“I’ve grown impatient with the kind of debate we used to have about whether the optimists are right or the pessimists are right. Neither are right. There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair.” – Donella Meadows
These dark, holiday day can be a real mix of emotion for most people. Which made a new book from Barbara Ehrenreich particularly catch my attention. Ehrenreich sets out to debunk the new-agey obsession with positive thinking. And particularly the dangerously common mix of positive thinking and unregulated capitalism.
I’m a big fan of gratitude. Especially on these short, cold winter days. But in the world of new-agey spiritual philosophies, I think we can do better for ourselves and one another than the shallow positive thinking that Ehrenreich and others so articulately challenge.
Life is messy and imperfect. And the good we can do for one another is usually knee deep in the action of it all. It doesn’t look like stockphotos, top 40 lists, and revisionist history. It looks like casseroles for sick friends, difficult community conversations, grassroots organizing, heartbreaking losses and unexpected wins. Which makes me think of a Marge Piercy poem:
To be of use
“The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.”
Life will at times be tough, complicated, joyful, frustrating, meaningful, and overwhelming. Messy and imperfect and totally unpredictable. Let’s head into another year of it together.
Fondly, Christine
Penny Rossenwasser in Vancouver
January 16th, 7:30pm
At the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture (6184 Ash St)
Penny Rosenwasser is former Jewish Caucus Chair of the National Women’s StudiesAssociation and is a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Her new book, HOPE into PRACTICE: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears, is a rare blend of healing stories, history and a fair-minded perspective on Israel-Palestine.
Co-Sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices-Vancouver, Building Bridges Vancouver, Spirited Social Change, and InterSpiritual Centre of Vancouver Society
Find out more here.
Fossil Fuel Divestment Training
January 18th – 20th in Vancouver, BC. (Billeting and scholarships available for folks outside of the city)
As the fossil fuel divestment movement continues to grow, the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition is holding trainings to help train organizers, start new campaigns, and take existing campaigns to the next level.
Useful for anyone thinking about starting or getting involved on a campaign within their faith institution, municipality, school, union, ect.
Find out more and register here.
The Work that Reconnects
February 22-23rd, at the Stanley Park Ecology Centre in Vancouver.
A transformative group retreat to enliven and deepen our motivations for creating a just and sustainable world. With facilitators Jackie Larkin, Heather Talbot and Maggie Ziegler.
Find out more and register here.
The Self Care Project 2014
Last year’s pilot of the Self Care Project was a huge success. And we’re getting ready to run it for a second year! In Vancouver, Victoria, and possibly Saskatoon.
We’ll send you more information at the beginning of 2014. Look out for it in your inbox. And please help spread the word.
Because we want a movement that builds us up, instead of burning us out.
Find out more here.
