Grace to #OWS
Grace Lee Boggs’ message to Occupy Wall Street – 10/9/11 from American Revolutionary on Vimeo.
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Love
An emergent collaborative spoken word poem by IISC staff.
You find yourself walking
there’s focus and intention
in appreciation of each soul’s journey
an openness to what we don’t know
and ever surrendering to the confusion of conviction
unfolding, becoming, self-giving
you notice the beauty of all that’s connected
and then you think about love
it flows forth and around
and through play
you can hear it, you can see it
supports justice whether its for you or against you
binding us and guiding us
and suddenly your heart opens wide
so that you can listen fully, be present fully- right where you are
so that what is unimaginable is possible.
Leave a commentConnecting for Change
For the third year in a row, I am looking forward to presenting at the Connecting for Change conference, also known as Bioneers by the Bay, sponsored by the Marion Institute. The community of New Bedford, Massachusetts becomes the host and scenic back-drop to some amazing speakers, well known and not so well known, as well as presentations by an incredible array of people doing important work in our New England region. Read More
Leave a commentWhat kind of elders do we need?
The first person I met when I went to Dewey Square was a mom, about my age, who came down to see what her son was involved with. I have sons in this age range myself. Occupy Boston has me thinking a lot about what kind of elders we need and what kind of elder I hope to be.
In my college days, I had the privilege of knowing Bob Moses, of Freedom Movement reknown. He mostly spoke to us about issues of the day, always in a way that challenged our thinking and pressed us to think about what was calling our generation forward. He had taken a page from Ella Jo Baker’s book, focusing on building our capacity and confidence to shape our own agenda. We rarely talked about his Movement experiences and I was a little intimidated about asking a living legend about those days.
Early attempts to link Occupy Boston and community efforts focused on related issues have me thinking how best to share lessons and wisdom without squashing the enthusiasm of the younger folk. Younger folk—what kind of elders do you need? And older folk—what kind of elders do you want to be?
Leave a commentEllen Ochoa
Ellen Ochoa is best known for being the first Hispanic woman astronaut, having made 4 space voyages, since being recruited by NASA, in 1991. But, she is also a noted inventor, with three patents for her work in optics, is a trained classical flutist and private airplane pilot
Leave a commentNetwork Quotes
Offered to and gleaned from the Farm to Plate Network proceedings in Vermont:
- “For the human species to evolve, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead
- “‘The system’ is not out there; it is the way we work together.” – Yaneer Bar-Yam
- “Do what you do best and link to the rest.” – Jeff Jarvis
- “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family; whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” – Jane Howard
- “Networks invite us to focus on contributions before credentials.” – Gary Hamel
- “Transparency of information breeds self-correcting behavior.” – Thad Allen
- “When it comes to collaboration, it’s about trust.” – Tom Martin
- “If you don’t think that small things can make a big difference, you’ve never slept in a bed with a mosquito!” – Arianna Huffington
- “Discover a few vital behaviors, change those, and problems – no matter their size – topple like a house of cards.” – Kerry Patterson
- “I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.” – Richard Feynman Leave a comment
An Artist and a Leader
Mr. Jobs was neither a hardware engineer nor a software programmer, nor did he think of himself as a manager. He considered himself a technology leader, choosing the best people possible, encouraging and prodding them, and making the final call on product design.
Leave a commentWalk Out, March On
“My heart is moved
by all I cannot save
so much has been destroyed.
I have cast my lot
with those who age after age,
perversely,
and with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”
-Adrienne Rich
I spent a couple of hours at Occupy Boston this weekend and a couple more hours on line reading about Boston, New York and the burgeoning movement in cities across the country. The issues in Boston are wide and varied, including student debt, unemployment, corporate “personhood” and greed, foreclosure prevention, and “deep green resistance.” Everything is loosely connected under the banner of the “99%” who want to “take our country back.”
Leave a commentDynamic Governance
Given my interest in living systems theory and practice, I’ve been very excited to learn more recently about sociocracy. I was tipped off by Beth Tener of New Direction Collaborative who passed along a book suggestion in We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy by John Buck and Sharon Villines, which serves as a guide to sociocratic principles and methods. A unique method of governance, sociocracy applies scientific understandings of how the world works through open systems thinking and complexity to creating more self-organizing, self-correcting, inclusive and efficient organizations. Read More
Leave a commentRemembering Wangari Maathai- Twice in a lifetime
By now you have heard that Wangari Maathai has died. I feel especially blessed to have met this remarkable woman before and after she became known on the world stage.
Leave a commentTroy Davis-NYC
I apologize to the passionate and brilliant Hena Ashraf for failing to link this post to her blog. My friend Saulo Colon shared her story with me and I wrongly assumed he had written it.
I woke up today as I’m sure many of you did thinking of how I get to wake up today, and Troy Davis doesn’t. I thought about how this country kills innocent people abroad and at home. And I felt immense frustration at the recent news of how much the NYPD targets and monitors the Muslim community. I went to the Troy Davis rally that took place last night at Union Square at 5pm.
Leave a commentBe Indispensable
|Photo by Marcin Kargol|http://www.flickr.com/photos/powazny/6155572181|
“Making our world fit for our children and grandchildren is a task for marathoners – not sprinters. It is a complex and long-term struggle that must be pursued with both urgency and persistence. The playwright Bertold Brecht said: ‘There are those who struggle for a day and they are good. There are those who struggle for a year and they are better. There are those who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.’ Be an indispensable one for our children’s and our world’s sake.”
-Marion Wright Edelman
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