Thursday, August 26, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
What Yoda Means to Me, Or How To Organize This Work Using Anarchist Principles
Our Elder from the Dagobah System, Yoda, reminds us, "Do. Or do not. There is no try." To me, this means we must actively choose to do what we do because we value that work and we value those we choose to work alongside. If we don't value the work and our fellow workers, then maybe it is just not worth doing.
As I struggle to balance work, school, and just being a person in various contexts, this is emerging as my guiding principle. Peter Block asks us to consider what refusals we have been putting off, and that if we do not accept our own freedom to say no, then our agreements and decisions to say yes mean nothing. Our Elder Dot Davids reminds us that "We are human beings, not human doings," and we sometimes need that reminder that it is good to take time to just be. Adrienne sometimes puts it to me this way: "Take your cape off." Sometimes that is what needs to happen. Choosing to become involved carries a level of commitment that a real or perceived obligation to become involved does not.
I hope that projects we might choose to take on will be those we are committed to and opt into. We will not all have the same energy, interest, or availability for everything, so there is no expectation that we will become pulled into those things that we would not otherwise choose to become involved with. Opting in means no waiting each other out, no foot dragging, no half-heartedness nor half-stepping. We gve it what we can when we can because we can and because we care. A decision to sit one out, to say essentially, see you down the road on the next project, is a better answer than a reluctant yes.
Our Elder Rosemary Christensen refers to this as personal sovereignty, or the ethic of non-interference, and I am coming to understand this on a deeper level lately. To our philosophical anarchist friends, this is about non-coercion and voluntary association. These can be powerful organizing principles, and they certainly are stronger than those that come from a bureaucratic org chart. They are definitely more honest.
We have in various combinations and settings talked about next steps for our ongoing collaboration, for continuing to do good work with good people. We work well together for summer institute and we have good outcomes. Many of us work together on Wisconsin State Human Relations Association conference and special projects, some of us collaborate on the Widening the Circle conference, and we take on various other projects together. Thanks to Carol, First Nations Traveling Resource Center is becoming another great, ongoing opportunity for continued collaboration. One key question addresses how we can continue to create those opportunities to work together for positive change.
This is the last thing I will send about the blog. The intent is for this to be a venue for keeping each other informed about what we are doing, especially as we might be looking for ideas, support, or assistance, in a way that mirrors the vision into action process. We'll see what emerges organically as what we, individually, in combinations, and colelctively, choose to do will shape what we collectively might do in a way that flows from individual choice. I hope that you will opt in and commit to continued collaboration outside of summer institute itself. That said, I respect your right to refuse, and your decision to opt out, or opt back in at any time.
Be well, all.
As I struggle to balance work, school, and just being a person in various contexts, this is emerging as my guiding principle. Peter Block asks us to consider what refusals we have been putting off, and that if we do not accept our own freedom to say no, then our agreements and decisions to say yes mean nothing. Our Elder Dot Davids reminds us that "We are human beings, not human doings," and we sometimes need that reminder that it is good to take time to just be. Adrienne sometimes puts it to me this way: "Take your cape off." Sometimes that is what needs to happen. Choosing to become involved carries a level of commitment that a real or perceived obligation to become involved does not.
I hope that projects we might choose to take on will be those we are committed to and opt into. We will not all have the same energy, interest, or availability for everything, so there is no expectation that we will become pulled into those things that we would not otherwise choose to become involved with. Opting in means no waiting each other out, no foot dragging, no half-heartedness nor half-stepping. We gve it what we can when we can because we can and because we care. A decision to sit one out, to say essentially, see you down the road on the next project, is a better answer than a reluctant yes.
Our Elder Rosemary Christensen refers to this as personal sovereignty, or the ethic of non-interference, and I am coming to understand this on a deeper level lately. To our philosophical anarchist friends, this is about non-coercion and voluntary association. These can be powerful organizing principles, and they certainly are stronger than those that come from a bureaucratic org chart. They are definitely more honest.
We have in various combinations and settings talked about next steps for our ongoing collaboration, for continuing to do good work with good people. We work well together for summer institute and we have good outcomes. Many of us work together on Wisconsin State Human Relations Association conference and special projects, some of us collaborate on the Widening the Circle conference, and we take on various other projects together. Thanks to Carol, First Nations Traveling Resource Center is becoming another great, ongoing opportunity for continued collaboration. One key question addresses how we can continue to create those opportunities to work together for positive change.
This is the last thing I will send about the blog. The intent is for this to be a venue for keeping each other informed about what we are doing, especially as we might be looking for ideas, support, or assistance, in a way that mirrors the vision into action process. We'll see what emerges organically as what we, individually, in combinations, and colelctively, choose to do will shape what we collectively might do in a way that flows from individual choice. I hope that you will opt in and commit to continued collaboration outside of summer institute itself. That said, I respect your right to refuse, and your decision to opt out, or opt back in at any time.
Be well, all.
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