many more would have jumped right in and explained their particular methodology or fix? How did we come to be so committed to—and seduced by—the vision of mastery?
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising. We seem to have a built-in drive toward mastery when we are born—to master mobility, to master language and communication, to master an understanding of our environment, and then to bend that environment to our will to the extent that we can.
Yet we have ended up with delusions of grandeur. With all the expanded knowledge of the scientific revolution, and all the added power of the industrial revolution, we’ve come to believe that we can bend the most complex systems to our will, that we can gain mastery over anything. The things we are able to do are incredible—and scary. The misjudgments we have made as a species on the basis of an assumption of mastery are coming back to haunt us more and more.
Perhaps our ultimate challenge is to understand what is not ours to master, and where our role may be to simply build our connections and our love. I think of our children and what they most need from us. I think of our earth and what will allow it to flourish. I think of those around us who do things beyond our understanding and how they might heal. I think of this good man taking a deep breath, leaning back, and deciding just to love.
Breadcrumbs
Almost home from the park
recycling our holiday greens
I met a pair with a Christmas tree
told them where the pile was growing
then, looking down
saw a tiny pinecone.
Our branches had been festooned
with ones just such as this.
I could see another a little way beyond
and then another.
I followed the pinecones
as they led me surely, surely
to the steps of a house—
our house—
covered in a generous layer
of needles and pinecones.
It was a sure sign
I had found my way home.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
Fair Food
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has pressured Florida’s tomato growers, through enlisting the might of major restaurant chains and retailers, to increase wages for their 30,000 workers, and to follow strict standards that mandate rest breaks and forbid sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
The Coalition started with a four-year boycott of Taco Bell, which agreed in 2005 to pay an extra penny a pound for tomatoes to help increase workers’ wages. Through their expanded Fair Food Program, the big companies have pledged to buy only from growers who follow the new standards, paying them an extra penny a pound, which goes to the pickers, and to drop any suppliers that violate the standards. Since the program’s inception, its system of inspections and decisions issued by a former judge has resulted in suspensions for several growers, including one that failed to adopt a payroll system to ensure pickers were paid for all the time they worked.
“When I first visited Immokalee, I heard appalling stories of abuse and modern slavery,” said Susan L. Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School, a public policy institution in Santa Monica, Calif. “But now the tomato fields in Immokalee are probably the best working environment in American agriculture.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/business/in-florida-tomato-fields-a-penny-buys-progress.html?_r=0
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
A Nicaraguan fisherman who knows and loves the mangrove swamp ecosystem that supports his livelihood.
The election in Greece that successfully harnessed a popular desire for the government to serve the welfare of the people rather than the interests of financial institutions.
An initiative near Albany, New York that combines black farmers, teen restitution, prison visiting and healthy foods.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/radical-farmers-use-fresh-food-fight-racial-injustice-black-lives-matter
The continued growth of the fossil fuel divestment campaign, with around 200 institutions globally, with a combined asset size of well over $50 billion, having now committed to divest. http://gofossilfree.org/media/, and http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, January 4, 2015
#139 Carrying our load
Dear all,
One of my highlights of this past month was living with an almost-two-year-old whose language growth is exploding--in both English and Spanish! Watching how totally relaxed and unworried he was about learning and communicating in two languages simultaneously was an amazing reminder of how we're hard-wired from the beginning to learn and enjoy learning, and how our smallest children are reminders to us of what is possible.
In the Resources section below, there is a link to a new blog post, and a new URL for my parenting website, Our Children Ourselves. Enjoy!
Love,
Pamela
Carrying our load
Living in this world, it’s easy to feel overburdened. There’s so much to be done. How do we find our way amid all the temptations to blame, take on too much, and avoid things that seem just too hard?
I’ve come to the conclusion that blame is a pretty useless concept. Putting attention on what should have been done in the past just doesn’t encourage powerful thinking about the present and the future. If unmet responsibilities continue to impact our lives, then there is a whole spectrum of options for moving forward: live with it, offer a direct challenge, take on a project of changing the conditions for the future, work on opening the space for apologies and/or reparation, gather help to make the change, do it ourselves.
That said, it’s hard to discern what is fine to carry on my shoulders, and what is unrealistic, or unfair, or too much, or just not my responsibility. Recently, after completing years of hard work in a leadership position in a group, everyone just assumed that I would pick up leadership in another place that had need—because they knew I was capable. It made me mad. After several months of stubborn resistance, I realized that I actually had a vision for how to accomplish that piece of work, very different from how it had been done in the past. Seeing that I could give a gift that had value to me, I offered to take leadership if the group would join in my vision—which they did. Having found a way to freely choose that responsibility, from a position of power, my whole attitude about the work involved was transformed.
There’s a lesson here about choice, about taking off of our shoulders the responsibilities that don’t belong there (put on us by others when we were young, or assumed because there seemed to be no other option), and taking on what we choose in the present, based on our best thinking, our abilities, our love, and our vision for the future.
Then there are situations where we find ourselves with too much on our shoulders in the present and no way to refuse to handle it—the result of forces totally outside our control. In these situations, the big lesson for me is about getting help (a key missing ingredient when I was young). I would guess that one of the biggest difficulties many of us have with taking on responsibility is in imagining the possibility of getting the help we need.
I’ve recently realized that my feelings from childhood of being totally alone with tasks that seem too hard can get me into trouble. At times I feel so overwhelmed by a challenging demand that I try to avoid it altogether—like not even opening a letter from some intimidating bureaucracy. I’m trying to remember now, as soon as I recognize that familiar sinking feeling, to reach out and break the isolation, then do what needs to be done.
Maybe we all need to check what we’re carrying, dump out some of that heavy weight that doesn’t belong to us (like trying to make our parents happy), and pick up some of the pieces that lie waiting to be done. If we can remember that we have the power to make adult choices and get help in the present, everything looks more possible. I do believe that we all can find our way to carrying our piece of the world’s responsibility gladly, and without chafing at the load.
Look-alike
Airport run for my sweetie:
Not yet out of the neighborhood
someone walking toward me
a block away
catches my eye.
Something is so familiar
in the way he moves.
There’s time to wonder
Had I mistaken the time?
Did he tire of waiting, find a ride in?
As I approach
I see a man of quite a different age
and color.
I pass on reassured
by the mistake I didn’t make, about the time—
and the one I did.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Artisanal Energy
In just a dozen years, industrial-powerhouse Germany has replaced around 31 percent of its nuclear and fossil fuel generated electricity with a dynamic, decentralized patchwork of more than two million small and medium-scale renewables producers — businesses, villages and towns, co-ops, individuals, green investment funds, and farmers — whose numbers grow by the month. Their output is distributed through a tightly-knit smart grid. The composition of supply changes from minute to minute depending on weather, demand, and other factors from one corner of the country to the other.
The evolution began in 1998, when the EU mandated the liberalization of Europe’s energy markets. Forced to unbundle production and distribution, the four dominant utilities relinquished control of the grid, and opened the market to a wave of new entrants. Then German legislation in 2000 guaranteed renewables a fixed, higher-than-market price for 20 years, and stipulated that grid operators buy green energy from producers as small as a Bavarian dairy farmer with a PV panel on his cow shed. With the phase-out of Germany’s nuclear reactors, it is (dirty) coal--and not (cleaner) natural gas--that has helped renewables cover supply.
Though a master plan never existed, this plan is working, Germany has one of the lowest rates of blackouts in the world, and is exporting more electricity than ever before. Thinking small might have cracked the renewable energy puzzle.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/31/germanys-revolution-in-small-batch-artisanal-energy/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The support by Catholic Relief Services in the Central African Republic of a two-year program of Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, a dynamic grassroots peacebuilding effort that has brought together perpetrators and victims in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Kenya—with transformative results. aglifpt.org/rfk/?p=406
Governor Cuomo’s announcement on December 17, of a ban on fracking in New York State.
A new collaborative venture, Fresh Start Foods West Philadelphia, which will provide fresh and healthy prepared meals for local schools while offering culinary apprenticeship jobs that provide living wages with benefits to out-of-work young adults. http://phennd.org/update/fresh-start-foods-west-philadelphia/
The Netherlands has joined Tasmania, Mexico and Russia in saying no to Monsanto and banning herbicides like RoundUp. http://inhabitat.com/the-netherlands-says-no-to-monsanto-bans-roundup-herbicide/
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
One of my highlights of this past month was living with an almost-two-year-old whose language growth is exploding--in both English and Spanish! Watching how totally relaxed and unworried he was about learning and communicating in two languages simultaneously was an amazing reminder of how we're hard-wired from the beginning to learn and enjoy learning, and how our smallest children are reminders to us of what is possible.
In the Resources section below, there is a link to a new blog post, and a new URL for my parenting website, Our Children Ourselves. Enjoy!
Love,
Pamela
Carrying our load
Living in this world, it’s easy to feel overburdened. There’s so much to be done. How do we find our way amid all the temptations to blame, take on too much, and avoid things that seem just too hard?
I’ve come to the conclusion that blame is a pretty useless concept. Putting attention on what should have been done in the past just doesn’t encourage powerful thinking about the present and the future. If unmet responsibilities continue to impact our lives, then there is a whole spectrum of options for moving forward: live with it, offer a direct challenge, take on a project of changing the conditions for the future, work on opening the space for apologies and/or reparation, gather help to make the change, do it ourselves.
That said, it’s hard to discern what is fine to carry on my shoulders, and what is unrealistic, or unfair, or too much, or just not my responsibility. Recently, after completing years of hard work in a leadership position in a group, everyone just assumed that I would pick up leadership in another place that had need—because they knew I was capable. It made me mad. After several months of stubborn resistance, I realized that I actually had a vision for how to accomplish that piece of work, very different from how it had been done in the past. Seeing that I could give a gift that had value to me, I offered to take leadership if the group would join in my vision—which they did. Having found a way to freely choose that responsibility, from a position of power, my whole attitude about the work involved was transformed.
There’s a lesson here about choice, about taking off of our shoulders the responsibilities that don’t belong there (put on us by others when we were young, or assumed because there seemed to be no other option), and taking on what we choose in the present, based on our best thinking, our abilities, our love, and our vision for the future.
Then there are situations where we find ourselves with too much on our shoulders in the present and no way to refuse to handle it—the result of forces totally outside our control. In these situations, the big lesson for me is about getting help (a key missing ingredient when I was young). I would guess that one of the biggest difficulties many of us have with taking on responsibility is in imagining the possibility of getting the help we need.
I’ve recently realized that my feelings from childhood of being totally alone with tasks that seem too hard can get me into trouble. At times I feel so overwhelmed by a challenging demand that I try to avoid it altogether—like not even opening a letter from some intimidating bureaucracy. I’m trying to remember now, as soon as I recognize that familiar sinking feeling, to reach out and break the isolation, then do what needs to be done.
Maybe we all need to check what we’re carrying, dump out some of that heavy weight that doesn’t belong to us (like trying to make our parents happy), and pick up some of the pieces that lie waiting to be done. If we can remember that we have the power to make adult choices and get help in the present, everything looks more possible. I do believe that we all can find our way to carrying our piece of the world’s responsibility gladly, and without chafing at the load.
Look-alike
Airport run for my sweetie:
Not yet out of the neighborhood
someone walking toward me
a block away
catches my eye.
Something is so familiar
in the way he moves.
There’s time to wonder
Had I mistaken the time?
Did he tire of waiting, find a ride in?
As I approach
I see a man of quite a different age
and color.
I pass on reassured
by the mistake I didn’t make, about the time—
and the one I did.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Artisanal Energy
In just a dozen years, industrial-powerhouse Germany has replaced around 31 percent of its nuclear and fossil fuel generated electricity with a dynamic, decentralized patchwork of more than two million small and medium-scale renewables producers — businesses, villages and towns, co-ops, individuals, green investment funds, and farmers — whose numbers grow by the month. Their output is distributed through a tightly-knit smart grid. The composition of supply changes from minute to minute depending on weather, demand, and other factors from one corner of the country to the other.
The evolution began in 1998, when the EU mandated the liberalization of Europe’s energy markets. Forced to unbundle production and distribution, the four dominant utilities relinquished control of the grid, and opened the market to a wave of new entrants. Then German legislation in 2000 guaranteed renewables a fixed, higher-than-market price for 20 years, and stipulated that grid operators buy green energy from producers as small as a Bavarian dairy farmer with a PV panel on his cow shed. With the phase-out of Germany’s nuclear reactors, it is (dirty) coal--and not (cleaner) natural gas--that has helped renewables cover supply.
Though a master plan never existed, this plan is working, Germany has one of the lowest rates of blackouts in the world, and is exporting more electricity than ever before. Thinking small might have cracked the renewable energy puzzle.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/31/germanys-revolution-in-small-batch-artisanal-energy/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The support by Catholic Relief Services in the Central African Republic of a two-year program of Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, a dynamic grassroots peacebuilding effort that has brought together perpetrators and victims in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Kenya—with transformative results. aglifpt.org/rfk/?p=406
Governor Cuomo’s announcement on December 17, of a ban on fracking in New York State.
A new collaborative venture, Fresh Start Foods West Philadelphia, which will provide fresh and healthy prepared meals for local schools while offering culinary apprenticeship jobs that provide living wages with benefits to out-of-work young adults. http://phennd.org/update/fresh-start-foods-west-philadelphia/
The Netherlands has joined Tasmania, Mexico and Russia in saying no to Monsanto and banning herbicides like RoundUp. http://inhabitat.com/the-netherlands-says-no-to-monsanto-bans-roundup-herbicide/
More resources
Recent 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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Thursday, December 11, 2014
#138 Big enough
Dear all,
From a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with our oldest son Paul and some of his friends, to holiday time with Chuck's extended family, to a long lovely afternoon and evening yesterday with old friends (another extended family), to today's anticipation of the arrival of our son Tim and his wife and toddler for a month's visit from Nicaragua, I am feeling richly blessed by human connection. And my walk this morning reminded me, as always, of my connection with the natural world around me.
How good it is to be embedded in community!
Love,
Pamela
Big enough
I was having one of my—not uncommon—moments of feeling just too little. The world was looking pretty bleak and its problems pretty big. Economic inequality, racism, climate change—how could I possibly hope to make any difference in the face of enormous forces like these?
A friend was listening to me, and as I shared my sense of helplessness and hopelessness, my wish to not even turn my head in the direction of these big painful wrongs that I could do nothing about, I was able to hear myself in a new way. I sounded like a very little girl. The voice inside me that was speaking was a voice from my childhood.
It makes perfect sense. I was too little then. The forces that governed my life were way beyond my control. I saw the things that weren’t working right—for me, for my family—and had no way of making them better. In my particular situation, I didn’t even see a way to complain. So I did my best, learned my own set of survival skills, put my head down, and found my way, for better or for worse, into adulthood.
Now this isn’t to say that my life has been bleak. Far from it. I’ve experienced love in a variety of wonderful forms, found many meaningful ways to spend my time, gotten pleasure from the talents of countless people on this earth, been nurtured by the richness of the natural world. As an adult, I’ve discovered that I’m not helpless, that I can make things happen in the circles around me. I’ve continued to look for ways to address these big evils, but through all those years I’ve still carried that image of myself as just not big enough.
I remember my pivotal “aha moment” about the relationship between climate change and despair: the feelings of despair that come up so quickly around climate change are not its creation. Those feelings were with us long before we had ever imagined the possibility of the end of life on earth as we know it. They are old feelings from our childhood—when things were that scary, and we felt that small. I find the concept so refreshing: the feelings of despair that come up in the face of climate change are not inevitable. They are ours to change. Climate change is just an irresistible magnet for those old fears—which are always looking for a convenient place to attach in the present.
This is not to say that we don’t have a problem, or that the challenges we face are insignificant. As the big international forces that have brought us to this point grow in their interconnections and global impact, the threats are very real and significant—to say the least! But what if we are big enough?
I’m helped by recognizing a similar trajectory behind climate change, economic inequality and racism. It starts with an assumption of separation and a goal of mastery—in relation to both other human beings and the environment. Those who have more justify their right to it, then they work to protect what they have. Those assumptions and goals lead to injustice and trauma on a massive scale—for both people and the earth. The systems that have been built on these foundations are enormous and complex, but underlying them are human dynamics that can be understood, faced and changed. Systems that have been built can be dismantled, and people who have done damage and been damaged can be healed.
What if this is just the right sized challenge for grown-ups like us? What if each of us gets to be our own full loving human self in relation to these big issues? What if we assumed that we were big enough? Big enough to look at what’s wrong; to understand; to say what we think; to apply what we know to our personal choices; to engage with our friends, colleagues and neighbors, and gather others around good programs; to be players on the public stage?
In the process, we’ll have to get good at teasing out the sticky old voices of despair from the reality of interesting and important challenges in the present. Those voices from our childhood may be the biggest thing that’s holding back our world. It was true back then: we were too little. What good news that we’re now big enough!
Bread and life
You would think that I of all people
earth-loving
thrifty
do-it yourselfer
would be a baker of bread.
And yet I’m not
that is, I wasn’t.
Mixing together
stuff from a store
has never drawn me.
Then I was transformed by a
sourdough starter
given by a friend.
Putting flour, salt and water
in the service of
this wild life form
I became a partner in creation,
the flavor of the bread
a wonder
beyond my control.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
Postal banking
Physical and operational structures already exist that could help USPS offer basic financial services: prepaid debit cards, mobile transactions, new check cashing services, savings accounts, and even simple, small-dollar loans. A successful U.S. Postal Saving System existed from 1911-1967. Every money order you deliver confirms this heritage—postal banking is as American as apple pie—and similar schemes operate overseas today, including in Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and the UK.
According to a Pew survey, 38 percent of the US population—88 million people—either have no bank accounts (the “unbanked”) or are at least partially dependent upon high-cost services like payday lending (the “underbanked”). In 2012, underbanked households spent almost 10% of their annual income solely on interest and fees for alternative financial services like payday lending.
Thirty-one percent of the unbanked said they would open an account at their local post office branch. Eighty-one percent of the underbanked said they would use USPS to cash checks, 79 percent percent to pay bills, and 71 percent would choose postal loans over payday loans. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed the idea, and legislation is pending in Congress.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/the-return-of-the-postal-bank
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
How the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has pressured Florida’s tomato growers, through enlisting the might of major restaurant chains and retailers, to increase wages for their 30,000 workers and follow strict standards that mandate rest breaks and forbid sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/business/in-florida-tomato-fields-a-penny-buys-progress.html?_r=0
Learning that 85,000 trees have been planted by one women's agricultural cooperative in Nicaragua, and knowing that this is just one of many such efforts around the world.
The New Economy movement--a diverse set of communities (native climate justice activists, union leaders, coop leaders from the deep South, urban farmers, small businesses, sustainability activists) coming together in shared recognition that our economic structures are the root cause of many different crises.
http://neweconomy.net/new-economy-coalition
How one person's story of humanity in a conflict-ridden far-away place (Gaza, Iraqi Kurdistan) can allow those who hear to open their minds and hearts to that place.
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL--should be live soon.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
From a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with our oldest son Paul and some of his friends, to holiday time with Chuck's extended family, to a long lovely afternoon and evening yesterday with old friends (another extended family), to today's anticipation of the arrival of our son Tim and his wife and toddler for a month's visit from Nicaragua, I am feeling richly blessed by human connection. And my walk this morning reminded me, as always, of my connection with the natural world around me.
How good it is to be embedded in community!
Love,
Pamela
Big enough
I was having one of my—not uncommon—moments of feeling just too little. The world was looking pretty bleak and its problems pretty big. Economic inequality, racism, climate change—how could I possibly hope to make any difference in the face of enormous forces like these?
A friend was listening to me, and as I shared my sense of helplessness and hopelessness, my wish to not even turn my head in the direction of these big painful wrongs that I could do nothing about, I was able to hear myself in a new way. I sounded like a very little girl. The voice inside me that was speaking was a voice from my childhood.
It makes perfect sense. I was too little then. The forces that governed my life were way beyond my control. I saw the things that weren’t working right—for me, for my family—and had no way of making them better. In my particular situation, I didn’t even see a way to complain. So I did my best, learned my own set of survival skills, put my head down, and found my way, for better or for worse, into adulthood.
Now this isn’t to say that my life has been bleak. Far from it. I’ve experienced love in a variety of wonderful forms, found many meaningful ways to spend my time, gotten pleasure from the talents of countless people on this earth, been nurtured by the richness of the natural world. As an adult, I’ve discovered that I’m not helpless, that I can make things happen in the circles around me. I’ve continued to look for ways to address these big evils, but through all those years I’ve still carried that image of myself as just not big enough.
I remember my pivotal “aha moment” about the relationship between climate change and despair: the feelings of despair that come up so quickly around climate change are not its creation. Those feelings were with us long before we had ever imagined the possibility of the end of life on earth as we know it. They are old feelings from our childhood—when things were that scary, and we felt that small. I find the concept so refreshing: the feelings of despair that come up in the face of climate change are not inevitable. They are ours to change. Climate change is just an irresistible magnet for those old fears—which are always looking for a convenient place to attach in the present.
This is not to say that we don’t have a problem, or that the challenges we face are insignificant. As the big international forces that have brought us to this point grow in their interconnections and global impact, the threats are very real and significant—to say the least! But what if we are big enough?
I’m helped by recognizing a similar trajectory behind climate change, economic inequality and racism. It starts with an assumption of separation and a goal of mastery—in relation to both other human beings and the environment. Those who have more justify their right to it, then they work to protect what they have. Those assumptions and goals lead to injustice and trauma on a massive scale—for both people and the earth. The systems that have been built on these foundations are enormous and complex, but underlying them are human dynamics that can be understood, faced and changed. Systems that have been built can be dismantled, and people who have done damage and been damaged can be healed.
What if this is just the right sized challenge for grown-ups like us? What if each of us gets to be our own full loving human self in relation to these big issues? What if we assumed that we were big enough? Big enough to look at what’s wrong; to understand; to say what we think; to apply what we know to our personal choices; to engage with our friends, colleagues and neighbors, and gather others around good programs; to be players on the public stage?
In the process, we’ll have to get good at teasing out the sticky old voices of despair from the reality of interesting and important challenges in the present. Those voices from our childhood may be the biggest thing that’s holding back our world. It was true back then: we were too little. What good news that we’re now big enough!
Bread and life
You would think that I of all people
earth-loving
thrifty
do-it yourselfer
would be a baker of bread.
And yet I’m not
that is, I wasn’t.
Mixing together
stuff from a store
has never drawn me.
Then I was transformed by a
sourdough starter
given by a friend.
Putting flour, salt and water
in the service of
this wild life form
I became a partner in creation,
the flavor of the bread
a wonder
beyond my control.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
Postal banking
Physical and operational structures already exist that could help USPS offer basic financial services: prepaid debit cards, mobile transactions, new check cashing services, savings accounts, and even simple, small-dollar loans. A successful U.S. Postal Saving System existed from 1911-1967. Every money order you deliver confirms this heritage—postal banking is as American as apple pie—and similar schemes operate overseas today, including in Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and the UK.
According to a Pew survey, 38 percent of the US population—88 million people—either have no bank accounts (the “unbanked”) or are at least partially dependent upon high-cost services like payday lending (the “underbanked”). In 2012, underbanked households spent almost 10% of their annual income solely on interest and fees for alternative financial services like payday lending.
Thirty-one percent of the unbanked said they would open an account at their local post office branch. Eighty-one percent of the underbanked said they would use USPS to cash checks, 79 percent percent to pay bills, and 71 percent would choose postal loans over payday loans. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed the idea, and legislation is pending in Congress.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/the-return-of-the-postal-bank
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
How the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has pressured Florida’s tomato growers, through enlisting the might of major restaurant chains and retailers, to increase wages for their 30,000 workers and follow strict standards that mandate rest breaks and forbid sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/business/in-florida-tomato-fields-a-penny-buys-progress.html?_r=0
Learning that 85,000 trees have been planted by one women's agricultural cooperative in Nicaragua, and knowing that this is just one of many such efforts around the world.
The New Economy movement--a diverse set of communities (native climate justice activists, union leaders, coop leaders from the deep South, urban farmers, small businesses, sustainability activists) coming together in shared recognition that our economic structures are the root cause of many different crises.
http://neweconomy.net/new-economy-coalition
How one person's story of humanity in a conflict-ridden far-away place (Gaza, Iraqi Kurdistan) can allow those who hear to open their minds and hearts to that place.
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
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: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL--should be live soon.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
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