“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” observed Paul Romer (as quoted by Richard Florida in “How the Crash will Reshape America“.) I couldn’t possibly agree more. They are anxiety provoking, messy, disorienting, and all too often overwhelming, and, at the same time, in addition to the pain (and I’d pass on pain every single time if I only had the choice,) they contain numerous possibilities. And that is my greatest hope during this current challenge that faces our country, that while we might resist the pain and loss inherent in this crisis, we will be wise enough to embrace the lessons…
There is so much fear and anxiety today. I see it on the news, in my communities, and in my work with individuals, groups, and organizations. A question that I hear repeatedly asked in one form or another is, “is the American Dream dying?” While I refuse to believe that it’s dying, I suspect very strongly that out of necessity it may very well need to be transformed.
Following is a video excerpt from the Bill Moyers project, Deepening the American Dream.
http://www.youtube.com/v/SMrVW84-lKM&hl=en&fs=1
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In an article entitled, “Only in America Could Misery be Turned into a Commodity”, author, Joe Bageant (in spite of his obscenities) makes some very thought provoking points (although I certainly don’t agree with all of them) including:
That America has become a “Darwinian workhouse”
That our current mental health system “refuses to acknowledge that our aggregate society holds any responsibility for the conditions it produces in our fellow individual members.” (ouch…)
That Psychological Institutions and practices perpetuate the alienation so many of us feel by responding to us as if our lives were lived in a vacuum, and that “our loneliness and despair are entirely our own, as if there were no such thing as context, much less American society’s corrosive and toxic environment in which so many of us live out our lives.” (Hmmm…)
As a mental health professional I have been repeatedly frustrated with the tendency of my profession to pathologize the legitimate pain of those sensitive enough or aware enough or brave enough to confront what so many choose not to fully acknowledge — the destruction of our natural world, the tragic cost to individuals, families, and entire communities of our consumer society, the perpetuation of greed, emptiness, and meaninglessness, and the all too prevalent devaluation in our culture of commitment and service and even love.
My frustration with the mental health system ultimately led me to leave it and much later to begin making plans to open Sageplace. I believe that mental health professionals can offer so much more through facilitating and supporting the creation of healthy communities where pain and hope and truth can be shared and transformed vs. working with and diagnosing individuals.
In the above mentioned article Bageant asks, “Might not America’s psychological malaise be the result of knowing deep inside that life can hold more meaning — be more joyful? More emotionally rewarding and fulfilling? In a word, healthier?” My own response to this question is that yes, I believe that our malaise is in many cases linked to what we know deep down inside about our lives, about our country, and about our world; truths that so many of us bare alone instead of share.
Note: The address to Bageant’s article is: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/126345/
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It’s easy to get so caught up in the details of our lives that we completely lose touch with the wonders that both surround us and are contained within us. Deepak Chopra provides a one minute presentation that illustrates the very wonder of each and every one of us.
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Spirituality and Practice published their list of the top ten spiritually literate films of 2008. You can find them here. You can also find out what books they selected as the 50 top spiritual books of 2008 here.
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Duane Elgin is one of my favorite people. I was introduced to his work when I read his first book, Voluntary Simplicity, in the mid eighties. While it took several years for the impact of the book to be reflected in my behavior in any significant way, reading it changed the way I viewed myself, my culture, and the world around me. On Episode 40 of Living Dialogues, Elgin shares his hopeful vision for humanity’s future with Duncan Campbell. A vision that was taking shape while Elgin was working on the book, Awakening Earth and culminated in the publication of Promise Ahead.
Part Two and Three of the Dialogues between Campbell and Elgin are available to listen to as well.
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I’ve heard a whole lot of people in the past few days say that they’re especially happy to be putting 2008 behind them. Still, on this sunny first morning of 2009, 2008 seems more than anything else to me like a remarkable year. With the election of Barack Obama, how could it be anything less?
According to “In a ‘Bad’ Year, the Good News of Our Times,” published at Fox news.com, crime rates have continued to fall, the divorce rate is the lowest its been in four decades, life expectancy is up, and the rates of both cancer deaths and aids transmission are declining.
And so on this first day of 2009, in spite of the challenges we face, I’m absolutely confident that there’s much more good news to come. Happy new year!
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Time Magazine in cooperation with CNN conducted a survey of the best websites available on the internet and came up with a list of the top 50. You can find out which websites were selected here.
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What I most love about the internet is the window to the world’s wisdom it provides. From my office in Lewiston or from my little cottage in Wayne I can attend lectures, listen to interviews, and watch thoughtful and informative webcasts.
Today I listend to an interview with Duncan Campbell and David Boren who talked about his new book, “A Letter to America” on Living Dialogues. Boren’s message regarding the crisis’s that we in the United States face is both alarming and inspiring at the same time. I encourage you to listen to the interview as well as to a number of other valuable and thought provoking interviews that are available on the Living Dialogues website.
Each and every day I listen to individuals who are appropriately worried about their futures, good people who share that they all too often feel powerless and frustrated. It’s in my nature to want to reassure and comfort, and I find myself in most cases automatically leaning forward, unconsciously assuming the posture of compassionate witness. And then I am pulled back by the awareness that now is not the time for empathy nearly as much as it is the time for accountability and action –a time for us to collectively face the challenges that confront us while creating a vision for a healthier and more sustainable future.
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My last entry referred to an article on Brain Blog entitled, “Can This Economic Down Turn Lead to Better Psychosocial Health?,” an article that explores positive emerging trends which appear to be fueled by the daunting environmental, economic, and social crises we currently face. While the title may very well seem offensive at first, it ultimately offered the reader some semblance of hope.
In “The Waking Up Syndrome,” published in Hope Dance magazine by Sara Anne Edwards and Linda Buzzell, the authors outline a pattern of behavior that they believe often accompanies a crisis, and which they describe as, ‘the waking up syndrome.’ This process is broken down into six stages; (1) denial, (2) semi-consciousness, (3) the moment of realization, (4) a point of no return, (5) despair, guilt, hopelessness, powerlessness, and (6) acceptance, empowerment, action.
While each stage that Edwards and Buzzell describes is relevant (I was firmly planted in stage 5 for a very long time,) the final stage of this process is what I want to address here. According to the authors, it is here that we come to recognize that we no longer need to surrender to our “current and emerging reality.” Instead, we are liberated to “pursue what James Kunstler calls ‘the intelligent response,’ seeking and taking whatever creative, constructive action will best sustain those aspects of life that are truly most important to us in the context of the changes unfolding around us. At this point our curiosity and creativity kick in and we can begin following our natural instincts to find what is both feasible and rewarding to safeguard ourselves, our families, our communities and the planet.”
On the whole, I believe that very few of us feel the kind of empowerment and commitment that will be necessary to implement the sweeping and substantial changes that will be necessary to move us toward a more rewarding and sustainable way of life, however, portents of change and small beams of hope are shining everywhere. I witness them in the more insistent demand for alternative sources of energy, conservation, and simpler and ultimately more satisfying ways of living. Public radio announced recently that library visits are increasing, visits to farmers markets are on the rise, and there is a renewed interest in food coops, child coops, and car pooling. We are starting to throw away less, reuse more, and we have begun to convert city lots and back yards to gardens.
When I was writing BirthQuake in the late nineties, I was surrounded by a barrage of bad news about people, places, and even our planet in peril. Today it seems that the threats have amplified, the warning signs have multiplied, and the ominous march of fear and uncertainty has moved even closer to home. And yet, ten years later, while my concerns have deepened, I have also found more reasons to hope. Is it possible that so much of the suffering that I witness here in my country are not the signs of an ultimate break down but are instead the labor pains that will ultimately herald a break through.
Watch:
Finding Your Power: Part One
Finding Your Power: Part Two
Finding Your Power: Part Three
Finding Your Power: Part Four
Finding Your Power: Part Five
Finding Your Power: Part Six
Finding Your Power: Part Seven
The Shift
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