The Labyrinth’s Prayer

Our Labyrinth, which is on earth
Elliptic is your name

Your hospitality come

Your turning be done 

on earth

As it is in the universe.

Give us this day our contemplation.

And forgive us our missteps

As we forgive others their missteps against us.

And lead us not into apathy

But deliver us from hasty judgement.

For yours is the journey

The purpose and the story

For ever and ever.

Ah women

And men.

(Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

David Brooks, Abbie Hoffman & Culture

The meritocratic establishment, who overtook the Protestant values of America before the 60's ...  "created an economy that benefits itself and leaves everybody else out. It led America into war in Iraq and sent the working class off to fight it. It has developed its own brand of cultural snobbery. Its media, film and music industries make members of the working class feel invisible and disrespected." David Brooks, The Abbie Hoffman of the Right: Donald Trump, The New York Times.

How do we connect these different cultures in a way that enables people to talk to one another so we can learn how and where to move forward? How do we include all views in a way that makes sense? Does it need to make sense?

Feeding Big Man

Once upon a time, there was a village near the river

like other villages, but in this village was a man - taller

than everyone else. Jolly and bright, an optimist who

could build huts, plough fields, catch fish too.

With each passing day the man grew more confident

and villagers  more adoring and complacent

forgetting their skills they focused on worship

invested in hope, their eyes looking up.

So in awe of Big Man they planned how and when

to feed, wash and clothe him,  elected chairmen

who instructed the villagers of their duty
to keep Big Man strong and beefy.

Soon got so big he couldn't leave his house

stuck behind the door, fearful chairmen marched

up and down the streets in a solemn search for

answers now that folk were retired, poor

keeping Big Man in style and manner to which

he'd become accustomed, his appetite large and rich

too big for his humble home, he demanded more

– a castle or a mansion, while the villagers bore

the cost with their labour, health, and their virgin

daughters, crushed under weight of his lust, his sin

but what could they do? It was tradition, his right

until a child crept with courage to the castle at night

to speak with Big Man, to plead and to show him

how poor the villagers were, their lives so grim

her last feint hope for reason and compassion

and he wept, overcome with guilt he thanked the maiden

promised to create a village based on fairness, equality

and when the girl ran home to tell her kin they were happy

but the chairmen were outraged and charged that girl

with treason, called her wicked, wanton and evil

to go above her station, above their counsel, to enter

the sacred castle of  Big Man, so they banished her

they will save the village,  bring them wealth

stealing from neighbours with arrows, with stealth.

Forgetting their hunger they painted their faces

thumping their chests they mounted wild horses

charging the commons, the forests, the rivers

killing their innocent neighbourly sleepers

no blood was enough to fill up this story

no more was the Big Man the object of glory

filled with ambition the warriors planned

campaigns everywhere, let peace be damned

Big Man and chairmen were sacked and replaced

with new gods, their history censored, erased

forgetting their skills as fishers and builders

as lovers and fathers, as farmers and brothers

and so dear reader don't look for an ending

this tale of a village breaking and bending

there is never an end to the battles and wars

as long as the mind gets stuck on the scores

of winners and losers and what is worth saving.

The Begat of Gratitude

cover painting by Paul Grignon

To those who gave birth to my ancestors

who told me stories of the world

who showed me how to love it.

To all those who by accident and brief encounter

brought me to some truth I did not want to know.

To those who, not knowing my name

helped when I needed help

and who received mine when they needed it.

To those who by commitment of their will

have learned to write, sing, dance or paint

the message we most need to learn.

To all those who have the courage to put their skill

on the public stage to serve

as doctor, lawyer, minister, teacher, publisher,

scientist or social worker.

To those whose names I may never learn

who clean the office, drive the bus, do the laundry

pick the fruit and stack the shelves.

To those who have listened to another 

when they needed to be heard.

To all who embrace their vulnerability

and who enter into compassion.

For you are the names and the faces

of my gratitude.

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

Ground it firmly in reality.

This is the fifth action.

The reality is yours to own. You are the owner of your life and your truth. You are free to express your beliefs but not to dictate or control the response you receive.

If you call out to a stranger "Merry Christmas" and they say they don't celebrate Christmas, you can feel offended or hurt, but it doesn't mean you are being criticized for celebrating Christmas.  It doesn't mean that everyone should be Christian so you don't have to feel bad for not knowing that other people might not share your experiences.

Also if you live in a country that worships and celebrates consumerism you can feel annoyed because that is not what Christmas means to you. You are free to not participate in the shopping orgy and you can even mention that to one who does, but this doesn't mean you are being forced to give up your religious beliefs.

If you live in North America and you have a high standard of living because you are white, male and able-bodied and you have worked hard, you might resent others for pointing out their experiences of discrimination but it doesn't mean they are making you feel guilty. It doesn't mean that there is no prejudice just because you have not experienced it.

In reality everyone suffers. Everyone has been hurt by someone and something. Many have suffered trauma and can't always keep that pain inside.

We all experience the world differently. There are no guarantees that life will be easy. Many know this already because they have lost their home, their family, their tribe, and must endure life in a place where they are not understood, not welcomed.

Justice and injustice are experienced locally. The power you have is limited to what you can do. It always comes back to this. No matter what  theories say about your worth and your future, no matter how privileged a small group of people may be, or the system that elevates or oppresses you, no matter how corrupt the world is - all you have, is what you can do.

This includes the way you think, the words you say, the beliefs you preach, the plans you make, the songs you sing and the people you love ... this is all you have. But it is a lot and the human drama is one that will continue until it dies.

Kindness helps.

Create the story to resonate with deep needs and desires

This is number three of the five actions: 

Once upon a time there was an old woman.  She had a home, a family, good friends, considerate neighbours, clean air and water. She had nutritious food. 

There were trees, birds, insects and small animals around her. 

She was well and happy most of the time, but when she wasn't she could see a doctor. If she felt threatened or insecure there were police officers and lawyers. 

To stimulate her interests there were art groups, there was theatre and there was music, shared interest groups for conversation.

As wonderful as all this was, it wasn't enough.  She wanted more. She wanted conversations on how to deal with emergencies, how to protect the shores and mountains from pollution, how to address climate change. She wanted to learn how to be an effective socially responsible citizen. She wanted to defend nature against greed and careless abuse.

She wanted to love and be loved. She wanted truth and beauty. And she wanted to do whatever she could to support all sentient beings to have what they need to live a long and healthy life.

She lived once she was born and died when her life was over.

Appeal to as many people as possible, crossing traditional political lines

This is number 2 of the five actions.

I have grandchildren. Actually I do not "have" them. They have come into the world, and they are young and vulnerable to so many things.  What I want is for them is to express the fully human and to explore their unique gifts in a society where life is revered and creativity enjoyed.

To that end I will give to the world what it has given me - an opportunity to thrive. My politics wants all life to thrive as much as possible.

My politics arises out of nature within my self and within the world. I want to applaud and encourage whatever expresses nourishment, whatever is good, inspiring, and supportive of good health.

I don't want an ideology for this - I just want to live it.

I trust the next generation will strive to learn and live to the best of their ability in a world that is beyond my imagination. I want to witness the development of the creative human spirit.

Fire fighters, medical professionals, political leaders, military personnel, economic experts, religious leaders, have enriched my life and I anticipate they will enrich the lives of my grandchildren.

So labels such as White, Christian, Left Wing, Socialist, do not define me or my friends and family.  My needs are based on being part of the human family that is dependant on a clean planet with clean air and water.

Here is what I am not:  a gender, a race, a religion, or a job description.

Budgets, taxes, education, health - are ways to support life not to create units of the GDP.  Hierarchy is about organizing energy for the benefit of all, not to create measures of worth between organized classes.

My ancestors came from Africa just like everyone else.  Their DNA still lives and breathes in my DNA. They are still with me - I don't need to label them or identify them.  What matters is the covenant I have with all life on this planet to nurture  the physical, spiritual and mental health of us all.

What can we imagine for the future? What would we like to see happen?

What makes you afraid and what makes you hopeful? What do you need to be engaged with others?

This is basis of my political duty.

Politics is about Humanity Not Just Economics

The previous post arose out of two articles, one by Chris Hedges "The Great Flood", and the other by George Monbiot "How do we get out of this mess".

From this, I isolated five "actions": 

1. transform our politics to include humanity and not just economics
2. appeal to as many people as possible, crossing traditional political lines
3. create the story to resonate with deep needs and desires
4. explain the mess we are in and means by which we might escape it
5. ground it firmly in reality.

This post is about the first one as you can see in the title. I plan to do the same for each of the five.

Instead of using grandiloquent language, Naomi Klein writes (in everyday words) from her latest book (No is Not Enough), and her "instructions" arise out of her commitment to facts. 

"Here is what we need to understand in a hurry: Climate change, especially at this late date, can only be dealt with through collective action that sharply curtails the behavior of corporations ..." 

Klein refers to the ever increasing tax cuts for the richest while the poorest pay with their health, their homes and their lives.

"Climate action demands investments in the public sphere". New energy sources - wind, sun, public transit, light rail. After defeating the fascists that were destroying Europe, after so many of our loved ones were lost in that hell, the "free" world understood what was at stake if governments did not focus on creating stability for their people. 

Investment means paying attention to the lives that matter, creating equality and hope for all, and of course higher taxes to pay for infrastructure. 

What makes us who we are? Are we merely the sum of the ideologies that govern or are we more? Are we the sum of our hatreds, our beliefs, or are we more? Does the Left Wing vs. Right Wing binary serve who we are? Are we physical bodies who seek the spiritual, or spiritual beings inside a body? Are we citizens or consumers? Are we good or evil?

When political arguments are solely about jobs and the economy it means that people have been written out of the narrative.

Politics is the shared construct of who we are, and politicians are the ones who serve the people, or the ones who betray humanity. None of us have a right to abdicate this relationship. To be a cynic is not just a turning away, it's giving a free ride to those who seek power in order to abuse it.

The Great Flood

How can we clean up a flood or restore our community after a fire? These questions are great metaphors for the survival of civilizations. 

We are flooded with all the reminders of our mortality in these crises, even if we are not directly affected by them. 

When fires burn our homes, farms, flow charts and plans, how will democracy or capitalism rebuild our world? 

The future requires more than a lego set or blueprint. It requires  a Restoration story we can all relate to, says George Monbiot.

Chris Hedges notes in his article "The Great Flood"  that civilizations in fits of despair and anger  "have unfailingly squandered their futures through acts of colossal stupidity and hubris." 

The ruins of great empires litter the earth, says Hedges, as corrupt leaders  "driven by greed and hedonism, retreated into privileged compounds ... and hoarded wealth as their populations endured mounting misery and poverty."

Channeling anger into wars, the people are without knowledge because the wisdom they learned from a civil society don't apply. The worse things get, Hedges reminds, the more we retreat into magical thinking.  

We tell ourselves through social narrative that we have no agency. Everything is tied to the system which controls and punishes us if we don't believe their ideology. And  those who offer new stories are often burned at the stake or nailed to a cross, then worshipped as martyrs and messiahs after they die.

George Monbiot in his blog - tells us, what we need is not just facts, science and knowledge, but a cohesive narrative, where our agency is required. Where we are needed.


"The narrative we build has to be simple and intelligible. If it is to transform our politics, it should appeal to as many people as possible, crossing traditional political lines. It should resonate with deep needs and desires. It should explain the mess we are in and means by which we might escape it. And, because there is nothing to be gained from spreading falsehoods, it must be firmly grounded in reality."

For clarity I have itemized the instructions embedded in this paragraph:

1. transform our politics to include humanity and not just economics
2. appeal to as many people as possible, crossing traditional political lines
3. create the story to resonate with deep needs and desires
4. explain the mess we are in and means by which we might escape it
5. ground it firmly in reality.

Yes it is a tall order, but without long term intentions we are soon pushed off the road. 

Community Film Screening: Trick or Treaty?

Date & Time: 

09/13/2017 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm

 

Join members of Gabriola’s local chapter of Amnesty International to mark the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

 

This feature documentary profiles Indigenous leaders in their quest for justice as they seek to establish dialogue with the Canadian government. By tracing the history of their ancestors since the signing of Treaty No. 9, these leaders aim to raise awareness about issues vital to First Nations in Canada: respect for and protection of their lands and natural resources, and the right to hunt and fish so their societies can prosper. A 2014 documentary by Alanis Obomsawin.

 

Free, drop in.

Gabriola Island Branch of VIRL

#5 - 575 North Road

Gabriola 

http://virl.bc.ca/branches/gabriola-island

Gabriola Island

#5 - 575 North Rd,

Gabriola Island

V0R 1X3

Phone: (250) 247-7878

Fax: (250) 247-7892

E-mail: GabriolaIsland@virl.bc.c

Climate Self Censorship

"Across the world, the issue that hangs over every aspect of our lives is marginalised, except on the rare occasions on which world leaders gather to discuss it in sombre tones (then sombrely agree to do almost nothing), whereupon the instinct to follow the machinations of power overrides the instinct to avoid a troubling subject."

George Monbiot

Beloved Community

On first hearing these two words together, I thought ‘beloved’ seemed too intimate for my ‘community’.  Later I realized the power of these words even as the word ‘community’  implies something too complex to be ‘loved’.

What is love anyway? Eros, the romantic exclusive love is what we are most familiar with, but there are other expressions of love.  ‘Philia’, the love of family and friends, and ‘agape’ the inclusive love for humanity. Beloved refers to that which is greatly loved.

The phrase “Beloved Community” was popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King who envisioned a society based on justice, equal opportunity, and love of one's fellow human beings. (Ritterman, The Huffington Post. January 19, 2014). I heard it from a UU minister.

While capitalism exploits love for the sale of diamonds, chocolates and roses, and politics corrupts tribal love for war, King managed to address what he hoped might bring us back to a reverence for life itself. 

Different reasons have brought people to the BC island of Gabriola. Some have come to get away from the city for a peaceful, quiet retirement, some seek a deeper community than the consumer based suburb surrounding a shopping mall.  If there is any value we share, my guess would be the wish to preserve beauty and the peace to enjoy it.  

“Beloved community” is not an optimistic sentiment or a new religion. It is the planning, planting, building, investment of time and energy into something we value.  The question is how do we achieve this with a constituency of diverse interests? How do we communicate to people with different capacities? The mind of a lawyer is trained differently from the mind of a nurse. The knowledge and discipline of an economist is entirely different from a high school teacher. Yet we share the same planet.

As a species we have evolved with such highly distinct vocabularies we have created the impossibility of a shared solution. I suspect we know this, collectively, on a deep inarticulate level, and the brutality exhibited by those who seek to force their “Solution” is the result of madness: the mind falling into pieces before the heart can rescue it. 

On this island we have many gifts, assets and services we couldn’t live without. Some are paid, but most of this wealth is sustained through millions of volunteer hours never counted on the stock market.  

This is what beloved community looks like to me. It’s noisy, exhausting and sometimes irritating. It asks more from those who give and nothing from those who don’t. It’s emergent in design. It requires more learning than we would like – mostly about the human capacity to care. What propels people to give so much to community? Where do they find their rewards? Sharing in the joy of others?

Thich Nhat Hanh writes “A lot of suffering is born from the discrimination between self and others and our notion of a separate self.” The Buddhist teaching of “nonself” far from being a nihilistic escape, is an insight into how we are all connected whether we want to be or not. The threat of an oil spill is a great example of this.

How much more “news” do we need to understand that our future is fragile, because decisions made in offshore board rooms where we have no voice, could lead to our own demise.

The narrative of global politics focuses on conflict between separate identities: nation against nation, faith against faith, left against right, but ignores the work of villagers who know that clean water, air and food, must be sustained through community dialogue and engagement. This is why the arts are essential.

Beloved community is a radical departure from top-down authority in what Hannah Arendt saw as a world of lonely consumption, where people have forgotten how to work together in trust. (Duncan Cameron, rabble.ca). It is a determination to not turn away when the structures that govern politics and business are no longer working, an integrity that enters the unknown refusing to despair.

It’s not love that we should fear, it’s the gap between what is and what we have to lose that shakes us out of complacency. 

(First published in The Flying Shingle  July 7, 2014, and first posted on this blog in 2014)

Social Justice Made Easy

Do you wince, feel queasy if you see someone getting hurt, or worse, beaten up? Not in TV programs or movies but in real life.

Do you feel for another being if they are publicly shamed and you can see the pain their eyes?

Do you get angry when you hear  a loved one retell an incident that caused them suffering because of someone else?

Are you filled with rage after listening to endless headlines about accidents, wars, flood and fires, with thousand to millions dying because of the ambitions of a few?

If you answered yes to more than one of these - remember this is empathy. This is a part of your human nature that implodes in your mind and heart.

You were born with compassion. It is your birthright and the reason you have lived long enough to read this - because those who cared for you mostly had compassion and empathy, and because those who cared for you were cared for by others.

Social justice is a complex and complicated subject, and unlike car mechanics, changes as we become more aware.  Also it is not easy to get other people to agree on all its parts. There are different reasons why we can't agree on everything, but one thing I believe is, in societies that treat some members like gods and others like trash we all suffer.

Unless we are psychopathic narcissists, our relationship to neighbours, leaders, and relatives, is a primary factor in our happiness. We need to live among healthy happy people most of the time in order to be happy ourselves.

So when sponsored sources claim that the market is the universal measure of success and there is no such thing as society, it is a lie and it will make you miserable - unless you're a narcissist of course.

And when slogans say over and over again, that you have a duty to yourself to win, to rise to the top, to be the best looking most sought after woman or man in the world, and you barely notice the refrain because you have heard it ever since you were a toddler - please ask yourself who benefits?

So to get back to the task of creating a world that allows you to be happy, a world you want your children to live in, think about all the things you have done in your life that made you or someone else happy. That's social justice in the making and you don't have to be a sociologist to do it.

However a world built on social justice will take the majority of our species to understand its value and work towards that, and not get side-tracked by money and status.