Love & Divinity

I believe it was Alice Walker who first warned us not to worship a god who doesn’t love us in return.  This presents an interesting challenge to people like me who see all beings as manifestations of God Herself.  Believe it or not, this includes human beings.  Imagine, every person you encounter every day is a precious piece of the Divine.  

Does this mean I recommend worshipping any and every person who crosses your path?  No.  I do not even recommend relating to every person who cross your path.  Jehovah had his off days and so do we.

Reserve some love for those gods who will love you back, whether they be gods of flesh and blood or other substances.   Getting down to the earthbound questions – Are you spending time with loving people?  Or are you one those types who gives their love to the unloving?   Is your love repaid with neglect, contempt or outright denunciations?  

Not every act of love will be reciprocated.  I accept that there are many good reasons to demonstrate love without expectation of getting any in return.   Unfortunately, a lot of us demonstrate that kind of love for the wrong reasons.  We forget the maxim, “All love begins with self-love, it just shouldn’t end there.”  

Does your gift of love reinforce self-love?

Anniversary

Sept 1st, 2009

One year ago Republican delegates and their anarchist foes were amassing in Minneapolis St. Paul.  One year ago, the world was a different place.  

I was there in the streets, working in partnership with activists who hold party politics in contempt.  Afterwards, I spent a lot of time arguing with those same activists, trying to convince then not to dismiss the potential of the Obama campaign.  Here’s a paraphrase of a typical discussion I would have with my room mate.

Room mate:  If Obama is elected things will probably get a lot worse.  At least with Bush people rose up to resist his policies.  If he’s not in office, people will get really complacent.  An Obama presidency would be basically the same as Bush, just not quite as bad, but at least Bush’s tyranny motivated people to get out there and  do something.

Me:  But isn’t that exciting.   If Obama got elected, things would be a little less bad than they are under Bush.  Isn’t that something to get excited about.

In a world that experiences so much suffering every day, I still find value in recognizing that things could be a lot worse.  So last year, as I was getting ready to occupy the streets of St. Paul, I wrote something about how even the imminent nomination of John McCain was a small victory to celebrate, an indicator of how much worse things could be.  (I don’t believe Sarah Palin had become his running mate.  Nevertheless, I offer it now for some perspective.)

Aug – 2008   I know a lot of people are excited by the prospect of this year’s presidential race, and a lot of other folks are pessimistic, seeing little of value in any of the candidates or even the electoral process itself.  I choose to celebrate the victories that are real today.  Remember that not long ago, Rudolph Guilliani was  serious contender for the office of President of the United States.  Let us all be thankful that whoever is elected in November it will NOT be him.  The man clearly hates gardens.  At least that is the logical conclusion to draw form his record.  His mayoral administration facilitated the destruction of dozens of community gardens throughout the city of New York.  He personally justified the onslaught.  

As I behold the splendor of m own back yard garden, I think to myself that someone willing to bulldoze such a resource cannot be trusted with the country’s highest office, and I am thankful that some folks agree.

Let the People Break your Heart

This is the advice I got when I asked about traveling to Latin America.   That was ten years ago.  I was at an activist conference in Washington D.C.   

Many people have labeled me as an activist, but I just think that there are many moments that call us to be active, to take control, to assume leadership, to be loud and out in front.  Then there are other momentsthat call for us to feel, to be receptive, to listen to other people’s stories and take the risk of our hearts breaking open.  A lot of peope don’t include these moments in their definition of activism, which is partially why I abandoned the term.  

Abandoning the term doesn’t mean abandoning the struggle.  Although I never made it to Latin America, tomorrow that is going to change.  In the afternoon I will step onto a plane that will deliver me to Bogota, Columbia, the starting point for a ten day delegation into the very threatened Amazon rain forest.  

What am I expecting?  Well, an organization that is almost as old as I am has arranged a lot of meetings between us, the delegates, and residents of the rain forest, but you can never know exactly what to expect when crossing borders.  Since divination is part of my magical practice, I’ve been drawing Tarot cards and getting a lot of cups, a suit very analogous to hearts in standard playing cards.   Cups don’t usually make a strong appearance in my readings, and I often neglect matters of the heart.  Tomorrow that is going to change.   Tomorrow, I start relinquishing a lot of the control I am used to having and open to the possibility of the people breaking my heart.

The task of the 5th house is to create drama-or else live melodrama – Caroline Casey

Drama is substantial, the stuff of journalism.  Melodrama is artificial and belongs to the world of sensationalism.  Lately, I’ve been exhorting my friends to recognize the difference, especially when I hear them say, “I can’t stand all the drama.”  

In my quest to live for my ideals in a world of conflicting values, drama is an inevitable and often helpful companion, because it can cut to the heart of an issue and make complex conflicts easier to comprehend.  Melodrama shrouds relevant information in a dense fog and trivializes our precious time.

It can be easy to confuse drama with melodrama because they have a common ingredient, conflict.  However, dramatic conflict engages our emotions, our passion and even our compassion.  Melodramatic conflict is a distraction from real life and a short cut to burn out.  Learning to distinguish between the two is a valuable life skill.

Solstice thoughts

As the streets of Tehran sizzle and people come to my neighborhood to assert their rights and bonfires rage in observance of the summer Solstice, I am reminded of Carlo Giuliani.  June 20th marked the 8 year anniversary of his death.  On that day he was in Genoa, Italy demonstrating against a meeting of the Group of 8, the most industrial and influential countries in the world today.  Carlo was shot in the face by the ruthless Carabinieri who then ran over his body with their land rover vehicle.  He would have been 30 years old today.  

Carlo Giuliani, casualty of the war waged by the wealthy to consolidate their power, even at the expense of human life.  It is a war in which mere survival is a form of resistance that not everyone can afford.  The United Nations estimates that 6 million children die every year because of policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank, institutions that are primarily controlled by G8 countries.  

To fight back is a privilege that Carlo chose to exercise.  His death tempered the movement to stop corporate globalization, but direct actions continued past Genoa.  Street protests continued to shift the balance between corporate power and people power, some more successfully than others.  We went on to learn from our mistakes and do more sophisticated preparation before engaging in mass direct action.

Last year I was at a training to get ready for an action at the Republican National Convention.  Our highly experienced trainer was showing slides from the Genoa action and she mentioned Carlo Giuliani.

“Sometimes,” she said, “people get killed.”  

Her statement seemed to gloss over something I could not put my finger on until she mentioned the importance of facing yourself.  That’s crucial, because when we step into the chrysalis of nonviolent mass action we emerge as different people.  Attending a mss action is like riding in a car or stepping onto an airplane.  You could wind up dead, as Carlo Giuliani wound up dead.  However the greater danger is much more common.  Step into the world of street protest, and you run the risk of being reborn.

Something about me & the world i live in

Violence is a corner stone of our society.  Children are routinely sexually abused.  Women undergo the trauma of rape.  Men are discouraged from developing their mind, body and soul but are given plenty of incentive to join armies and wage war.  Other men are convicted of nonviolent “crimes” and must then suffer the indignity of prison.  The oceans of a violent culture simmer and warm and unleash storms that kill.  Trying to maintain some sanity in this world is like trying to build a house during a hurricane.
I’m still just scratching the surface of molestations, massacres and the swirling vortex of institutionalized violence that we live under.  None of these things has actually happened to me, but that’s the thing about a culture; it touches everyone who lives in it.  I’ve enjoyed a lot of shelter from the storm, but even those who find refuge in the basement would have a hard time denying that something is going down.
It took me a while to figure out that something was going down. It’s amazing how those who shelter us from the storm will still refuse to talk about its existence. It’s amazing how seldom Americans will admit to each other that we live in a violent culture, but eventually I came to that conclusion. 
In the mysticism I practice one of our core values is knowledge.  So today, I keep restating the fact of our violent culture because I believe it is one of the most important things for Americans to know.  But this fact also leads to knowledge about me, an inhabitant of this society.   I am rarely directly victimized by this violence, but I’m always aware of it.  Not a single day goes by when it’s not on my mind or even breaking my heart.   Every day I the choice to feed this culture or starve it, and those are hard choices.  I would like the next generation to have easier choices.  I would like there to be a next generation.  
Pushing the violence out of my awareness has not worked very well.  I’ve tried.  It only serves to divide me from myself.  Instead, I practice a religion that emphasizes sitting in order to expand our awareness and find integration.   We sit with that which is difficult and contradictory.  We reflect on our choices and work.
 I sit on a daily basis and become aware of suffering, oppression and war.  This is difficult.  It brings up questions.  How can this be?  How can this be changed?  What is my role?  Often I have to sit with the questions.  On a good day I will find an answer; then I know what work lies ahead.

Soil not Oil

My city’s weekly paper ran a cover story with a funny subtitle.

“Old Message:  We’re doomed

New Message:  Not necessarily”

The name of the article was Hope for the Planet.  It contained some encouraging news from environmental scientests who see potential for us to reverse course on global warming.  Some of them were a little too caught up in the craze over biofuels, so I wrote a letter-to-the-editor and they published half of it.  I offer you the uncut version.

More Agriculture, Less Agrofuels, Soil not Oil

 

Tracey Holloway’s policy suggestions on climate change (Hope for the Planet, April 17 Cover Story) make me want  to jump start her gubernatorial campaign, if only she would reconsider her support for investments in agriculture based biofuels, also known as agrofuels.   Researchers who have studied agrofuels have concluded that even if all cropland in the U.S. were used to grow corn and all the corn were used to make ethanol, we would not produce enough ethanol to replace our over consumption of gasoline.*  Instead of growing crops to feed that over consumption, we could be addressing the climate crisis by supporting those enthusiastic young people who want to make careers out of growing food for their communities.  

Relocalization of our food system will be an essential piece of building resiliance in the face of environmental threats.  This is the message of Vandana Shiva, internationally renowned farmer who recently lectured in Wisconsin.  Her latest book exposes how the rush to subsidize agrofuels is actually an environmentally dangerous move largely driven by and for big agribusiness companies like ADM, Bunge and Cargill.  Get a copy of Soil not Oil today, and find out why the only Green in agrofuels is the color of corporate profits.  

 

*The studies I refer to include a report, “The False Hope of Biofuels,” profiled in The Washington Post, July 2, 2006

Civics

Last week I voted in my community’s municipal elections, something I highly encourage.  My country’s new president has sparked hope for political reform, but the people benefitting the most from Obama’s leadership will be those who have direct and accountable relationships with local elected officials.  Building those accountable relationships will require us to vote and mobilize our neighbors, friends, and family to do the same.  So do it.  It’s not just about being , “a good citizen,” as nice as that is.  It’s about advancing our self-interest.

I take pride in 2 acts fo good citizenship from election day.  Getting to the polls on time was one of them.  Number two is that I rode my bicycle to the edge of town in order to talk to Robert Pierce, long time Madison resident, coordinator of the South Madison Farmer’s Market and member of Growing Power.  I arrived just as he was ploughing his field.  Robert P. is a serious vegetable grower.  Serious vegetable grower’s tend to be busy people.  Lucky for me, he was gracious enough to chat with me about soil.

Soil literacy is another part of good citizenship.  Vandana Shiva convinced me of this.  In her best selling writings she coined the term Earth Democracy.  In my country we are used to restricting our political thought to electoral democracy, a dry world of polling stations, voter rolls and debates on the Senate floor.  The demands of the future will require us to get beyond that world and into the realm of Earth Democracy, an exciting world of dirt, microorganisms, organic fertilizers, top soil and the incredible food those resources produce.

On election day I participated in both forms of democracy.  I’m happy to say that the woman I voted for won.  Kathleen Falk will continue to be my county’s Executive.  She has a strong record of wetland conservation and restoration, so from that perspective I believe my ideals will benefit from her continued public service.  At the same time, ideals, good citizenship, and the needs of democracy in all its forms demand that we take the initiative for community improvement, rather than letting politicians do it for us.  So for that reason, I am also very grateful for my conversation with Robert Pierce.  We discussed some plans to build soil this summer.  The vision is manifesting as I write this.  Earth Democracy is being served.  Praise Be.

Shame???

Oh, what is the use of shame.  Very little from what I can tell.  Shame imprisons us.  It keeps us bound to destructive secrets that erode our ability to form intimate relationships and live up to our fullest potential.  

I am aware that some people find shame to be very useful.  When I was younger there were appeals to bring shaming back into American culture.  I suspect William Bennett was a major driver of this movement.  His argument came at a time when day time talk shows began competing to see who could broadcast the freakiest guests.  Perhaps some people saw reviving a culture of shame as better than having to turn off their television sets.  Maybe other people saw this revival as having the potential to advance progressive causes.  It’s tempting to believe that we could reform naughty corporations by harnessing the power of shame, but since they have none, it’s really not a very effective tactic.  In fact, shamelessness pays off very well for the rich and powerful.  Maybe the rest of us should try it.  

Shamelessness does not have to equal arrogance.  My magical colleagues are renowned for getting around dualistic brainwashing.  When mainstream culture tells us that shame and arrogance are the only possibilities, we invoke Pride, a third road that cuts through false choices.  True Pride.  Healthy Pride.  What fills you with pride?

Defining it

In my last blog entry I declared that organizing is an act of love.  I’m already anticipating the questions my statement raises.  ”What do you mean by organizing?  Really, what is love anyway?”

Last Fall similar questions arose at a training I attended.  One of the presenters asked if anyone could offer a description of organizing.  This is what I said.

Organizing is the art of creating and sustaining relationships based on solidarity, relationships that can challenge and ultimately replace relationships based on exploitation.

Later, when the training was drawing to a close, we were asked to shut our eyes and imagine the future world that we were all working so hard to create.  I pictured a world full of organizers, all of them furiously working on meaningful projects and long term relationship building.  The work was demanding and often difficult, but the organizers were nourished by thousands of acts of appreciation, because in this future, most people recognize that organizing is an act of love.