Talent thrives within diverse ecosystems. The straightforward and linear has given way to the complex and emergent. This is the nature of evolution. So it’s no longer about putting two and two together but about noticing patterns – it’s about sensing our way into the web of connection.
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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.
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More than one hundred Occupy Boston activists were arrested last night for acts of civil disobedience. We stand in solidarity with this local expression of the growing national effort to expose the economic injustices that have come to plague our democracy. Please contribute legal aid to Occupy Boston – donate here.
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“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.”
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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 commentIndian American author. Lahiri’s debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. Lahiri is a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama.
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Photo by: Beorange
What do I want badly enough to invest in pursuing it—in spite of the obstacles and competing claims on my time and attention, in spite of the risks and the guarantees of uncertainty, in spite of the risk of rejection and the possibility of failure?
I have asked this question for a couple of weeks running. I offered a few thoughts from a Barbara Kingsolver quote to get the conversation started: “elementary kindness…enough to eat, enough to go around… the possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed.
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|Photo by Joost J. Baaker IJmuiden|http://www.flickr.com/photos/joost-ijmuiden/5502646252|
I am coming to really see the deep connection between the iron hold on ego and the unwillingness to let go of institutions that no longer serve us. As facades crumble, there seems to be a hunkering down going on all around, fueled by anxiety and resulting in futile and rancorous efforts to control an outcome that is so much larger than any of us. Forces are telling us to side with the way of Life, and to reach out. Will we listen? Will we stretch? Read More
6 CommentsShivers advises: “When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say ‘hell, yeah!’ ” Sounds a lot easier to me than it actually is. What’s your experience?
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Picture was taken by Dmitri Markine. Check out this amazing portfolio!
In case you missed my earlier posts in this series, I am raising a series of questions about power and privilege in social change work at the invitation of the “Walk the Talk” zine/book project. Prior questions included:
Today I also want to pose two related questions.
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“You don’t understand, the United States will not be making cars.” The film Climate Refugees quotes President Roosevelt speaking to auto executives at the outset of World War II. Most of us know about the mobilization of American industry to build a war machine capable of defeating the Axis Powers. Fewer of us understand what it took. Read More
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Julie Auger’s post to Rethinking Complexity speaks directly to our central concerns here at the Interaction Institute for Social Change . What do you think? How might this inform your organizational strategy? Read More
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