tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13067047699074225122024-03-05T11:05:58.280-05:00Radical Joy for Hard TimesFinding and Making Beauty in Wounded PlacesTrebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-21551720728184665232013-05-21T10:35:00.002-04:002013-05-21T10:35:26.571-04:00How Soon Can You Make Beauty in Moore?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw5hkE7f-KgiYyL0SI9bTen34ih0xOF_gy2D-X_bUfO-6biMVOQIqu-Z_CaX-hn_znQ2YZ7G4gVSZNTneJDf-dxPz6bRm2t5uaqNaBkfJHZZrL9deUU_JSveY_EnsQvCCcZzFdg16MAoHJ/s1600/Moore+tornado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw5hkE7f-KgiYyL0SI9bTen34ih0xOF_gy2D-X_bUfO-6biMVOQIqu-Z_CaX-hn_znQ2YZ7G4gVSZNTneJDf-dxPz6bRm2t5uaqNaBkfJHZZrL9deUU_JSveY_EnsQvCCcZzFdg16MAoHJ/s320/Moore+tornado.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since the very beginning of Rad<span style="font-size: medium;">Joy, we have asked ou<span style="font-size: medium;">rselves how we might respond to situations like the horrendous tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma yesterday. These are real emergencies that take lives, change lives, displace people, completely upend life as it's known. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We came to realize that you can't <span style="font-size: medium;">ask people to look for and <span style="font-size: medium;">make beauty at a place too soon. Fir<span style="font-size: medium;">st they simply have to get their bearings, find out if t<span style="font-size: medium;">heir loved ones are okay, if their <span style="font-size: medium;">home still stands. They need days, perhaps week<span style="font-size: medium;">s to figure out what to do next. You can't possibly say, "Go make something b<span style="font-size: medium;">ea<span style="font-size: medium;">utiful at the site of your <span style="font-size: medium;">shattered home" when everything a family owned is gone.</span></span></span><br />
<br />What is i<span style="font-size: medium;">mportant in the beginning, however, what is essential at that raw<span style="font-size: medium;"> and terrible time, </span>is simply <i>giving to others</i><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i> <span style="font-size: medium;">with a<span style="font-size: medium;">s much generosity and compassion as <span style="font-size: medium;">possible</span> and, at the sa<span style="font-size: medium;">me time,</span> to receive generosity and compassion when it<span style="font-size: medium;"> </span>is offered. Such acts, given and rec<span style="font-size: medium;">eived, are immensely touching under drastic, tragic <span style="font-size: medium;">circumst<span style="font-size: medium;">ances. I find I continue to be moved by the kindness with which a <span style="font-size: medium;">policem<span style="font-size: medium;">an broke the news to me that my beloved <span style="font-size: medium;">brother had <span style="font-size: medium;">died. Kindness helps people survive. <span style="font-size: medium;">In <span style="font-size: medium;">New York, after Superstorm Sandy, <span style="font-size: medium;">restaurant owners and grocers put <span style="font-size: medium;">free f<span style="font-size: medium;">ood on the street, and neighbors wi<span style="font-size: medium;">th electricity made it possible for <span style="font-size: medium;">those without to recharge their phones and computers.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-size: medium;">After a while<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (</span>but perhaps sooner than we even think possible!)</span>
we can start going out of our way to find and make beauty through larger gestures, more <span style="font-size: medium;">cr<span style="font-size: medium;">eative, more <span style="font-size: medium;">all-encompassing actions</span></span></span>.
The pilgrimage that the people in Joplin made through the path of the
tornado there on the <a href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/05/joplin_tornado_one_year_later.html" target="_blank">one-year anniversary</a>, for instance, the tree they <span style="font-size: medium;">painted, the way th<span style="font-size: medium;">ey changed the name of the school from <span style="font-size: medium;">j</span>OPlin to hOPe</span></span>. In Tuscaloosa, after the <span style="font-size: medium;">tornado there in 2010, a group called <a href="http://beautyamiddestruction.org/about-us/">Beauty</a></span><a href="http://beautyamiddestruction.org/about-us/"> Amid Des<span style="font-size: medium;">truction</span></a> created an art exhibition along the path of the storm.<br />
<br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Rad<span style="font-size: medium;">ical Joy pie<span style="font-size: medium;">rces most poignantly during very Ha<span style="font-size: medium;">rd</span> Times. And no matter h<span style="font-size: medium;">ow much we are hurt, we can give i<span style="font-size: medium;">t a<span style="font-size: medium;">nd receive it, just a little, sometimes a lot.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo above of Moore, Oklah<span style="font-size: x-small;">oma after the tornado of May 20, 2013 </span>by Steve Gooch, AP, <a href="http://huffingtonpost.com/">Huffington Post</a> </span><br />
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Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-64797325051233687532013-04-08T14:36:00.002-04:002013-04-08T14:36:28.396-04:00A fable about dust and pearls<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Iu27MF3MIE8ekaAVg5p8gViT1iEFoH62buKuDrt_V9uMY6rohknWbM8pdZvqpUgN9ewL_2TQkX8SsxePqqTbzL7GwycytfZ10mSlQ7_BduI6Czm8V8bBf5Fxyb18_wGBvkDr3RWMzM-V/s1600/Layla+&+Majnun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Iu27MF3MIE8ekaAVg5p8gViT1iEFoH62buKuDrt_V9uMY6rohknWbM8pdZvqpUgN9ewL_2TQkX8SsxePqqTbzL7GwycytfZ10mSlQ7_BduI6Czm8V8bBf5Fxyb18_wGBvkDr3RWMzM-V/s320/Layla+&+Majnun.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
Old Persian legends tell of Majnun, a crazy-in-love young man whose
life is wholly devoted to searching for his beloved Layla, from whom he
has long been separated. Majnun wanders the desert, his clothes
ragged, his hair matted and filthy. He becomes so completely
exiled from the niceties of human society that his only companions are
wild animals. People shun him and laugh at him, even though many
recognize that his dedication to love actually brings him closer to the
divine.<br />
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One day, a man noted for his piety comes upon Majnun sifting through
dirt in the middle of the road. “You claim such devotion to your
beloved,” the holy man scoffs. “How can you grovel here, searching for
such a pearl as she in the midst of all this rubbish?”<br />
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“Ah,” Majnun explains, “I seek Layla everywhere, so that one day I may find her somewhere.”<br />
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The story of Majnun’s undying, active love for Layla gives us a model
for our own relationship to the places we have loved and lost and from
which we often feel a painful exile. We can choose not only not to avoid
these broken places but to actually seek them out. And, once there, we
can search for the pearls.<br />
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The pearl, the essence of glory and beauty and love, can be anywhere—so
we look everywhere. In this way we remember that all parts of the
Earth, like all people, are essential parts of the beauty of the whole.
Searching for what we love, even in a garbage heap, we cannot help but
recognize that even what has been used up and tossed out is valuable,
since our hands and hearts must sort through it to come upon what is
precious.<br />
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May you find the pearls in a wounded place you love on the <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=80&qid=5707" target="_blank">Global Earth Exchange</a> this year, Saturday, June 22.<br />
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And, in the search, may you find pearls in yourself as well.<br />
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Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-26323142771824907762013-04-03T17:29:00.001-04:002013-04-03T17:29:26.005-04:00A cry of grief for the Earth—made 4,000 years ago <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnioK4YMz0Joxp-j8XdNUtoSzN-sar3kSkzTx_1NUCmXbkRCW_NEPLXk-LX210MiHv73aV1_uS2xfhU81742VGAyfsp4yNQUmlemKSpduCzcy_ZTbzIh68L84OciFakAQWdFsQqnqOL92q/s1600/GilgameshTablet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnioK4YMz0Joxp-j8XdNUtoSzN-sar3kSkzTx_1NUCmXbkRCW_NEPLXk-LX210MiHv73aV1_uS2xfhU81742VGAyfsp4yNQUmlemKSpduCzcy_ZTbzIh68L84OciFakAQWdFsQqnqOL92q/s320/GilgameshTablet.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
This is surely the earliest of all expressions of grief for a wounded place... a segment of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gilgamesh-John-Gardner/dp/0394740890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365024403&sr=1-1&keywords=John+Gardner+Gilgamesh">Epic of Gilgamesh</a> (carved on stone more than four thousand years ago) in which the goddess Ishtar weeps for Earth after the great flood.<br /></div>
<i>All of humanity was turned to clay,</i><div>
<i>The ground was like a great, flat roof.<br />I opened the window and light fell on my face.<br />I crouched, sitting, and wept.<br />My tears flowed over my cheeks.</i><br /><br />(Photo above shows the part of the tablet that describes the flood.)<br /></div>
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Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-89252320416998546712013-04-02T20:18:00.000-04:002013-04-02T20:19:04.909-04:00Bird singing at the bottom of a lake<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnGZnohsI1wfccm4Ca3MVzk9Y0HYL_zPiHGzP2I7Q1ayqpfk8-xUh7hIX2Vr8-6HgbGrloIxHsCVylIJ82eFbubxtP2D2oc7_7djxPb86Ckd5KizbonQ8Gyp_6kHvWlZ19cYFEHsuKdkye/s1600/South+Lake+Tamera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnGZnohsI1wfccm4Ca3MVzk9Y0HYL_zPiHGzP2I7Q1ayqpfk8-xUh7hIX2Vr8-6HgbGrloIxHsCVylIJ82eFbubxtP2D2oc7_7djxPb86Ckd5KizbonQ8Gyp_6kHvWlZ19cYFEHsuKdkye/s320/South+Lake+Tamera.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The beautiful photo above, by Simon du Vinage, is of South Lake at Tamera, southern Portugal, where a group of us from about fifteen different countries did an Earth Exchange last summer. <a href="http://www.tamera.org/index.html">Tamera</a> is a community, "a healing biotope", a living experiment in sustainable permaculture, an educational center, and a remarkable place where people truly work to match their practices to their ethics. They've <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=fa1mwSSpJQIC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=Silke+Paulick&source=bl&ots=xZzqjgLXKi&sig=6l5b39iBHA_zQOu3blttX-DcS7w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QXRbUc7yDbGo4AOBhYDgBQ&ved=0CHMQ6AEwDQ#v=onepage&q=Silke%20Paulick&f=false">created several lakes</a> in the past few years with remarkable results... springs bubbling up from dry, cracked ground; animals and birds coming to visit; plentiful plant growth. But after this particular lake was dug, the rains of 2011 did not come, and the land was dry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyASY6Ko0qS7KzwFLP8MFNTb29wDH3FL7aclgmfw8laJ2WKjgxzR4LAjWnzmsz5GMB-7GlN8qPMuWIyXP_1NrjLSviFbGBy6dOZVh43oBwfeqN88lMpFeMUrmUL1uRKIVrQ5Q1pexUOVY-/s1600/Tamera+Earth+Exchange+Aug.+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyASY6Ko0qS7KzwFLP8MFNTb29wDH3FL7aclgmfw8laJ2WKjgxzR4LAjWnzmsz5GMB-7GlN8qPMuWIyXP_1NrjLSviFbGBy6dOZVh43oBwfeqN88lMpFeMUrmUL1uRKIVrQ5Q1pexUOVY-/s320/Tamera+Earth+Exchange+Aug.+2012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This photo, by <a href="http://www.sensaciones.de/en/user/carsten">Carsten Dolcini</a>, shows our Earth Exchange last August. We are standing on the bottom of the lake! Everyone put a stone into the center of the circle, naming as they did so a place they loved that they are concerned about. We spent some time exploring the land, discovering such amazing things as frogs inhabiting the puddle in the background and the velvetiness of the cracked earth beneath our feet. Then we made a big bird out of stone.<br />
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You can imagine that a bird made simultaneously by forty people would look a bit odd. Some people thought it was <i>too</i> disproportioned, pudgy, and that we should redo it. No, said others, it's perfect! One woman added that it had to be plump so it can float under the water!<br />
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So now it is doing so! The rains came last fall, and the bird is singing under the water. My friend Silke Paulick, coordinator of the ecological team at Tamera, also writes that South Lake has become more of a community gathering place since our ceremony.<br />
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Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-8238650760195324772013-03-31T16:05:00.000-04:002013-03-31T16:05:15.369-04:00Moors, Love, Magic, Beauty, Tears<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4HzdD8eIKYOHBmYN6den2P03eUw9YTtzZCmDBngPIbd9ec3qCHL-k4RiGnw_-4hDfo88YOc4t-mfxhwI6vZs1v9JuSsEuiyeC59c_isatV4ff2IoXjz2agwVzLQK-3U74qjyy0evp0cV8/s1600/Dartmoor-0419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4HzdD8eIKYOHBmYN6den2P03eUw9YTtzZCmDBngPIbd9ec3qCHL-k4RiGnw_-4hDfo88YOc4t-mfxhwI6vZs1v9JuSsEuiyeC59c_isatV4ff2IoXjz2agwVzLQK-3U74qjyy0evp0cV8/s320/Dartmoor-0419.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The wonderful <a href="http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/">Schumacher College</a> in Devon, England has just reduced the price of my five-day course there May 13-17 <b>from £795 to £550!</b> This is a fantastic opportunity! <b>The offer's only good until April 8!!</b><br />
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Please join me there!<br />
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The course is called "<a href="http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/wounded-places-wounded-self-empowered-activism-for-people-and-places">Finding Beauty and Power in Wounded Places</a>: Earth Activism for Our Times." In it we'll explore—with some discussion and lecture, but mostly through time spent in nature—the deep relationship between people and places. The health of the land affects our own health. Our sense of powerlessness, grief, betrayal when places we love are damaged seeps into our general well being. By awakening to this relationship and attending to the land in simple, transformative, creative, even wild and joyful ways, we dramatically shift the way we live on Earth and how we live with <i>all</i> the parts of our deep selves.<br />
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We still need a few more people to enroll in this course for it to go, so please do join me there and if you can't make it, pass this along to someone you know who'd be interested.</div>
Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-58389428426963298432013-03-20T09:41:00.001-04:002013-03-20T09:41:07.020-04:00Words from Lily Yeh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Last November, the
fabulous <a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/"><span style="color: #000bf1;">ORION</span></a>
magazine did a webinar in conjunction with my article, "<a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/news"><span style="color: #000bf1;">Gaze
Even Here</span></a>."</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 48.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Joining me for the
hour-long discussion were the internationally acclaimed Chinese-American artist
and activist <a href="http://barefootartists.org/home"><span style="color: #000bf1;">Lily
Yeh</span></a> and Australian philosopher <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31ecopsych-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Glenn Albrecht</a>. Lily has worked with
people in Rwanda, a Palestinian refugee camp, China, Haiti and other broken
places to create large-scale public art projects. Glenn coined the word
“solastalgia,” widely recognized as the first descriptive term to define and
validate “the pain one feels when the place where one lives and that one loves
is under assault.” The webinar was hosted by Erik Hoffner of Orion.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 48.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Lily has been a keynote speaker at <a href="http://www.bioneers.org/">Bioneers</a> and other places, and she speaks with such passion, conviction, and experience that she can rouse you to action and make you fall in love with your world in just a sentence or two. During the podcast, fortunately, we got to hear lots of her gorgeous sentences. For instance: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">“We can enter into the
depth of what it means to be human, the human capacity to destroy—and then we
have the power to imagine, to create, and then to take action, and this action
can lead to change. What gives me hope is that though each individual is very
small, we can be defiant in dark circumstances and dare to create beauty in
these broken places. It’s like making a fire in the dark night of winter. It
gives us hope and warmth and beckons to other people.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Approximately two hundred
people from around the world tuned in for the live discussion. The <a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/audio-video/item/events_trebbe_johnson_lily_yeh_and_glenn_albrecht_discuss_solastalgia">podcast</a> is
available through Orion or <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/orion-magazine-podcast/id292876259">iTunes </a> (see item #10).</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-14465325225734072712013-03-20T09:34:00.001-04:002013-03-20T09:34:09.649-04:00RadJoy blog is back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Greetings! This blog has been on vacation for about nine months, and I'm happy to bring it back with some noticeable changes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">As a person who has had a literary bent all my life, I tend to write blogs as I do essays and books. They are longish, grammatically correct, with a beginning, middle, and end, and lyrically phrased. Not surprisingly, with such regulations, my self-imposed assignment to create these blogs became a chore. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Now, in keeping with the way social media—indeed just about all media—works these days, I have determined write more frequently, less literarily, and more pithily! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">At least on the blog. No such guarantee with my essays, articles, and my next book!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I am looking forward to the switch and hope you'll find what's here of interest and inspiration.</span></div>
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Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-63798573671679601522012-06-13T11:03:00.000-04:002012-06-13T11:03:07.282-04:00Fawn: 55 / Wounded Earth 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I don't know why I should be surprised. Even though the uprising in Cairo last year was largely waged via Facebook (see Wael Ghonim's powerful book <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/02/09/146636605/wael-ghonim-creating-a-revolution-2-0-in-egypt">Revolution 2.0</a>), in America we have not yet reached the boiling point. I know this. I work at tamping down my pessimism about the state of the Earth and my grief for what is happening to wild nature and loved communities, because I know people don't like to read about upsetting things.</div>
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Still, I was surprised. On May 28 I posted a comment on my Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/trebbe.johnson.5?ref=tn_tnmn">page</a> comparing wounded veterans who have served in foreign wars with wounded places that have been used up and abandoned. Three people "liked" it and no one commented. </div>
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The next day, May 29, I posted a photograph of a fawn my husband had discovered sleeping under an apple tree in our orchard. Result:</div>
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Like: 43 </div>
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Comment: 12</div>
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Fawns are nicer to look at than the damaged Earth.</div>
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I'm surprised. But I am disheartened. I founded Radical Joy for Hard Times because I believe <b>we can't truly change the way we live on Earth until we're willing to encounter what's in our midst and damaged... and that we still love... and in the process find beauty, meaning, community, and even joy</b>.</div>
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We can indeed experience beauty and innocence. Not <i>instead</i> of facing the broken places in our midst, but <b>through the act</b> of facing them, facing our grief and rage over what's happened to them, and offering attention and creativity. </div>
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</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-79555514411610639132012-05-28T11:56:00.001-04:002012-05-28T17:14:38.705-04:00The Earth, Too, Is a Veteran<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjvZXKfypx747b9Gsznw-R1-vy58Hlo955KYaTqIvumBVdhYjhY-2nufETysZL2LzKfyhcuuAWlljoiVQeiY5MCZi7-9CoDMIYjG_zBi6uendNUSM4ufR46Ad_AVrjP4S87nbZ4csqHCc/s1600/546847120_aWkFy-L-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjvZXKfypx747b9Gsznw-R1-vy58Hlo955KYaTqIvumBVdhYjhY-2nufETysZL2LzKfyhcuuAWlljoiVQeiY5MCZi7-9CoDMIYjG_zBi6uendNUSM4ufR46Ad_AVrjP4S87nbZ4csqHCc/s320/546847120_aWkFy-L-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On this Memorial Day, 2012, it seems appropriate to consider how the Earth, too, has served in many battles. </div>
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In 1987, when I was living in New York, writing scripts and
producing soundtracks for multimedia productions, I read an article in <i><a href="http://www.aises.org/what/woc">Winds of Change</a></i> magazine about an
Oneida Indian engineer, David Powless, who had received a National Science Foundation
grant to research and develop a process for recycling hazardous steel waste. </div>
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With funding from IBM, a few colleagues and I made a short video about David that was later shown to international IBM employees at a conference in Palm Beach. The video explored his work, both as an engineer and as a member of the Turtle Clan of the Oneida Tribe dedicated to fostering
the traditional ways of his people. While I was interviewing him for the production, he told me story of how he had come into relation with the steel waste.<br />
<br />
When he learned that he had received the grant, David said, he drove out to an
enormous mound of steel waste and scrambled to the top with two buckets that he had brought along to collect samples of the waste that he would analyze. Triumphantly, he
declared to the black pile of waste, "I'm going to conquer you!" </div>
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But by the time he had trekked back down the hill with two his buckets full, he
knew that this approach was all wrong. "I realized that the waste was an
orphan," he said. "It had been lost from the circle of life. My job
was to bring it back to the circle of life."<br />
<br />
I was deeply moved by this story. It seemed to me to offer a new perspective on
ecological crisis: a way of not only dealing with, but actually loving parts of
the earth that were, by most standards, unlovable, and even unlivable.</div>
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When I founded <a href="http://radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/">Radical Joy for Hard Times</a> in the spring of 2009, I called David, whom I had not seen or spoken with in more than twenty years, and told him how his words had inspired me. Then, when the RadJoy board of directors of the new organization and I started thinking about a <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/about/people.html">Council of Advisors</a>, experts in several fields who would offer us their expertise and support, of course we invited David. He consented.</div>
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Recently, David Powless reflected on how the Earth's wounded places have something in common with soldiers. “These places are like veterans," he said. "They’ve given a lot. You
may not agree with the war, but you have to honor the warriors.”</div>
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So, as we honor the warriors who have fought, showed bravery, and died in so many wars, let us also honor the Earth, who has also served us so well. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo above: <a href="http://omaha-beach-memorial.org/">Omaha Beach Memorial</a>, Normandy, France</span></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-16868128418872955992012-05-21T16:09:00.002-04:002012-05-21T16:09:21.212-04:00Why Turn Toward a Breaking World?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR64Fi0Ye1HbR6xNOTQ44mGLhO68__9-Jkd0FvW2tFGOC9Q-4C-vlbbhBmGRsH-jq2ueMuXnbM7WBQBLfJr33azifEwJ0VYIkStv68Tc5CPAde2zKJO7IoPtBcNA_WXDtkSP70OW8OWrxv/s1600/Cyntcha.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR64Fi0Ye1HbR6xNOTQ44mGLhO68__9-Jkd0FvW2tFGOC9Q-4C-vlbbhBmGRsH-jq2ueMuXnbM7WBQBLfJr33azifEwJ0VYIkStv68Tc5CPAde2zKJO7IoPtBcNA_WXDtkSP70OW8OWrxv/s320/Cyntcha.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Why should we turn toward a breaking world or spend time with wounded and damaged places?" asks Dianne Monroe in her article, "<a href="http://carolynbaker.net/2012/05/15/learning-to-love-a-wounded-world-by-dianne-monroe/">Learning to Love a Wounded World</a>," currently featured on the website <a href="http://carolynbaker.net/">Speaking Truth to Power</a>. "Why open ourselves to pain, sorrow, despair and plethora of other difficult feelings? Isn’t it better – or at least more pleasant – to look at the good side of things?"</div>
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She tackles this question by interviewing me about Radical Joy for Hard Times and Jade Scherer and Annie Bloom, who created a program called "Turning Toward a Breaking World." Both have as their missions an honest and heartfelt admission of grief about the ailing and death of the natural world and the resulting font of compassion and action that results when we stop hiding from what we know all too well is lingering within. Monroe discusses the "relentlessly positive" attitude that people in our society believe they must foster and names some of the reasons that we as a culture are so loath even to acknowledge that all is not well with Planet Earth. She also describes the two Global Earth Exchanges she led at the headwaters of the San Antonio River in 2010 and 2011, the first of which took place as the southern states all along the Gulf were being slicked with oil from the BP well, which at the time had not been capped.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Exploring ways to confront what is wrong without being overwhelmed by it, Monroe concludes: "This is the first gift of our pain – of our willingness to turn toward a breaking world, learning to love and offer beauty to a wounded place – to show us our interconnectedness with the Earth."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo above: Cyntha Ben d'Aigle offering flowers to Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, after the BP oil spill</span><br />
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<br /><br /><br /> </div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-23002427313629844532012-05-14T16:28:00.000-04:002012-05-14T16:28:17.232-04:00Funeral for the Gulf of Mexico<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnK_LBFf4o5AE05wxDk_rmUIp-TFTyIDWloytib0kMgwQZZ4gLZGpz57X6ZvXpi6R9kWmZok5e5ZD8lU2vqpyqbmB0hkU6N08-NxXwbD7uaHj-8Kdp2xyzjWGd_eZPxecPzCsuMqiaWe1/s1600/NOLA+Funeral+for+the+Gulf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnK_LBFf4o5AE05wxDk_rmUIp-TFTyIDWloytib0kMgwQZZ4gLZGpz57X6ZvXpi6R9kWmZok5e5ZD8lU2vqpyqbmB0hkU6N08-NxXwbD7uaHj-8Kdp2xyzjWGd_eZPxecPzCsuMqiaWe1/s320/NOLA+Funeral+for+the+Gulf.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
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An article in the most recent issue of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/"><i>The Nation</i></a> sets to rest once and for all any notion that all is well in the Gulf of Mexico two years after the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. </div>
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"<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/167461/investigation-two-years-after-bp-spill-hidden-health-crisis-festers">BP's Toxic Legacy</a>" by Antonia Juhasz opens with the story of Nicole and William Maurer and their two daughters, aged six and nine. When the explosion on the Deep Water Horizon wiped out William's fishing business, he got a temporary job working on BP's clean-up operation, which operated under the outrageously euphemistic name of Vessels of Opportunity. The first signs that this was hazardous work came when William experienced vomiting and diarrhea. Later he started bleeding from his ears and nose and coughing
heavily. Now the entire family, including the children, is plagued with health problems. They don't have money to go to a doctor and can't afford to move. </div>
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The BP spill released 210 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. Two million gallons of toxic dispersant were then pumped into the water in an effort to break up the oil. Although a class action lawsuit against BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and other companies involved in the spill is underway, many of the people harmed will either be excluded from any settlement or will not be eligible if (or when) their health deteriorates further.</div>
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Radical Joy for Hard Times was founded on the premise that when the places we love are damaged, people hurt too. The
Gulf of Mexico is a place that has been hurt in every conceivable way—socially,
economically, environmentally, physically, and psychologically. </div>
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That BP, which ignored workers' concerns about the safety and reliability of equipment and deliberately took shortcuts in drilling the well that exploded, may end up escaping financial liability is an injustice and a tragedy. </div>
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On February 29 Gulf Coast activists held a New Orleans jazz-style funeral for the Gulf of Mexico. People dressed up as skeletons or oil-soaked birds. They carried a life-size doll rag in a coffin. They bore signs reading "BP KILLS" and "DEAD PELICAN SANDWICHES—$11 MILLION EACH. (To read about the Funeral for the Gulf and see photos by James Robichaux see the <a href="http://nolapost.com/2010/06/jazz-funeral-for-the-gulf-of-mexico-part-1-of-2/">NOLA Post</a>.)</div>
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The procession started at BP headquarters and ended at the courthouse where the trial is currently underway. Combining beauty, theatre, spectacle, and the emotional spirit of an entire region, the mock funeral embodied both the despair of Gulf Coast residents and their ineradicable sense of community and creativity.</div>
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On Saturday, June 23, people all over the world will be going to wounded places and making acts of beauty there for the Radical Joy for Hard Times third annual Global Earth Exchange. </div>
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The people and land of the Gulf of Mexico are in desperate need of beauty. If you know someone who lives on the Gulf will you beg them, please, to join this day of attention and beauty and to honor the Gulf of Mexico?</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo above by James Robichaux.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-40042754741505189452012-05-07T12:17:00.001-04:002012-05-07T12:17:29.452-04:00The Simple Beauty of an Earth "Exchange"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhprCctaWLhZarWrUr9vA4Q5ySlUWQVgB8rpm0pdeq3-YLJyIpIk4x42G1el_gO8hW8-xSboJQYUQVlUEQiv5vR0zIqshFBBJUNqU2dCX9gKU64MhIc_j9g93jh-Gv8qGz8pTIxXuXn4DbY/s1600/Costa+Rica+Earth+Exchange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhprCctaWLhZarWrUr9vA4Q5ySlUWQVgB8rpm0pdeq3-YLJyIpIk4x42G1el_gO8hW8-xSboJQYUQVlUEQiv5vR0zIqshFBBJUNqU2dCX9gKU64MhIc_j9g93jh-Gv8qGz8pTIxXuXn4DbY/s320/Costa+Rica+Earth+Exchange.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The signature event of <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/">Radical Joy for Hard Times</a> is a simple, personal act called an Earth Exchange.</div>
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We call our events Earth "Exchanges" because they are opportunities for us to make an exchange with these places we love and where we live. We go both to receive and to give.</div>
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We receive by reflecting on what these places mean to us and what they have given, both in the past and now. In exchange we offer back a simple act of beauty as a symbol of our gratitude and our affirmation that <i>all</i> places are valued parts of the whole Earth. </div>
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People do Earth Exchanges formally or informally, spontaneously or after weeks of planning, alone or with a friend or in the company of a whole group. They happen throughout the year and in all kinds of places.</div>
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June 23 is our third annual <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/about-earth-exchanges/2012-global-earth-exchange.html">Global Earth Exchange</a>, when people all over the world will be going to clear-cut forests, polluted rivers, oceans where dolphins are threatened, lands pierced by mining and drilling, and other wounded places. They will:</div>
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<li>tell their stories of what the place means to them</li>
<li>spend time getting to know the place as it is now</li>
<li>make a simple act of beauty </li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Please join us by visiting a place you love, rediscovering it, and giving it some beauty and attention. It's free, and we will post the photo of your event on our website after June 23. It's easy to join on our </span><a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/earth-exchange-network.html" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Earth Exchange Network </a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(and you can always change the details of your event later). </span></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-20882852540108630952012-04-30T19:11:00.002-04:002012-04-30T19:11:37.771-04:00Even Rubble Is a Playground<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXlUxdCXPEz4GXqO8dA7Mis3PkSEl-4hcTcBksA6hrdJioWBXuDmjsfgEZZb0POZYgEDjvaxQTseZZ0pHOyAivuVH4sw2Bo8QAKNHarIoqLvAhbXiQYUGDR6zjREZJ99cWnP3GomQ_QiMl/s1600/120103-gaza-children-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXlUxdCXPEz4GXqO8dA7Mis3PkSEl-4hcTcBksA6hrdJioWBXuDmjsfgEZZb0POZYgEDjvaxQTseZZ0pHOyAivuVH4sw2Bo8QAKNHarIoqLvAhbXiQYUGDR6zjREZJ99cWnP3GomQ_QiMl/s320/120103-gaza-children-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?q=children+playing+rubble&hl=en&biw=1462&bih=785&tbm=isch&tbnid=5lGJCwZuXl02aM:&imgrefurl=http://electronicintifada.net/content/anwar-and-haneen-two-beautiful-girls-murdered-israel/10768&docid=-2ubRwsfY5kJqM&imgurl=http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/120103-gaza-children.jpg&w=620&h=413&ei=QhCfT7O-A-ff0QGY44WnDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=175&vpy=491&dur=634&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=204&ty=75&sig=115168459190493066575&page=2&tbnh=139&tbnw=185&start=27&ndsp=35&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:27,i:175">photo</a> above, Palestinian children have forayed into and area of their neighborhood that has been destroyed by an Israeli bombing, and they have discovered that, out of the rubble, they can make a seesaw big enough for several of them to ride at once. (Hopefully the older kids will give the littlest one a chance!)</div>
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For children, anyplace can be a playground. Whether the scene of destruction was caused by war, tornado, hurricane, or poverty, all the world is fertile ground for exploration, fascination, and play. As we get older, we tend to see damaged places as so deplorable, so full of memories cut in half that we do not want to see them or even consider them. We fear we will break ourselves if we encounter them fully. Often we simply assume that there is absolutely nothing to be discovered there that can offer beauty or delight.</div>
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<a href="http://radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/">Radical Joy for Hard Times</a> believes that<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> both mourning </span><em style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">and</em><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> play are appropriate in wounded places. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The first step of the <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/about-earth-exchanges/2012-global-earth-exchange.html">Earth Exchange</a>, our signature event, which any individual or community can create, is simply to go to a wounded place. Just finding the willingness to face a damaged place with openness and curiosity usually turns out to be far harder than actually stepping onto that once whole, now broken land. Once there we tell stories about what the place has meant to us, both before and after it was damaged. We spend perhaps 20 or 30 minutes getting to know the place as it is now, looking for what calls our attention, what holds fascination. Finally, we give back an act of beauty, usually a bird made out of found materials. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Through this approach, we bring to wounded places both our honest feelings about what has happened and our willingness to be in healing relationship to the place in the future. We bring curiosity, the sense that there is a surprise to be had, something wondrous to be discovered, even under the most tragic of circumstances. And we bring our own spirit of creativity, the willingness to make something beautiful out of waste and destruction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In this way do light and dark, play and mourning, beauty and destruction balance each other.</span></div>
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</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-74488954156309562322012-04-23T14:05:00.000-04:002012-04-23T14:05:14.087-04:00An Act of Sound Beauty for a Noisy Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Radical Joy for Hard Times Band (aka board) of Directors held our annual meeting this past weekend, April 19-22. Besides reviewing what
happened during the past year and planning what we want to do in the months and
years ahead, we took time, as we always do, to do an Earth Exchange.</div>
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The Earth Exchange is the signature event of Radical Joy for Hard Times. It's called an "Exchange" because people and the Earth both give and receive from one another. It
consists of four steps:</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Go with friends (or alone) to a wounded place</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Sit a while and tell your stories of what the
place means to you</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Spend time getting to know it as it is now</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Make some beauty out of found materials</div>
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This year our destination was Potomac Overlook Park, a small
park in Alexandria, Virginia. Our intention was to spend some time at the Potomac
itself, endangered, like just about every river in the world today, by chemicals
of many kinds. However, as often happens when you go into the natural world
with a spirit of curiosity and no fixed agenda, something else occurred to us
instead.</div>
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We discovered that the park was right under the flight path
of planes coming into and leaving Dulles Airport, one of Washington, DC’s major airports. Because noise seemed to be the dominant feature of the place, we decided to
focus our Earth Exchange on noise pollution. </div>
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So we sat together in silence for about twenty minutes,
reflecting on what we could hear (surprisingly, that included birds and breeze), what we couldn’t hear, how we were
responding, and how noise affected our own lives. After we had shared our
impressions and thoughts, the group spontaneously launched into a little percussive
music, as you can hear in the video above. </div>
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Left to right above are: Munro Sickafoose, Rachel Light, Christi Strickland, Joanna Burgess, Barbara Bitondo, and Tim Wolcott.</div>
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</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-28177417864535545692012-04-09T12:35:00.002-04:002012-04-09T12:41:04.742-04:0011,541 Empy Red Chairs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoN26JjHU5fPOfXJ3HBcBi1r7bexwjLb8JpqPI2xKpnfZZKJCPO74ISZjQihrKVA1v8rW5sPiRkb45ystq3VLWpQzptPlAyZXqkAlkxY5L14rdVIUC0qm30MMSAJCnzBHN9DgZQzRO1x-y/s1600/tumblr_m22d9uPFjy1qd4axpo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoN26JjHU5fPOfXJ3HBcBi1r7bexwjLb8JpqPI2xKpnfZZKJCPO74ISZjQihrKVA1v8rW5sPiRkb45ystq3VLWpQzptPlAyZXqkAlkxY5L14rdVIUC0qm30MMSAJCnzBHN9DgZQzRO1x-y/s320/tumblr_m22d9uPFjy1qd4axpo1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thousands of Bosnians walked, lingered, held each other, and wept as they processed along half a mile of blood-red chairs stretching through the center of the city of Sarajevo. Many people lay flowers on the empty chairs. Some chairs were occupied by teddy bears or other toys, placed there in memory of children who had been killed. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On a stage in front of the chairs a small orchestra and choir performed songs, many composed during the siege.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/sarajevo-marks-20-years-since-war-started-409784-Apr2012/">11, 541 chairs</a> symbolized the number of people who were killed during the siege of Sarajevo that began twenty years ago, on April 7, 1991, and lasted three years and eight months, the longest siege in modern history. During that time,</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Serb gunners barraged the city from the surrounding hills, while the primarily Muslim citizens lived under constant threat. The war killed more than 100,00 people altogether, made two million homeless, and reopened old ethnic and cultural wounds between Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are few ways to find beauty and make beauty under such horrendous circumstances. Acts of compassion and generosity and small natural gifts, such as hearing birds singing resolutely at dawn after a night of bombardment, are among them. A participatory memorial such as that of these red chairs, this music, does not assuage grief—in fact, it may even pierce the heart all over again—but it can transform it. Acknowledging together the grief, the lingering shock and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">sense of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">vulnerability unites people. Their common history and the extent of their suffering unfolds before them like a long, long block of empty chairs. Words are unnecessary; presence says all that needs to be said. And music, including music that was written out of the experience of war itself, testifies to the creative spirit that will not be quenched, despite the circumstances. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">11,541 people are missing. The empty places marked by 11,541 chairs both honor their lives and attest to the grief of those who loved them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs069/1101596632207/archive/1109687430011.html">Wendy Steele</a> will join others in creating beauty for Sarajevo and its people (and indomitable pigeons) in Pigeon Square on Saturday, June 23 for the third annual <a href="http://radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/">Global Earth Exchange</a> sponsored by Radical Joy for Hard Times. </span></div>
</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-86982379640410710362012-04-07T12:46:00.002-04:002012-04-07T12:47:11.661-04:00What's the Story of the RadJoy Bird?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPSnL7Bt-b4RNQqbH62XxPmFRt2EogCjoeX3H0sL5RtsfDYGPNxLhVhDa7TiyYZ4rC7YIXLFoS8MnEtyYDtvgdbt5iQkYL1vWqJdAUt3Ox2-4Cpl3rnp22_F92XkcqHGgwhgS9O-CAMSa/s1600/Painting+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPSnL7Bt-b4RNQqbH62XxPmFRt2EogCjoeX3H0sL5RtsfDYGPNxLhVhDa7TiyYZ4rC7YIXLFoS8MnEtyYDtvgdbt5iQkYL1vWqJdAUt3Ox2-4Cpl3rnp22_F92XkcqHGgwhgS9O-CAMSa/s320/Painting+2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
A friend asked me recently about our Radical Joy for Hard Times symbol, a bird, sometimes depicted flying into trouble spots, or a thorny graphic depiction of trouble spots. It's actually a wonderful story.<br />
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At our very first board meeting, right after RadJoy was formed in the spring of 2009, one of our members brought art supplies and we stuck pieces of paper together, then all worked together in silence for about an hour, moving around the paper, drawing, writing, adding to what others had done... with the intention of coming up with our collective vision in a non-verbal way. When we finished, we brought the painting outside to a little park across the street. We couldn't make any sense of it at all. Then one man stood on a picnic table, and suddenly exclaimed, "It's a bird!" And then we saw it: a crazy bird facing all the dark stuff of wounded places and flying into it, singing.<br />
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So that bird became our symbol. It arose out of our collective unconscious. On a more general scale, birds remind us of transcendence. They keep on singing no matter what's going on. They make their homes in all kinds of places. (Once in an abandoned weapons testing site in Florida, I saw swallows nesting in the artillery holes in the cliffs.) Also, the bird is a symbol that is recognizable and relateable to people of all cultures. <br />
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<br /></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-23647107132106948602012-03-27T13:47:00.000-04:002012-03-27T13:47:05.782-04:00One Thousand Arms of Compassion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj90E3gVfoc9tEQxuE1IqOEufXUW9rA34eC8cOSmfrbgnUETK-PX-DfKc9Zrnui9AboUxSyipxmjuDWb4TGdCCAlSfwmnQGnqsN1rHN-298Hg77XpELR9zQ2YMgT1BH5DVvEkBJ7ArgyHsO/s1600/1000Arms_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj90E3gVfoc9tEQxuE1IqOEufXUW9rA34eC8cOSmfrbgnUETK-PX-DfKc9Zrnui9AboUxSyipxmjuDWb4TGdCCAlSfwmnQGnqsN1rHN-298Hg77XpELR9zQ2YMgT1BH5DVvEkBJ7ArgyHsO/s320/1000Arms_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><a href="http://www.earthheartist.com/">Dominique Mazeaud</a> is an artist and ceremonialist who works with natural materials to interweave art, peacemaking, and deep attention to nature. One of her current projects, pictured here, is <i>One Thousand Arms of Compassion</i>, a spiral of forked twigs.<span><span><span><span> Dominique writes:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i><b>One Thousand Arms of Compassion</b>* is an installation continuing my work that began in 1987 with Earth, Water, Peace and the Alphabet. Working with the visible relationship between letterforms and nature, this project consists of thousands of forked branches in part installed in concentric circles in the tradition of the mandala.**<br /><br />It all began with a powerful encounter with a tree some years back. This tree, shaped as a Y, spoke of arms raised in praise. Later, I looked at my wood pile and there was a small version of the Y-shaped tree. From that time on, I found this new "material" (Ys) in my many hikes in the Santa Fe mountains. Earth generously supplies the forked branches that are perfect Ys in abundance. This is a message of importance that I must heed. The Earth is my teacher and guide. By providing material that doubles as a universal expression of prayer, She strengthens the connection I have for the metaphysical/poetic side of life: Y-shaped branches have become a deep personal symbol of meaning and healing.<br /><br />In forms reaching across art and the spiritual, this project celebrates the wonder of creation while mourning what has been lost or destroyed. One Thousand Arms of Compassion offers the deep reconnection with the wondrous miracle that is our planet. By standing within the circles of branches, by placing our center in the center of the greater circle of Nature, we open ourselves to receiving Nature's creative force through her tree emissaries. We can expand our understanding of life to include more of the infinite circle that is the Universe. If we stand under, we understand.<br /><br />Art is a prayer supported by the Earth. </i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i> </i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">* <b>One Thousand Arms of Compassion</b> refers to Avalokiteshvara, the Boddhisattva of Compasion in the Tibetan tradition, who is represented by a thousand arms with which to help the suffering multitudes.<br /><br />** In the present struggle of the planet the mandala presents itself as the seed-symbol of a more harmonized world-order. “Mandala” by Jose & Miriam Arguelles.</span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">To read Dominique Mazeaud's blog, click <a href="http://dominiquemazeaud.blogspot.com/">here</a>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i> </i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-17522260335295587332012-03-12T12:51:00.002-04:002012-03-12T12:53:58.402-04:00Now Lie on Your Back Underneath It!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWiRFqam-HMSuKZDrDM_BEw3rT2cylSY2YU3DgysYOLsfpTyLirPC1UsvfGGVAmlMaVY9vdyVNFNPp2vN36JLD36KMk6p3BtbgmMQkeJoD1n5INdS045p2xIXfwbaN3JF3BHzhPzVI744/s1600/1spaghetti-junction-birmingham-uk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWiRFqam-HMSuKZDrDM_BEw3rT2cylSY2YU3DgysYOLsfpTyLirPC1UsvfGGVAmlMaVY9vdyVNFNPp2vN36JLD36KMk6p3BtbgmMQkeJoD1n5INdS045p2xIXfwbaN3JF3BHzhPzVI744/s320/1spaghetti-junction-birmingham-uk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This traffic maze, located in Birmingham, England, is called Spaghetti Junction, and it is sometimes known as "Britain's most famous traffic black spot." The 30-acre site, which covers five different levels of roads, consists of 18 roads, rail yards, two rivers, and three canals. An estimated 140,000 vehicles stream over it every day.<br />
<br />
Now artist Graeme Miller has created "<a href="http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2012/02/26/art-project-shows-off-spaghetti-junction-s-downside-66331-30406954/">Track</a>," an experiential project in which visitors lie on a board beneath the junction. Assistants pull the boards, each of which is commodious enough to accommodate two people, along over a track, while they peer up at the mesh of concrete and steel above.<br />
<br />
Miller, who has described himself as "a composer of many things that may include music," has transformed a blight into a curiosity, turned speeding straight ahead into an experience akin to gazing up at the stars, and introduced wonder into a massive feat of traffic and engineering. <br />
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<br /></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-23939894943069543492012-03-05T17:38:00.002-05:002012-03-05T17:42:58.906-05:00Fracking Quilts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5hlSNUxlKuZtwWZ2xJJCTkxeo7SP72CTeR3LZngZeN6i2hDVgQFgOcUrOwmG8fdjJEbqcRR8yhS7eegrQ24NeNPaMyRBgvruYvERkVfavLZulAu-9V-DN9RMod8qbiyNHhRtRZiiLr6c/s1600/Trebbe's+fracking+quilt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5hlSNUxlKuZtwWZ2xJJCTkxeo7SP72CTeR3LZngZeN6i2hDVgQFgOcUrOwmG8fdjJEbqcRR8yhS7eegrQ24NeNPaMyRBgvruYvERkVfavLZulAu-9V-DN9RMod8qbiyNHhRtRZiiLr6c/s320/Trebbe's+fracking+quilt.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Virginia</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> ("Gina"—pronounced Ginna) Kellogg, a
life coach and founding partner of <a href="http://www.leadershipthatworks.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=219">Leadership
That Works</a> of Troy, Pennsylvania, began quilting in 2006, as a way of
expressing her deep grief after her brother died. Since then she has created
dozens of what she calls "journal quilts," works in fabric that are
creative responses to emotional states. Now she is sharing what she has learned
with others.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Gina formed her "Fracking
Quilts" workshops in response to the massive gas drilling that has invaded
northeastern Pennsylvania in the past three years. <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html">Fracking</a> </i>is short for <i>hydrofracking</i>,
a technique that entails blasting a mixture of sand, water, and toxic chemicals deep into the Earth, both vertically and
horizontally, to release natural gas. The industry has invaded this quiet, rural
area with noise, light pollution, contaminated water wells, exploding gas
wells, and leaks in pipelines. It has also caused severe physical,
psychological, and social damage to individuals, families, and communities.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">So Gina decided to offer women in the area
an outlet for their feelings through the process of making a quilt. Last
weekend I attended one of her Fracking Quilt workshops. Caroline and I had
never made a quilt, Lynne had experience quilting, and Leslie, who had already
made a fracking quilt, assisted Gina and offered us guidance.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">We began on Friday night by choosing a
square of fabric from one of the antique quilts that Gina collects and had
already cut up. We then "fracked" that one square and used it as the
seed for the rest of the quilt. In the quilt pictured above, the
seed pieces are the jagged green shapes that represent the fracking penetrating
the land.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Gina has an enormous collection of fabrics
that we could choose from. As we worked, she was there to answer questions and
provide guidance, but as she frequently stressed, the point was not to make a
"good" quilt, but to express our deep feelings . When we got stuck, she
urged us to pick a fabric we "hated or would never consider using." It
worked! An essential part of the process was to "frack" our quilts themselves—cut them up—after we had gotten the design just where we wanted it. Although most of us felt some reluctance to do so, cutting through the design helped us to realize that we did not have to hold on to what we were attached to.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">For the backing of the quilt, which no one
would see, we chose a fabric that represented what "has your back,"
what supports you. Most of us also took Gina’s suggestion to write words or
prayers on fabric and insert them between the front of the quilt and the soft batting.
Gina herself quilted our designs as we sat on the other side of her sewing
machine, directing her about what kind of stitches to use and what color
threads.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The quilt I made is above. It is called,
"They are Piercing the Earth and All, All, All Is Falling into the
Cracks." The yellow and orange bands represent the beautiful hilly
landscape in this part of the state and the towns and farms nestled among it.
The fracking process is cutting deep into the Earth, and the villages are collapsing. The large striped "crack"
that runs from top to bottom symbolizes the extent of the fracking, which fractures
not only the Earth but families and communities as well. The circular part on
the lower right is still a bit of a mystery. It seems to token life and growth
and wholeness, even at the depths, when everything around you seems to be
irreparably broken.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">All of us felt transformed by this
remarkable event. We were able to express feelings about the gas drilling that
we had been unable to articulate in any other way. Sharing our stories about
both our experiences with the gas drilling and, as we moved through the
process, the design of our quilts, made each of us feel less alone. And by
transforming fear, grief, and anger into a creative act, we became empowered
and ceased to be victims of an overpowering force.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">For more information about Virginia
Kellogg's Fracking Quilts, <a href="mailto:virginia@leadershipthatworks.com">contact her</a>.</span></span><br />
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</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-19717921875185877192012-02-28T15:20:00.000-05:002012-02-28T15:20:06.220-05:00Six Ways to Look Beneath a Wave<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfpuhvww65EYf_8LbHl1mMA3y2ZnYX0YPgd3DU5MheUMeE3wEwv9EXEoV3lQvdx9YN-wgWGhRAYPYNYY7LaRE_943VlrxQHj7sLnlBQbXIMSTonlqIIUGUFrp_grWK-RlkoJCbS9H6VKu5/s1600/155448_3150340838141_1253706154_33263204_1800514863_n-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfpuhvww65EYf_8LbHl1mMA3y2ZnYX0YPgd3DU5MheUMeE3wEwv9EXEoV3lQvdx9YN-wgWGhRAYPYNYY7LaRE_943VlrxQHj7sLnlBQbXIMSTonlqIIUGUFrp_grWK-RlkoJCbS9H6VKu5/s320/155448_3150340838141_1253706154_33263204_1800514863_n-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
This wonderful image is from the Indonesian artist <a href="http://ferdi-rizkiyanto.blogspot.com/">Ferdi Rizkiyanto</a>. What it shows has a lot in common with Radical Joy for Hard Times:</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's important to look deep into the "hidden" places where ecological devastation often goes ignored or undetected.</li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When you do look there, it doesn't have to be with the eyes of an expert. You can bring a child's sense of wonder to the process.</li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Beneath the beauty, the Earth is wounded.</li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Beneath the wounds, the Earth is beautiful. </li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You never know what you're going to encounter when you look beyond the obvious.</li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are all kinds of ways that you can make beauty out of the non-beautiful.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-40672748311127372812012-02-20T12:44:00.003-05:002012-02-20T12:50:17.248-05:00How to Greet the "Enemy"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqj6GgGRdZ4GC9c2w2coNeT2rOkggAX7PHaATPci5_EDfgKbjrpKnglNAbHyYZU9M6TSRN1Ush8WQcAlzz5NXb2HUs7G7W5NDmmmi4Of3GfIpv9J4LHqzqENSM3NDPky-WPpp8OimgOfb7/s1600/owens-lake-2nd-choice-08-2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqj6GgGRdZ4GC9c2w2coNeT2rOkggAX7PHaATPci5_EDfgKbjrpKnglNAbHyYZU9M6TSRN1Ush8WQcAlzz5NXb2HUs7G7W5NDmmmi4Of3GfIpv9J4LHqzqENSM3NDPky-WPpp8OimgOfb7/s320/owens-lake-2nd-choice-08-2007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>June 23, 2012 is the third annual <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/about-earth-exchanges/2012-global-earth-exchange.html">Global Earth Exchange</a> of <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/">Radical Joy for Hard Times</a>. </b>On this day, people all over the world go to wounded places to make a simple act of beauty: creating the RadJoy bird out of found materials. In this way, they give back to a place they love that has given so much to them and offer up a vision of wholeness, healing, and beauty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here's a story from Meredith Little, co-founder of the <a href="http://schooloflostborders.org/">School of Lost Borders</a>, the preeminent wilderness rites of passage organization, about her 2010 Global Earth Exchange near her home in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Valley">Owens Valley</a>, eastern California. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>What Happened:</b> 1913 the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power (DWP) began draining this large alkali lake, formally a sea
bed, diverting the water into their aqueduct for the growing city of Los
Angeles. When the wind blows, which is often, it lifts one of the worst dust
pollutants (PM-10) in the country through the long, narrow Owens Valley.
Incidents of asthma and lung disease are high in the towns up and down the
valley. For decades the Valley has taken DWP to court to do
something about the situation. For decades DWP has delayed action by spending
millions on “studying the problem.” In 2001 the courts ruled that water be
sprinkled onto small areas of the lake. Alkali plants have been planted here
and there. But when the wind blows, clouds of dust still blanket the valley.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Act of Beauty:</b> After smudging and crossing our
threshold, members of the group separated out onto the floor of the dry lake, strewn now with
ditches, puddles of water around sprinkler heads, patches of salt brush, and
vast areas of alkali soil crunching under my feet. I notice my inclination to
quickly look for the beauty here … the signs of life.</span></div>
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Beauty. Look for beauty. Of course somehow everywhere. And
then I begin to feel sick and nauseous. I sit down in the dust. What’s this? It is anger … not so much at “the wound”, but at the feeble, chaotic
efforts to “heal it.” Pipes sticking through raised banks in vain attempts to
spread the little bits of controlled water. Hedges of dense salt grass. Lines
of sprinklers scattered across the distance.</div>
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I’m angry for the pretending and false promises that this
takes the wound away. I hear myself inside saying … nothing can “pretty up” the
wound. First we must acknowledge that this wound is real. No more lies, no more
false promises of “fixing” it … and I am constantly connecting this with what
we do with each other and our own personal wounding stories.</div>
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I’m sitting now on a cement block where the water is
regulated, looking down on one of the small pools being spilled a bit of high
sierra water from the mountains. A chant of sound begins to spill from my
mouth, a rhythm that is new to me. I sit softly following its voice, and
finally feel like I’m here, just sitting and witnessing, giving company, being
in the truth of this wound. For the first time I feel like I’m really seeing
what’s here, with curiosity. I walk to the puddle of water and want to put my
hands in and see what’s in the dark clay soil just under the surface. Thousands
of lava, wiggling, rising up. I see dead or shed exoskeletons that pile above
the waterline. I see the little miracles of beauty clinging to what remnants
there are of possibilities. I build a very small stone pile of pebbles, and
bend a very old piece of wire into the Radical Joy bird to leave by its side.</div>
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I look up, and down the road a DWP truck is coming slowly,
stopping to make adjustments at the water regulators. I stand, and the
sprinklers stop. I walk slowly back to the road. I recognize my tension around
the DWP driver. Is he the “enemy”? I feel my resistance to him as he drives
closer, then passes me with a blank face. I let in this feeling of “us and
them.” The truck turns to return up the road, and I wonder what I’ll do. I
suddenly break into a smile, and wave. His face transforms into a very big
smile, and a very big wave. We share this wound and this wounded area.</div>
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I think how very loud a wounded area speaks. I wonder why I
have avoided walking here before.</div>
</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-592849725332301892012-02-13T11:47:00.002-05:002012-02-13T11:47:40.258-05:00RadJoy has a new website!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFatOgVVJAseiaOhWb6cXY3Dsqcv6-d2_MNz5N47FTe03VcoLpQV57lq0RRR7jIVOBJ1pg-6eRW4x-Ney65CkM8EmkDIQ30RfDrWCVAIstIdvTieJQEQgTarVbYxaC6VQLis84dAkSaCi/s1600/Picture+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="59" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFatOgVVJAseiaOhWb6cXY3Dsqcv6-d2_MNz5N47FTe03VcoLpQV57lq0RRR7jIVOBJ1pg-6eRW4x-Ney65CkM8EmkDIQ30RfDrWCVAIstIdvTieJQEQgTarVbYxaC6VQLis84dAkSaCi/s320/Picture+5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Radical Joy for Hard Times has a new <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/">website</a>! Thank you to our genius webmaster and designer, Munro Sickafoose, of <a href="http://www.diamondheartwebdesign.com/">Diamondheart Studio</a>, for his imaginative vision and meticulous attention to detail.<br />
<br />
We're especially excited about our new <a href="http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/Earth-Exchange-Network.html">Earth Exchange Network</a>, an interactive space on the site where you can post your personal info and news about the places you love and worry about... upload photos, videos, and stories... and sign up for the 2012 Global Earth Exchange on June 23.<br />
<br />
Have a look and let us know what you think! <br />
<br />
<br /></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-59267947734693742712012-02-06T10:30:00.000-05:002012-02-06T10:30:03.897-05:00Wooed by the Not-Beautiful<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR-QXytwCp2TvKzo3YPM1AA86_Vx9c9aboTgkWr811OgJ5OskyyfGFG9aU3TbtgbxRkCbt7VUEJjTK_MBYhwiU4ahu_OW-Z2ox52SzQlGxo4qZn_OIUl_DpgLYEGVVcX9qfsQM6sRCKugE/s1600/Clearcut+&+fog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR-QXytwCp2TvKzo3YPM1AA86_Vx9c9aboTgkWr811OgJ5OskyyfGFG9aU3TbtgbxRkCbt7VUEJjTK_MBYhwiU4ahu_OW-Z2ox52SzQlGxo4qZn_OIUl_DpgLYEGVVcX9qfsQM6sRCKugE/s320/Clearcut+&+fog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The following is from Mike Beck, Navarre, Florida. He took the photo above during a week spent with three others at Carmanah Valley, part of the vast clear-cut area of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.<br />
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-language: JA;">The wounded places of the earth are great teachers, releasing us from the
predicament of choices. They also have the ability to ruthlessly strip away
your perfectly unfounded bias for ephemeral beauty and rip the words “ugly,” “unsightly”
and “unattractive” right out of your mouth.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-language: JA;">My first experience with attending to a wounded place was one of sadness at
the grotesqueness of a clear-cut old-growth forest, followed almost immediately
by free-floating anger, without adequate tools to catch it and ground it in
reality. A perfectly reasonable response for a person without access at the
time to what Mary Oliver calls the “heart’s little mind.” Four short days later,
with the stump-studded hills and debris-strewn fields disappearing in the
review mirror, I was surprised at the tug to go back: “Don’t leave, not yet,
just a little longer.” </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Where had the grotesque gone and why were the barren hillsides passing from
view unfathomably, wonderfully and perfectly—“not beautiful?” The only
explanation I still find satisfactory is that someone had come while I was
sitting quietly in the clear-cut one of those days and staring at an eagle-head
shaped stump and that “someone” had rearranged all the environmental furniture
in my head, graciously taking away my sense of quilt at not being able to do
something big to save the natural world. </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-language: JA;">An unfortunate side effect of that hooligan’s shenanigans is that now, I’m
forever being wooed by the “not beautiful.” </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-42039651351191687792012-01-30T11:30:00.000-05:002012-01-30T11:30:39.984-05:00Nipun Mehta's Gift Economy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvj-FJecKu9DFZdtHW8QstMZLziJtxbVeEsX1EAN2BIHPQ_EiqqBchK8vXiceTWT6uI1wwYuYtuY9zpr5uZTxnLOjIEyUTKG7FEpwdgwbW-h0ihH7b80O-NMVTpTErqCN5en95svezdv5/s1600/NipunMehta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvj-FJecKu9DFZdtHW8QstMZLziJtxbVeEsX1EAN2BIHPQ_EiqqBchK8vXiceTWT6uI1wwYuYtuY9zpr5uZTxnLOjIEyUTKG7FEpwdgwbW-h0ihH7b80O-NMVTpTErqCN5en95svezdv5/s320/NipunMehta.jpg" width="242" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">One day<a href="http://www.parabola.org/nipun-mehta"> Nipun Mehta</a> and
his friends were sitting around talking about pranks. What is a prank composed
of? “It’s challenging, it’s creative, it’s collaborative,” Nipun reflected in
an interview with Richard Whittaker in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Parabola</i>
Magazine. “We went through a whole list of motivations for what, at the end of
the day, is essentially destructive. So we said, how about we reframe this? We
leave all these motivations in, but we make pranks constructive. What if you
just blew somebody away with kindness?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">That was the beginning of
a remarkable organization called Charity Focus, “an experiment in the joy of
giving.” Charity Focus, which recently changed its name to <a href="http://www.servicespace.org/">Service Space</a>,
depends entirely on the work of volunteers. It does no fund-raising, but relies upon the generosity of people who are moved to help. Services include website design,
collaborations with other organizations, daily emails containing
positive and inspiring messages, and weekly stories about people who have taken
an unusual approach to some problem or seen a delightful possibility where most
would see business as usual. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">One surprising result of what Mehta calls the
“gift economy” is an upsurge of honesty in the way bills are paid in Indonesian
cafés. In the past, widespread corruption meant that customers, especially
young people, would walk out of the café without paying for their meal. Now “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/world/asia/16indo.html">honesty cafés</a>” invite customers to determine
what the meal and the service were worth and to pay that. Some of
the cafés don’t even have cashiers, just boxes in which people can deposit
their payments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The gift economy starts
with single, selfless acts, says Nipun Mehta. “I’m going to support you just
because you’re a fellow human being and someone else comes and supports me in
the same way.” In the long run an attitude like that results in “generosity
entrepreneurs.”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"></span></div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1306704769907422512.post-36538453343546621542012-01-16T13:24:00.000-05:002012-01-16T13:24:52.340-05:00Repercussions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfwB6BsyILHPPkoQHIM3ifCHoBQYY8EJsAng65Cr7E8jmb8FKphlfzyAZOA1fDCZGa_ebSMZZ48qnZQTtiRXJod2W2X9OJPdvfeFfsYF94SLVpUP3hGZqfUSdDiEFUQ-wJIL30GdkRPgz/s1600/5Red+Lily+Pond+Painging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfwB6BsyILHPPkoQHIM3ifCHoBQYY8EJsAng65Cr7E8jmb8FKphlfzyAZOA1fDCZGa_ebSMZZ48qnZQTtiRXJod2W2X9OJPdvfeFfsYF94SLVpUP3hGZqfUSdDiEFUQ-wJIL30GdkRPgz/s320/5Red+Lily+Pond+Painging.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The steps of an Earth
Exchange are simple to describe: </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">1: Go to a wounded place</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">2: Sit a while and tell
your stories</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">3: Spend time on the land
and find beauty in surprising ways</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">4: Make a simple act of
beauty</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">However, since we
encourage each community to enact these steps in ways that reflect their own place
and people, the events themselves and the ripple effects are very different.
Steve Brown, an active member of a conservancy group dedicated to protecting
Red Lily Pond in Craigville, Massachusetts, recently described a couple of interesting
ramifications that their 2011 Global Earth Exchange had for both people and the
pond. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">One of the participants at the event, Avis Strong Parke, is an artist. After
the Global Earth Exchange, she was inspired to invite other local artists to
join her every Tuesday morning at 10:00 to paint the pond. For several weeks a
group that ranged in size from nearly twenty to about eight regulars set up
their easels at different sites around the pond and created a variety of water
colors, acrylics, and oil paints. At the conservancy’s annual dinner and auction,
one of these works sold for $900, and in total the group raised thousands of
dollars more than they ever had before. (The painting above is by Avis Strong Parke.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The second surprise came about from an unexpected source. A man who was known to be
vocal about his conservative political leanings arrived at the pond for the
June 18 event, but immediately made it clear that he didn’t like the word
“radical.” Steve suggested he read the Radical Joy for Hard Times manifesto
that was taped to a card table on the dock and that explores our philosophy
that damaged places are worthy of attention and beauty. A few minutes later,
the man returned to Steve. “Well, I believe those things,” he said. “That’s
right up my alley.” He ended up staying for the day’s celebration. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">A few weeks later, when
the development corporation that owns a condominium at one end of the pond put
forth a proposal to construct a giant illuminated dock over the water, Steve
and other activists were present in force at a State Commission hearing to
discuss the plan. They were surprised when the conservative neighbor walked in
the door, especially since he did not usually get involved in local issues. The
man stood before the commission and announced, “I’m a Republican and I don’t
believe in regulations, but this pond is too valuable to destroy.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">All kinds of people love
the beautiful places that they live
amidst. And often we have more in common than we might suppose.</span></span></div>
</div>Trebbe Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529008038054092614noreply@blogger.com0