Rachel, such an important piece for many reasons. I had to write this gem in my journal: "edges make limits and limits create space." Long ago, a friend in prison taught me about finding freedom within constraint, which was conceptually new to me. That paradox.
Also, not confusing symbols of liberation with liberation itself. Distinguishing between the finger pointing at the moon and the moon. Here in the US where symbols often become performative, it's easy to adopt one. I wear my little watermelon lapel pin more as my own daily practice of fastening it to a shirt so that I remain mindful as I move about my day freely, my Palestinian siblings are being starved and crushed and trying to survive. And yes, it matters that I don the pin, probably more for me than others, though I hope it does signal to people who see it that this Jewish person knows we can never atone for this genocide—and in a way, the pin is like wearing a piece of rent black fabric, a sign of mourning.
And yes, how we speak with each other is fundamental. I sit in circle a lot and train folks in the practice of peacemaking circles where we hold space for the complexity of our stories and intersections. The practice is to listen attentively, with curiosity and to notice, wonder, acknowledge, and appreciate (understand more deeply) by listening without the answer running. Thanks for the nourishment of your words.
“ It is talking, not to convince, but to understand.”
I think this might prove to be the best statement of the spirit of Prudent Stewardship Assemblies as adaptations of Citizens Assemblies in politics to the regulation of the morality of money infused into enterprise through the financial mathematics of equity paybacks accountable to the common sense of new 21st Century planetary citizens in the new 21st Century planetary commons of Fiduciary Money controlled by Social trusts for Pensions & Endowments.
And here now again, another huge wow arises within me, as I finish reading this... Your writings over and over keep shaping and reshaping our world, as well as my own ways of seeing, and even as we all become like sculptors who are merely removing what is in the way of what is always and already here, ready to be realized, as in made real...
What is reaching to speak through you (my sense), more and more and more, is HUGE, Rachel.... Please keep falling back into it, even as it seems to keep thrusting you further and further out into the middle of what I believe is also a new shared world seeking to emerge, even now, through all this blatant delusion, destruction and chaos...
And as you keep falling back, let yourself discover, in what will keep forever being further, greater and deeper ways, that what you are falling back into is also you, me, us, all of life...
You write of a time where thinking and intellectual risk taking was part of an avant garde. It was before my time too and my children are your age.
In the nineties, when i was in my 20s, here in the US there were still pockets of free thinkers and visionaries left. Where our naivetè was not viewed with such distaste as it is now and our innocence was just that, and nothing else. We fought against ‘the man’, we explored ideas we barely understood, we thought we were wise because we dared to be pacifists and we meditated with strangers in even stranger settings, and looking back, i still don’t remember how i met the people i met. We managed to travel across thousands of miles to mix clay gathered from the corners of the earth with thousands of people stomping, laughing, singing and connecting. Artist made clay murals more artists painted them. The art was gathered, brought 1500 miles to my hometown to be put on display in an obscure plot of land just off the interstate: Prairie Peace Park. It was a symbol of hope.
The park is now gone. Left to become the ruins of a dream of peace by those of us that dared to dream of living as a world community.
Of course, there is a story there. Many stories.
We were not fifties beatniks, but we wrote poetry that has long disappeared. In my case i am quite thankful for the disappearance. We jammed, argued, sang loudly and poorly. Be danced in the rain. We got lost when we traveled and did not care. We talked to strangers often. We put ourselves in situations we hope our children will not duplicate.
I am not super proud of my generation. We sought mostly to be invisible. We don’t want to be heroes. We merely wanted to raise our children to know we have their backs in a way the Baby Boomers never had ours. We reinvented everything as it seems our parents fought hard to be good consumers and wanted nothing more for their children as to be even better consumers than they were. But we rejected that. The Boomers took as much as they could, they even now refuse to allow my generation to be president.
The one thing my generation had done that i am quite proud of is to challenge homophobia and open the way for trans and non-binary persons to be far more open than in any generation before.
It breaks my heart to watch that move backwards.
Enough. Your writing often elicits my long winded comments.
Mostly, i just want to encourage you to continue! You are more brave than the vast majority! You may not fully recognize it. You might just be being yourself and cannot see it. But you are looking into places, in a public way, that the vast majority of our species cannot and will not.
Why do i keep saying you are brave? Because nearly everyone i speak with says the territory of looking honestly at the human predicament and what we are doing to the biosphere is too much. They beg me to stop trying to engage with them.
I know i am not the only one encountering this fear. I am often and repeatedly told it is overwhelming.
And i really do my level best to listen and acknowledge it is indeed frightening. It is hard to witness.
So this is why i keep saying it. You are likely just as reluctant as Gen Xers to be a hero. It probably sounds too weird to consider. But at least acknowledge you are courageous! And thank you for that!
"Our duty to each other should always trump our duty to the symbols of the past" - I now have this written on a post-in note on my workstation. You have put into words something I've felt so deeply. Something that's been breaking my heart over the past few years which ultimately took me to start writing my Substack pieces. Watching people, especially the people closest and dearest to me choose tradition, image, or inherited beliefs over compassion and connection... it's been devastating.
Thank you for writing this. It makes me feel less crazy for feeling the way I do.
Rachel, such an important piece for many reasons. I had to write this gem in my journal: "edges make limits and limits create space." Long ago, a friend in prison taught me about finding freedom within constraint, which was conceptually new to me. That paradox.
Also, not confusing symbols of liberation with liberation itself. Distinguishing between the finger pointing at the moon and the moon. Here in the US where symbols often become performative, it's easy to adopt one. I wear my little watermelon lapel pin more as my own daily practice of fastening it to a shirt so that I remain mindful as I move about my day freely, my Palestinian siblings are being starved and crushed and trying to survive. And yes, it matters that I don the pin, probably more for me than others, though I hope it does signal to people who see it that this Jewish person knows we can never atone for this genocide—and in a way, the pin is like wearing a piece of rent black fabric, a sign of mourning.
And yes, how we speak with each other is fundamental. I sit in circle a lot and train folks in the practice of peacemaking circles where we hold space for the complexity of our stories and intersections. The practice is to listen attentively, with curiosity and to notice, wonder, acknowledge, and appreciate (understand more deeply) by listening without the answer running. Thanks for the nourishment of your words.
“ It is talking, not to convince, but to understand.”
I think this might prove to be the best statement of the spirit of Prudent Stewardship Assemblies as adaptations of Citizens Assemblies in politics to the regulation of the morality of money infused into enterprise through the financial mathematics of equity paybacks accountable to the common sense of new 21st Century planetary citizens in the new 21st Century planetary commons of Fiduciary Money controlled by Social trusts for Pensions & Endowments.
And here now again, another huge wow arises within me, as I finish reading this... Your writings over and over keep shaping and reshaping our world, as well as my own ways of seeing, and even as we all become like sculptors who are merely removing what is in the way of what is always and already here, ready to be realized, as in made real...
What is reaching to speak through you (my sense), more and more and more, is HUGE, Rachel.... Please keep falling back into it, even as it seems to keep thrusting you further and further out into the middle of what I believe is also a new shared world seeking to emerge, even now, through all this blatant delusion, destruction and chaos...
And as you keep falling back, let yourself discover, in what will keep forever being further, greater and deeper ways, that what you are falling back into is also you, me, us, all of life...
🙏🌻💕🇵🇸
You write of a time where thinking and intellectual risk taking was part of an avant garde. It was before my time too and my children are your age.
In the nineties, when i was in my 20s, here in the US there were still pockets of free thinkers and visionaries left. Where our naivetè was not viewed with such distaste as it is now and our innocence was just that, and nothing else. We fought against ‘the man’, we explored ideas we barely understood, we thought we were wise because we dared to be pacifists and we meditated with strangers in even stranger settings, and looking back, i still don’t remember how i met the people i met. We managed to travel across thousands of miles to mix clay gathered from the corners of the earth with thousands of people stomping, laughing, singing and connecting. Artist made clay murals more artists painted them. The art was gathered, brought 1500 miles to my hometown to be put on display in an obscure plot of land just off the interstate: Prairie Peace Park. It was a symbol of hope.
The park is now gone. Left to become the ruins of a dream of peace by those of us that dared to dream of living as a world community.
Of course, there is a story there. Many stories.
We were not fifties beatniks, but we wrote poetry that has long disappeared. In my case i am quite thankful for the disappearance. We jammed, argued, sang loudly and poorly. Be danced in the rain. We got lost when we traveled and did not care. We talked to strangers often. We put ourselves in situations we hope our children will not duplicate.
I am not super proud of my generation. We sought mostly to be invisible. We don’t want to be heroes. We merely wanted to raise our children to know we have their backs in a way the Baby Boomers never had ours. We reinvented everything as it seems our parents fought hard to be good consumers and wanted nothing more for their children as to be even better consumers than they were. But we rejected that. The Boomers took as much as they could, they even now refuse to allow my generation to be president.
The one thing my generation had done that i am quite proud of is to challenge homophobia and open the way for trans and non-binary persons to be far more open than in any generation before.
It breaks my heart to watch that move backwards.
Enough. Your writing often elicits my long winded comments.
Mostly, i just want to encourage you to continue! You are more brave than the vast majority! You may not fully recognize it. You might just be being yourself and cannot see it. But you are looking into places, in a public way, that the vast majority of our species cannot and will not.
Why do i keep saying you are brave? Because nearly everyone i speak with says the territory of looking honestly at the human predicament and what we are doing to the biosphere is too much. They beg me to stop trying to engage with them.
I know i am not the only one encountering this fear. I am often and repeatedly told it is overwhelming.
And i really do my level best to listen and acknowledge it is indeed frightening. It is hard to witness.
So this is why i keep saying it. You are likely just as reluctant as Gen Xers to be a hero. It probably sounds too weird to consider. But at least acknowledge you are courageous! And thank you for that!
"Our duty to each other should always trump our duty to the symbols of the past" - I now have this written on a post-in note on my workstation. You have put into words something I've felt so deeply. Something that's been breaking my heart over the past few years which ultimately took me to start writing my Substack pieces. Watching people, especially the people closest and dearest to me choose tradition, image, or inherited beliefs over compassion and connection... it's been devastating.
Thank you for writing this. It makes me feel less crazy for feeling the way I do.
Gorgeous.
Deep bows, huge thanks, peace ✌🏼
Thankyou Rachel
GOOD SOVEREIGNTY vs BAD SOVEREIGNTY, perhaps the main cause of global warming.
Pls visit EARTHABOVEALL.NET
COP-CHICO-MENDES instead of COP30.
cacophony♾️symphony
when is one then the other