Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Gathering for sharing and brainstorming


The phenomenon of social activism is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. It is just the sort of thing that appeals to the newly emerging subculture of people who are looking for what cultural anthropologist, Margaret Mead, calls “whole process” creativity and personal involvement.

Educator and activist, Parker J. Palmer says, “movements begin when people refuse to live divided lives.” The Cultural Creatives that I’ve been talking about for the last few months, who are looking for the reality of the time we are living in, are willing to look at themselves, who they are, and what values they hold dear.

Like many Cultural Creatives, I grew up seeped in the culture of the freedom and peace movements, where finding one’s self often meant idealistically looking for Shangri-la. As I matured, as did these grassroots movements, as well as the society around us, I believe that the idealism matured as well, turning from a dream into the hope of reality.

This reality then becomes the basis and framework for our worldview. This type of person chooses whom to relate to, what their priorities are, what they want to accomplish, and even whom they will vote for, as it is reflected by this worldview. Turning this into action that will benefit society gives truth and authenticity to their idealism, and sets new norms within the culture for what they view as success.

The container of this action, for me, is not what is important. As with the religious path, it matters not whether one is a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Christian. I believe they can all be paths to the One. The principles behind our action will be what give substance to our results.

Similarly, whether we use biofuel, solar power or hydrogen in the next generation car is not something I would choose to worry about. Simply redistributing money, material resources or power will not accomplish poverty eradication, natural resource conservation, or globalization.

Wealth, like technology, is a tool that is created and used by people. And our natural resources do not belong to us anyway. How tools are used depends on the quality of the character and values of those who own the tools. Therefore, the principles that we see reflected in the nature around us, and how well we make them our own, will be the primary determinant if the decisions we make are wise or not.

In order to usher in a culture of wisdom, we must be aware of our choices. There are cultures of greed, of hate, and of selfishness—all arising from the choices we have made within the realm of our hearts. I believe that the phenomenon of the Cultural Creative must focus first on building a foundation for the transformation of heart.

We can begin by building bridges of understanding by making our common roots and origins, our common values, and purpose a shared experience. This can happen as we share our stories, making relationships with no hidden agendas or expectations.

Gathering together people of like mind, such as with conferences of educators, or scientists, or retired politicians, can be a beginning point. After their stories have been told, the time to brainstorm will begin, as each group focuses on problems within their discipline, taking into account the universal purpose of our lives—that of living for the sake of others.

Interestingly enough, I saw this very dynamic at work at the Doctoral Writing and Research class I wrote about in April. A group of doctoral candidates got together and shared their experiences. On that foundation the group brainstormed with each individual to assist in evolving and fine-tuning each person’s idea to create a dissertation that would take into account the individual’s passion and gifts, and how they could be expressed in a way that could be shared with and for the benefit of the rest of the world.

In my own case, I am choosing to tell each person’s story, focusing on the common threads shared by all, creating a tapestry of ideas and actions that I hope will become a model for others to pattern their own stories after.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A time for new habits


Now that we are finally taking heed of such disasters as growing extinction rates and the reality of global warming we are beginning to notice what we have done wrong, as well as what we are doing right. By studying our legacy, one given to us by Mother Earth herself, we may find our roots, ones that will lead to the uncovering of a heart connection, beyond facts and figures, but using the facts and figures. This may be just the “reason” we need to create new habits and ways of thinking that are inclusive of the whole of creation—and just might make us happy to boot!

Happiness, however cannot be sustained without a cultural change towards goodness and an awareness of these principles of creation. Although we don’t favor Descartes’ mechanical view of life anymore, it is still in our habits and in our learning and business environments. We have the habit that bigger is better and that more is not enough. Our education system is build on left brain memorization and testing, and our businesses are profitable if they are increasing, despite the fact that the reality of that increase is based on using up our natural resources and polluting what is left.

Vaclav Havel writes that “democracy depends on citizens feeling responsible for something more than their own little corner of safety . . . It must have citizens who insist on participating in their society” who are inspired and guided by a nation’s ideals. This participatory role is a must if our habits are to be broken. Only then can we experience ourselves in relationship again where mutual progress is based on mutual relationships.

Only then will we develop a felt connection to place that will indeed tell us who we are and dispel this myth of our rootless disconnect or dominion over the rest of the cosmos. Only then will we become humble enough to acknowledge the mystery behind our evolutionary spiral and become able to truly understand our co-creative role in it.

Lewis Mumford in The Transformations of Man, wrote of these changes in our worldview. “In this vision humanity is nature rendered self-conscious, one part of the cosmos capable of reflecting on itself, which has evolved so it stands on the threshold of conscious participation in the unfolding of the whole.”

However, developing, or rather, evolving the tools necessary to access and record this change takes time. Although the change and the need to change our worldview has been noted and discussed since the 50s, reframing a culture so that it will affect our daily lives takes a language change as well as an interweaving of disciplines and practices capable of providing a more holistic viewpoint.

Changing minds and hearts and creating new models, memes, rituals and practices takes time. Those of my generation grew up along side of a variety of grassroots movements, each working in its own little sphere of influence. We all grew up listening and taking to heart these messages of the civil rights, freedom, women and gay rights, peace, environmental and spiritual/consciousness movements.

All these models, whose values we take for granted today, were helping to create the external environment that would hold the new paradigm of what Paul Ray calls the Cultural Creatives. Ray suggests that it wasn’t until the second generation of “New Agers” appeared that our efforts turned from the needs of the individual to “efforts to come up with cultural solutions.”

It seems to me that this is the logical progression. For us to learn a new way of life we must have models that embody this new standard, beginning with our own individual body/spirit unity. Paul Ray emphasizes this when he writes, “There is one more factor that is significant now. It is the development of a new kind of movement where the participants take convergence for granted because they carry that convergence within themselves.”

This oneness of self can be reflected in our lives because of the increased awareness of the oneness of and interconnectivity of life. I believe it is true, that we will only be able to see the next step—that interconnectivity beginning to appear on a cultural level—in the second generation. The process has been modeled by parents, teachers and mentors and can now be assimilated with our children. The natural place for this to happen would be in our own families. This is the evolutionary path that I envision a wisdom culture taking.

As this original nature of ours is uncovered, the vision or original purpose of our lives will take on a clarity for us and we will begin to express it using our own unique gifts. This inspiration becomes our guiding ethic, our wisdom culture, and the path of our heart. It is Thomas Berry’s vision of the sacred depth of the individual as he or she expresses the universe’s awareness of its own being. Modeling that ethic and value to our children will certainly make the future more hopeful, and is, I believe, the next step in the progression of acknowledging the divine in our lives.

Friday, May 9, 2008

The vision quest


I was supposed to go on a vision quest this past week, but life got in the way. It was supposed to be a conditional offering for my family—to support them, embrace them, love them. My daughter is getting married, so I wanted to create a spiritual foundation for her and my new son to stand on as they start their life together. She’s also graduating from college and trying to find a “real” world job, so life is pretty stressful for her right now.

I wanted to surround Mom with love too as she moves to a new state, and starts a new home without Dad, who passed away. My brothers and sisters could use a little support from their big sister as well. One brother broke up with his girlfriend; another just got married, while a third lost his job and his apartment at the same time. My sister is trying to have a baby with no success; one nephew is also getting married, and another is working on finding himself and understanding his unique gifts.

Hmm, if this is just my family, maybe I need to do some heavy duty praying for the rest of the world as well. Just look at the headlines: war in Iraq, cyclone in Myanmar, China and Tibet, the Middle East, volcano in Chile, melting icebergs—the list goes on. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed these days. That’s one reason I decided to stay home—my family was overwhelmed and needed me to stick around.

Sometimes it’s easier to leave and not deal with the immediate situation, which often takes more time and patience. I was going to go to the small piece of land that Mom kept in the Catskill Mountains and lay the stone foundation for a small cabin some of us were thinking of building. I wouldn’t have to speak to anyone, deal with anyone’s problems, or cook dinner. I could meditate and work, placing each rock with care and concern for each one of my family members.

That was what I had envisioned. Now I’d have to find something else to do instead that I felt would have the same intention. The answer came quickly. I had brought some stones from our land in the Catskills and placed them haphazardly in the corner of our yard, added a few flowers and created a quick rock garden. It was in desperate need of a redesign and some care and concern. One stone for each family member, placed lovingly, and surrounded with flowers, took two days of lugging, digging, planting and watering.

But that wasn’t enough. Something else was needed—something more fundamental and difficult to accomplish. Two or three years ago we had an external pipe burst in our front yard. To replace it the water company had to dig up the brick walk on the side of the house. The bricks have remained neatly stacked against the wall since then, while the ground has grown over with grass. I needed to replace those bricks, and recreate the walk.

By the third night I couldn’t sleep, my body ached so much. Our earth is not rich, dark and loamy. It is red clay, almost as hard as the bricks themselves. I couldn’t even get the pitchfork to sink more than an inch into the ground with me jumping up and down on it. Some of the bricks were broken and of varying sizes and shapes. Some were mortared together, and some had six inches of concrete and gravel still attached to them. It wasn’t just a puzzle to fit the pieces together, it was more like a Frankenstein monster that I was determined to make beautiful.

On the sixth day I had eight more bricks to lay, then four. My neighbor, and sister-of-my-heart, called over the fence, “Are you almost done?” Considering I had started four hours earlier, I distractedly responded in the affirmative. But as was the case for the past few days, most bricks I had already laid had to be re-placed in order to fit the subsequent ones together.

In the midst of my struggles, and determination to finish on this day, I didn’t hear Doris coming into the yard. She was carrying a tray with three glasses and a bottle of sparkling cider. Her husband followed her in with three chairs. I hadn’t noticed that they were following my progress from day to day, or that they even cared. But here they were, ready to celebrate my victory and cheer for my success!

My quest to support, love and embrace my family had come right back to me. As I sat sipping sparkling cider with Doris, Winston went down on his hands and knees to fit in those last few bricks. Isn’t that amazing? That never could have happened in the woods alone. Family and community are so important in building a culture of wisdom and love. And what better foundation is there than being surrounded by those who are willing to build it together with you?