#218 Knowledge

 Dear all, 

I think all of us are finding it hard to keep our balance these days as we step into the fall. With both vaccinations and the delta variant, how do we balance new possibilities with caution? With signs of both progressive movement and strong backlash in our country, how do we balance hope and fear? 

In my personal life, I’m faced with balancing on-going commitments with new projects, including moving from deeply intuitive writing to deeply non-intuitive book marketing (and I just signed two more contracts—yay/yikes!) I’m proud, though, of how I’ve been asking for help, and thrilled with what I’m receiving.

It’s been a pleasure to have two young grandchildren join me in our shared love for the moon, as we watched it grow this month from a sickle to stunning fullness. It reminds me of the constancy and beauty and power that are always there to be found.

Love,

Pamela

Knowledge

My daughter-in-law was reading a challenging text for a course she was taking—a philosophical treatise on white supremacy, full of long complicated words and longer more complicated sentences. As she vented about the challenge, I was a little surprised at the intensity of my response. I got mad. I was ready to throw all philosophers and all their stupid long words and sentences into oblivion. But she held out for the validity of philosophy, and I was called to think through my position a little more clearly.

I realized that it wasn’t the field of philosophy that offended me so deeply. After all, there is nothing inherently wrong with “love of wisdom”! It is the weaponizing of wisdom that gets under my skin: presenting knowledge in a way that demonstrates how much more you understand than the deficient masses; protecting your vulnerable sense of self-worth with a show of importance; publicly claiming your membership in an elite superior group. It smells of domination, seems full of the seeds of oppression.

The field of economics has a similar story, where self-proclaimed “experts” created a complex mathematical system to explain the workings of the markets, then built a wall around their new discipline and required those who would enter to master the intricacies of their creation. Those on the outside came to feel that they just didn’t know enough to understand, that they had no choice but to cede the whole territory to the “experts”. Yet “economics”, from the Greek for “household management,” is something anybody can think about. It’s full of values and common sense that those who claim expertise have obscured rather than clarified. Everybody has the capacity and right to engage on this territory.

So, am I saying that there’s no place for expertise in this world? That putting in the effort to master complexity is, at its heart, suspect? Well, that couldn’t be right. We certainly wouldn’t want to hold out an expectation that nobody should know more than anybody else. But there is something about our attitude toward knowledge that needs closer examination.

If we see it as private property then it’s logical to use it to our own advantage, to prop up our egos, to keep it scarce so its value stays high, to hoard and to deploy it for mastery over others. Some may approach it privately, but pursue knowledge for the sheer joy of personal discovery—like my eight-year-old grandson. Others may be on a quest to uplift humanity. Theirs may be the hardest job, because their goal extends beyond the personal. They would choose to serve, yet if an idea is presented in language that blocks understanding it’s like giving and taking back in the same motion. If you really believe you’ve come across something important, then you either need to learn how to communicate it in words that people can understand, or you have to acknowledge that it will be useless unless somebody else does that job for you.

I would argue that, in the process of pushing the edges of human understanding, there is no place for ownership. Our knowledge is part of a shared cultural heritage, a common wealth. Everyone of us who has explored a new idea is standing on the shoulders of those who have come before. Our minds are our own, it is true, yet we do not exist in isolation. And for our thoughts to matter to anyone else they have to find a pathway not only out of our heads but  into the heads of others. For that to happen, they have to be accessible.

Perhaps my passion here grows from the reality that I too have a love for wisdom. I am committed to seeking it and sharing what I find. So the text my daughter-in-law was reading grew from something that I love, but had been twisted into another shape, sharpened and misused. I think the way forward is simple—abandon the lures of private property, claim all our knowledge and wisdom as part of the commons, and keep access at its very heart.

 

Strand of the web

As I weeded at the trolley portal
he would come by on his little city sidewalk vacuum sweeper
and we would say hello—
a small human moment to cherish
as we both tended to beauty in the neighborhood.

Years pass, those public beds make way for other city plans,
our paths no longer cross.

Then, deep in the winter of pandemic,
I see him on my morning walk, closer to home.
Perhaps his route has changed.
Bundled and masked, I smile and wave.
He waves back, but does he know it’s me?
The months go by. I see him now and then
look for a chance to catch his eye and say hello.

Then one day the stars align—
maskless and present, we connect.
His cheerful greeting warms my heart—
a strand in the web of life reclaimed, restored.





Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Solidarity investing club supports coops

The Vermont Solidarity Investing Club, with 27 members, has invested all of its more than $60,000 specifically in cooperatives. Each member owns a portion of the LLC, to which they contribute $20 to $200 on a monthly basis.

The largest of VSIC’s current investments is in the Cooperative Fund of New England, which loans money to co-ops, democratic worker-owned businesses, and community organizations. VSIC also invests in other cooperative funds, existing coop businesses and new cooperative ventures, supporting the network of coops throughout the region.

https://www.shareable.net/solidarity-investing-club-helps-plant-a-new-crop-of-co-ops-in-vermont/  






Some things that have given me hope recently:

Locals are interrupting violence in Minneapolis, by sitting in lawn chairs at dangerous corners.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/minneapolis-nashville-and-baltimore-violence-interrupters/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=22-09-2021

Farmers have been teaming up with meatpackers, realizing they have more in common with these immigrants than with agribusiness CEOs.

https://otherwords.org/farmers-and-meatpackers-are-teaming-up-for-pandemic-safety/

With Tunisia facing both climate and economic crises, a group of women have started cooperatives and small businesses to protect the environment and create a sustainable livelihood.
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/saving-seeds-and-lives-tunisian-women-on-the-frontline-of-climate-change-49799?

And a handful of fossil fuel victories!

Indigenous resistance has staved off 25% of U.S. and Canada’s annual emissions, the pollution equivalent of approximately 400 new coal-fired power plants.

https://grist.org/protest/indigenous-resistance-has-cut-u-s-and-canadas-annual-emissions/

Student pressure on Harvard, the world’s richest university, to divest from fossil fuels has finally succeeded.

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/harvard-fossil-fuel-divestment-won/

After intense grassroots pressure,15 insurers drop the Trans Mountain Pipeline 
https://truthout.org/articles/15-insurers-drop-trans-mountain-pipeline-after-grassroots-pressure/

A federal judge’s rejection of a huge Alaska oil drilling project is the latest reversal of Trump policy and a win for Indigenous and environmental activists.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20082021/alaska-willow-oil-project-biden-trump/?

Resources

Alive in this World
A book of poetry in three parts: A Home with the Trees, Commuter Encounters, and A Home with the Earth
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alive-in-this-world-pamela-haines/1139506943.

That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times

A book of essays, many from this blog, available for pre-order till November
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/christian-alternative-books/our-books/quaker-quicks-that-clear-certain-sound.

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

Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in

An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/  

Money and Soul
My newish book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.") 

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8 

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance  
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.


Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com    

Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/ 
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/   


More resources

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust 

    http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)

#217. In common

 Dear all, 

After moving a much-anticipated in-person work event online earlier this month, my mind is on new COVID challenges—how much we don’t know, and how hard it is to re-pace ourselves when we thought we were almost home. I’ve also had the opportunity this month to listen to a group of passionate childcare workers sharing stories about their frontline work in struggling communities, then to assemble a newsletter for work with a focus on race and equity in childcare, another opportunity to interact closely with wonderful people’s stories of injustice, humanity, perseverance and hope.

In the midst of these compelling stories, I also want to make space for my own voice, as we prepare for my book/birthday celebration this coming Friday evening. If you didn’t get an invitation and would like to be present, just drop me a line and I’ll sent a link.

Love,

Pamela

In common

To focus on what we have in common seems like a radical notion these days. In a hyper-individualized and divisive culture, most of our energy is divided between amassing and protecting what we can claim as our own, and sharpening the lines between us and them. Yet giving up what we have in common is a tendency with far-reaching and damaging consequences.

The enclosure of the English commons—a town’s shared meadows and grazing lands—for private ownership and profit was a fateful step toward landless wage labor and urban poverty in the industrial west. Current battles around the enclosure of the commons are being waged on equally far-reaching and ominous fronts—the privatization of our waters, the pollution of our air and oceans, the claim of rights to ownership over cyberspace and even our shared genome. This is a time like no other to vigorously claim a shared right to that which supports all life.

How do we stake a claim to our common rights even as we are experiencing a great surge of othering? Perhaps this is a job of building critical muscles, but in two very different kinds of exercise. On the one hand we practice flexing our muscles of courage, voice and solidarity as we work to ensure common control over the air, water, soil and communication space that support life in our common home. On the other hand we practice relaxing our muscles around the differences among us—disarming our protections and letting down our defenses against the “other” as we reach for a shared humanity.

On the relaxing front, I was struck recently by a story about a couple of men who started up a business that catered to veterans. They chose products that would appeal to that conservative base, and used political humor to market their brand. They supported a man for president that I find depraved and dangerous—in part with an eye toward their own gain.

At this point in the story, I was ready to write them off in disgust. What could we possibly have in common? But adopting this easy and obvious choice as my go-to strategy comes at a cost. If that’s my best tool for handling behavior that I don’t like, and I use it with full-blown righteousness in the direction of these people, what habits am I developing? Who else do I write off? Where do I draw the line?

I think there is a line. Some behavior is so damaging to the commons that it just has to stop—like seeking power or profit from fossil fuel extraction, whipping people up into a frenzy of hate, mass incarceration, voter suppression, worker exploitation. But that’s not these guys.

As I read on, I learned that these are also men who have reached out with consistency and compassion, and at considerable personal expense, to offer returning veterans an alternative to the open pipeline to militarized police work, a pathway to a decent livelihood in the context of caring and community.

We have something in common here. If I want it to grow, uncomfortable as it might be, I think I have to love them. There are lots of things you can change without love, particularly if you have a habit of righteousness and a taste for domination. You can change people’s outer shape and their public face. You can stunt personalities, feed fears, manipulate behavior and oppress whole groups. You can certainly destroy ecosystems. But you can’t get at that internal place that allows for transformation. This requires an openness to touching the heart of the other, and to appreciating the mystery of what we can’t understand.

There is much that is mysterious to me about angry white men, but these guys invite my curiosity. What is it like to come home traumatized from war, to witness the disappearance of your traditional means of livelihood, to have your people’s central place in a country’s history slipping away? What allows some people to hold on to their humanity in the face of great adversity? How can we find each other and fight together for the commons, for our common humanity, for our shared interest in a livable world?

 




Sing

A simple pleasure lost to the pandemic—
gathering round the piano to sing.
In May, with vaccinations
comes a seed of cautious hope.
Would it be irresponsible?
Could we be safe?

Just to be inside another house
seems bold, but we don’t linger there—
push the piano out the open door
onto the deck, bring out kitchen chairs.

Sing through the twilight, sing with the birds
Sing to the neighbors (who clap unseen in the dark)
Sing up hope.






Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Community Land Trusts and Racial/Economic Justice

The Community Land Trust (CLT) model was first created and implemented during the late 1960s by African American leaders in rural Albany, Georgia, who were responding to the harsh reality of oppression, violence, and eviction endured by Black tenant farmers across the American South. The goal was to support African American families to own and control land, achieve greater economic security, and fully exercise their legal voting rights without obstruction. Modern CLT organizations are part of a broader shared-equity housing sector typically developing, selling, and stewarding affordable homes that provide security and stability for low- and moderate-income families.  CLTs are most impactful when they can steward land on behalf of the community for the uses desired by a majority of local residents. Examples of CLTs partnering with cities to vision, plan, and implement revitalization strategies that prevent displacement are evident in areas such as Buffalo and Houston.

https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/how-community-land-trusts-can-advance-racial-and-economic-justice






Somethings that have made me hopeful recently (all domestic this time):

The state of Maine is leading the way both in banning “forever chemicals” in an effort to stop climate change, and in shifting costs of recycling from taxpayers to companies.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/15/maine-law-pfas-forever-chemicals-ban?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/maine-becomes-first-state-to-shift-costs-of-recycling-from-taxpayers-to-companies/2021/07/13/aa6fbe44-e416-11eb-8aa5-5662858b696e_story.html

In a dramatic victory for the American labor movement, last fall1,800 nurses at Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission Hospital voted by 70% to be represented by a union, National Nurses United, and this summer they celebrated ratification of their first ever union contract. The victory is the largest at a nonunion hospital in the South since 1975, and is the first private sector hospital union win ever in North Carolina. 

https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/largest-hospital-union-victory-south-1975
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hr/mission-hospital-nurses-approve-1st-union-contract.html

Local heritage seeds are now available to anyone in Tuscan with a library card.

https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2018/04/06/how-tucson-preserves-its-native-food-heritage/?

https://www.library.pima.gov/seedlibrary/

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, started in 1981 in citizen outrage around tax and property laws that favored coal companies, continues to organize for a new balance of power and a just society in Kentucky.

https://www.kftc.org/about-us/our-history

Resources

Alive in this World
A book of poetry in three parts: A Home with the Trees, Commuter Encounters, and A Home with the Earth
Available in paperback and e-book at barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.

That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times
A book of my essays, available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors

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

Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in

An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/  

Money and Soul
My newish book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.") 

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8 

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance  
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.


Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com    

Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/ 
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/   


More resources

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust 

    http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)

#116. In motion

 Dear all,

it was a blessing to be in the midst of woods and water with family members last week, and to offer a set of workshops at a national Quaker gathering earlier in the month on “muscle-building for peace, justice and an earth restored”. Now my attention is turning to getting the word out about my new books (more in the Resource section). I’m planning to introduce them at an online birthday celebration (72—a good strong number) on Friday evening August 20. Save the date if you’d like to participate, and stay tuned.
Love,

Pamela




In motion

When a pond is still, the filamentous pond weed and the tiny dots of duckweed on the surface will multiply and take over, ultimately filling it in. When there is a strong enough current, however, they are washed through the outlet and the pond clears. While I don’t have the power, as one individual, to clean this pond, I can keep unclogging the outlet. As I free up the currents that would naturally be there, the weed flows steadily through. The motion that is critical for ongoing cleaning has been released.

The metaphor between pond weed and the world’s ills is not precise, but there is something about motion that I find compelling. Water in motion has the capacity to clean. Molecules in motion have the capacity of change their structure. People in motion have the capacity to transform—both themselves and the world around them. 

Yet the forces in our society that push us toward immobility around big social and environmental issues are immense. A competitive and individualist culture focuses our efforts on personal goals. With extreme economic injustice, the energies of a few at the top go toward protecting the status quo, many at the bottom are putting all their attention to just getting by. As unrelenting and escalating bad news collides with our culture’s deep-rooted narrative of inevitable progress, we find ourselves disoriented—shell-shocked even—and desperate for relief. This narrative provides little space for engaging with loss and fear, leaving us vulnerable to the ever-growing lures of consumption, distraction and addiction—anything to numb us to emotions too painful to feel.

So what can we do to encourage motion? Water metaphors keep coming to mind. We can start by mining through those layers of consumption, distraction and addiction to the cool clear water of caring—in ourselves and others around us—and be refreshed by this good life-giving water. We all care. Each of us has stories about connection—to the natural world of which we are part, to the communities that nurture us, to a desire to align with justice. Scared by the depths of grief and fear, we can also look for ways to stick our toes in these big waters as a first step. Admit to a little fear. Pay attention to a little loss. Hold hands as we take another step.

Then we can start imagining the possibility of something being better, more whole. If we can’t imagine anything different, we’re stuck where we are. But the “what might be” calls forth motion from the “what is”, creating the beginnings of a current. (Imagining the apocalypse is a different story; though it may be easier, there is no agency involved and if there is any current it leads only to despair.)

We need a vision to hold in our mind—like that clear lovely pond—and we need some sense of ourselves as actors, as part of what creates the current. I think this may be at the heart of the work I am called to—inviting people to motion. Breaking through the story line of the permanence of what is, and holding out a vision of what could be—communities building their own wealth, non-extractive social relationships, regenerated soil, rewoven webs of life. Reminding others of their goodness and capacity. Staying in motion myself, both in ongoing efforts that call my name, and shorter-term calls to action too compelling to be ignored. Listening for what calls out to others and encouraging them to take the first step, knowing that one will lead to another. Broadcasting different possibilities of action linked to vision, hoping that some will land on fertile ground. Celebrating every tiny bit of new motion, while also tending to the well-being of those who have stepped out into the roughest currents, providing an anchor of solidity, a place to unload fears and losses and reconnect to possibilities.

I love freeing up that current at the pond. In a very similar way, I am passionate about helping each other out of the sticky immobility in which we have been ensnared, back into our true nature and in motion toward a world that rings true.





Canoe on a still pond

Eight year old in the stern,
radiating concentration
as the feel of navigation
finds its way into his bones

Five year old, too scared
to venture in just days before
now gamely paddling in the bow

They wobble
circle
straighten

The universe breathes in
exhales
and is glad.

 

Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Divine Chocolate in Ghana

The cocoa farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative in Ghana own 44% of their Divine Chocolate company. Their cocoa is not grown on plantations, which may require clearing of rainforest trees, but on individual smallholder farms which have been in farming families for generations. Cocoa grows best in the shade of the rainforest canopy and the humid environment the rainforest creates is best for the midges that pollinate the cocoa. This is a major reason why these farmers are actively conserving the tall forest trees. They are replacing old cocoa trees with new seedlings, and actually planting new hardwood trees. Divine chooses not to use palm oil in any of their products because of its destructive impact on virgin forest and its wildlife.

https://www.divinechocolate.com/us/divine-story

Some things that have made me hopeful recently

The passage of a law in San Jose, California, requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/30/san-jose-california-gun-owners-liability-insurance/7822623002/

The pledge by the European Central Bank to inject climate considerations into its decisions, the first central bank to do so.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-08/ecb-pledges-to-inject-climate-considerations-into-its-decisions

A new law in Maine making it the first state to require its public employee pension fund and state treasury system to divest from fossil fuels. 

https://www.sierraclub.org/maine/blog/2021/06/maine-becomes-first-state-pass-law-divest-fossil-fuels

The Welsh government's suspension of all future road-building plans.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/22/welsh-government-to-suspend-all-future-road-building-plans?

 

Resources

Alive in this World

A book of poetry in three parts: A Home with the Trees, Commuter Encounters, and A Home with the Earth

Available in paperback and e-book at barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.

That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times

A book of my essays, available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors

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

Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in

An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/  

Money and Soul
My newish book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.") 

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8 

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance  
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.


Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com    

Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/ 
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/   


More resources

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust 

    http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)

#215. First Words

 Dear all,

What I have loved most about having a little more discretionary time this month has been the freedom I’ve felt to reach out to people in my web of caring—feeling like I have time to respond if they suggest more. We’ve had a string of incredibly beautiful days, my garden has been producing (my newest discovery is lambsquarter and parsley pesto), and I am ever more aware of the creativity, wisdom, imagination and hard work of birthing a new era that is there to be found among people all over the world. I’m feeling deeply grateful to be alive in this world.

Speaking of which, Alive in this World is the title of a book of my poetry that has just been published! Check it out at Barnes and Noble or Amazon. I have a series of essays as well, drawn from this column over the years: That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times. If you’d like to help me think about marketing, or have ideas about ways to spread the word, I would be thrilled to hear from you!

Love,
Pamela





First Words

As I root a native thanksgiving address—"the words that come before all else”—into my daily life, I find it steadily growing me. Traditionally, when Haudenosaunee people (formally known as Iroquois) gather, they start with these words which help orient everyone in the same direction. Thanks are offered to the earth in all its manifestations—water, plant and animal life—to the sun moon and stars, and to the ancient wisdom carriers and the Spirit Creator. The recurring phrase—"and now are minds are one”—binds the community together in shared thanks.

I first experienced these words in a native context. It was early morning on the Six Nation Reserve in southern Ontario. A group of Six Nations people and allies had gathered to honor the treaties and protect the earth in a ten-day paddle down the Grand River. We stood in a big circle as the thanksgiving address started our day. That first morning a translated summary was offered to the non-native speakers. For the rest of the trip, we listened to these first words in Mohawk, Cayuga and Oneida. (For some who were reclaiming their language, these were first words in more ways than one.)

I couldn’t retain all the contents, so when I found them in a children’s book at a pow-wow I bought a copy. I read it, brought it home, and propped it up in my workspace—where it sat till a retreat of my Quaker meeting on right relationship with native peoples this spring. The leaders were determined to get us engaged not just with our heads, but with our hearts and bodies. There were long breaks where we were encouraged to walk with attention to the land and the people who walked this land for thousands of years before us. When asked how we could extend the experience of this retreat, I realized I could take my morning walk with native people in my heart.

My first attempts left me puzzled. How could I join with the original people on these city streets? What would I see and experience that would have been familiar to them? I was distracted by how completely the land had been transformed. Then I remember the book, propped up, patiently waiting for my attention. I could take the words that come before all else on my morning walk. For the first couple of times I was mostly just trying to remember the list of things, the order. I used the book as a reference when I got home, and when a phrase puzzled me I thought to look up the original and was reminded of the full content.

As I settled in with this practice, the gifts started coming. I already knew about being thankful for the water and the food plants and the trees and the moon, so initially it felt like a simple frame for familiar content. But then one morning, the prepositions hit me. The first words call us to be thankful not for these parts of our world, but to them. They call us to direct relationship. All of a sudden I could see how being thankful for, though certainly much better than nothing, carries with it a sense of separation. Here was a profound shift toward right relationship with the world around me.

Another morning I was struck by the obvious: I am trying to craft a private practice from what is, at heart, a communal experience. I think of the recurring phrase at the end of each section: “And now our minds are one.” We gather to find a way forward together, and start with the words that come before all else. We send thanks to the earth that provides everything we need, to the water and the animals and the plants for giving us life. In whatever decisions or actions we take, we do so with this shared understanding in the front of our minds.

What if these words started every board meeting, every gathering of people where decisions are made that affect the web of life that supports us all? Knowing that they are powerfully communal, I commit to absorbing their wisdom deep into my bones, and seeing how they might lead me in community.

Most recently I have found myself moved to send not only greetings and thanks, but love. As I walk and connect and send love, I find my body opening up, moving in new ways. It’s like a dance is growing inside me. I think of all the restraint with which I have held myself all these years, and give more thanks to the Haudenosaunee and the words that come before all else.






Gifts and needs

Kale that made it through the cold has gone to seed.
Big leaves I used for pesto early in the spring
have made way for stalk and flower.
Order and logic suggest I pull them out—
let old make way for new.

I could use the space, it’s true. And yet, and yet
these little buds are just the thing in salad greens
bees are buzzing round the flowers
and I would save some for the seeds.

Could we find a way to honor all these gifts and needs?
Pull one great plant, but pick the buds for salad,
try for one last batch of pesto with the leaves
plant new basil in that space,
leave the second plant for bees and buds and seeds,
maybe think again when basil needs more space?

This dance is complex, yet I would choose it every time
over straight rows, bare soil and mastery.
My soul is nourished by the company.

 



Imagine:  A new economy is possible!
A growing circular food system in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Family farmers in São Paulo’s rural south grow food that is healthy for consumers, for the environment and for themselves. A chef in the bustling urban center designs his menu around fresh food that is on offer each week. And another sells affordable organic meals in the outskirts of the city. These are just a few faces of a circular economy transformation that is reshaping São Paulo’s food system.

A circular economy redesign of São Paulo’s food system represents a $140 million opportunity with the potential to drive down CO2 emissions and enhance local biodiversity. Navigating between its rural and urban territories, the short video, ‘A taste of circular economy in São Paulo’, shows how different actors within the city are working together to realize this opportunity in building a more regenerative, distributed and inclusive food system.

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/new-mini-documentary-showcases-são-paulos-circular-food-system-transformation






Some things that have made me hopeful recently:

Alaska voters’ adoption of ranked-choice voting as a way to combat polarization and increase voter choice.
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/19/21537126/alaska-measure-2-ranked-choice-voting-results

The successes of a campaign to get apparel companies to pay $22 billion owed to factories and workers throughout the global south.
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/03/payup-garment-workers-won-stolen-wages-fashion-industry/

A stunning set of recent victories of climate activists over fossil fuel companies:

The cancellation by its owner of the Keystone XL pipeline after years of opposition from climate campaigners
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/09/keystone-xl-pipeline-canceled

A remarkable set of shareholder votes and court rulings that have scrambled the future of three of the world’s largest oil companies. 
https://link.newyorker.com/view/5c92fd0e24c17c329bfe869be9uu1.n2e/d8d6252a

A victory for Dutch environmental groups in a court ruling that gives Shell nine years to cut its carbon emissions by 45% from 2019 levels in order to comply with the Paris climate agreement.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052021/dutch-court-gives-shell-nine-years-to-cut-its-carbon-emissions-by-45-percent-from-2019-levels/?






Resources

Alive in this World

A book of poetry in three parts: A Home with the Trees, Commuter Encounters, and A Home with the Earth

Available in paperback and e-book at barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.

That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times

A book of my essays, available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors

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

Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in

An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/  

Money and Soul
My newish book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.") 

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8 

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance  
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.


Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com    

Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/ 
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/   


More resources

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust 

    http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)

#214. Repair

 Dear all,

I’m finding myself a little disoriented in this in-between time: Between avoiding human contact in the pandemic and the possibility that it might be safe again. Between the end of a very challenging and fulfilling project—teaching an understanding economics class to over a hundred non-economists from around the world—and what come next. Between the promise of spring and the reality of summer. Between the promise of a new administration and the reality of its limitations. Between ever-clearer glimpses of the possibility of living outside the constraints of conflict aversion and the weight of the Protestant work ethic, while the patterns of a lifetime still exert their force.

And so I focus on the present, with all its hour- and day-sized joys and challenges and opportunities. Wishing you grace in your in-between times as well.

Love,
Pamela





Creating the conditions for repair

Our grandson fell and broke a folding wooden table that holds a computer when we work in the bedroom. This table has served us well for decades, though never more intensively than during these months of pandemic. I finger the broken pieces and moving parts, wondering if I have the skill to make it whole again. Yet I value it and am not willing to just declare its usefulness over and throw it out—wherever “out” might be. So I get out the wood glue and the clamps, and fit the pieces together as best I can. The next day it still wobbles and I work on it some more. The repair is far from perfect, yet we are back in a working relationship and I am thankful.

I have struggled in a new relationship that crosses divisions of race and class. The opportunity to be close to this person is a precious gift. I am astonished at how she moves in the world—it is so different from my experience. We take on a project together and come to a point of conflict. Wishing in every bone in my body that this were not the reality, I wade in, knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that keeping my distance could easily be a mortal blow to the life of the relationship. I do my best, but the way I approach it leaves her feeling unseen and disrespected. I feel devastated.

I listen, try to understand, hold off on my urge to explain and defend, focus on the part that is mine to work on. I try hard to stay open to to everyone’s goodness, including mine, open to new perspectives and opportunities for growth, open to truth. As I learn, acknowledge, apologize, responding in the most open-hearted way I can summon, power dynamics are illuminated, the hard knot of conflict loosens, and the rift begins to mend. Incredibly, we find ourselves stronger on the other side.

I’ve known repairs that were simpler—sewing a button back on, taping a torn page, making an apology for a small thing in a solid relationship. These two were at the edge of my abilities and included some pretty rough edges. If we raise our sights to the repairs that are needed in the world, how much more daunting is that prospect? Trust has been shattered. Entire peoples—and the very earth—have been grievously wronged. We see damage so great that wholeness can seem like an impossible dream.

Yet I believe that the principles remain the same. And I can see only two choices here: to despair and give up, or to gather all the lessons we can from what makes repair possible and turn out lives in that direction. What does this look like? It means valuing what has been broken, understanding how the break has happened, feeling a sense of connection to our place in the brokenness, and being able to imagine the possibility of wholeness.

Ultimately, it involves believing we have the capacity, individually and collectively, to engage in the process of repair. This means not being so focused on our own grief, shame, or guilt at the break that we are immobilized and can’t pay attention to anything except ourselves. It means not being so intent on avoiding the pain of looking straight at great damage that we can’t grieve the loss. It means having access to the relationships that are key to the repair—including with those that we or our people have wronged. Finally, it means deciding to stay awake and alert to possibility, to stay in motion in the direction of repair.

As I reflect on that good little table, on that priceless relationship, and on all the possibilities for wholeness in a broken world, I can’t help but wonder if there is any more important skill than that of repair.





Hope in flight

The fate of the bald eagle shadowed my childhood.
Could we allow this great bird to go extinct
through careless inattention,
blind pursuit of lesser goals?

Their comeback sent a message:
maybe we could be redeemed.
I read of nest sites
slowly growing closer to this populated place.
Would I ever catch a glimpse of one myself?

A nearby bit of woods and water
ringed by airport, oil refineries, development
has managed to endure against all odds.
Late April, the day alive in every way
blue sky, spring green, high wind
I sighted one, then two
circling the water, beating back against the wind.

Decades of grieving laid to rest
waiting over, hope fulfilled
in that soaring flight.

Dare to imagine:  A new economy is possible!

Coop internet service provider

Hundreds of cable technicians have banded together to create an affordable, pro-people telecom option in New York City. People’s Choice Communications is the culmination of years of research, organizing, and outreach by striking Charter-Spectrum workers as a lower-cost, publicly-owned alternative to the big players. “We are the workers who built a large part of New York City’s internet infrastructure in the first place,” PCC’s website explains. This employee-owned social enterprise is intended to “bridge the digital divide and help our neighbors get connected to the Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.” So far, PCC has installed mass WiFi hubs at multiple schools and supportive housing buildings in the Bronx and Manhattan, allowing the group and its customer-owners to make use of thousands of miles of free conduit there, among other available infrastructure.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2021/04/13/spectrum-strikers-launch-public-isp-for-and-by-the-people-of-nyc/?sh=321a5ed46494

 

 

Some things that have made me hopeful recently: 

How a union drive at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, though unsuccessful, made global headlines, with workers in Italy, Germany and India joining into an international struggle against the company’s harsh working conditions.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/workers-world-unite-amazon-union-busting-organizing-labor-rights

A river in Quebec that has been granted legal rights as part of global 'personhood' movement.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/magpie-river-quebec-canada-personhood-1.5931067

Progressive gains in Philadelphia’s primaries for judges and District Attorney, indicating widespread support for broader reforms in the criminal legal system.
https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/philadelphia-results-krasner-wins-judges/

The small town of Batesville, Arkansas, which installed fifteen hundred solar panels in and around a school, saving it more than $600,000, and allowing for massive salary raises for teachers.  
https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/solar-panel-saves-arkansas-school-enough-for-teachers-get-up-to-15k-in-raises?

Resources 

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

Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in

An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/  

Money and Soul
My new book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.") 

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8 

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance  
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.


Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election. 
www.findingsteadyground.com    

Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide  
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/ 
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/   


More resources

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust 

    http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)