The Sustainist

Straight Path to the Truth

Over the last few years, our government came up with one solution after another to fix our economy but none of them seemed to work.  The U.S. economy seems so complicated that very few people can really figure out what is going on.   Did anyone really comprehend how bailing out the banks would actually help people to recover their livelihood?   Did anyone really understand why we needed the so-called “Super Committee” in Congress to decide what to cut in order to reduce the nation’s deficit?  Are you as confused as I that the Super Committee came up with nothing!?   My tax dollars were spent on 12 well-fed politicians in a room for over two months coming up with nothing! 

Over this Thanksgiving weekend, we spent a record $52.4 billion dollars on shopping. This is good news because “consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation’s economy.” I have heard this line about the 70% of the economy many times, on radio, TV and in print, but what does it really mean? The best I could decipher from it is that when people like you and me spend our money to buy stuff, our economy will recover.

These things they tell us about our economy and how to fix it are like crooked roads that seem to lead nowhere. They are like mountains that block the view of what is really happening.  It is like a deep and dark valley has been placed between everyday people like you and me, and the truth; we can’t possibly recognize reality.  If we are to understand how to revitalize our economy, we need some straight paths to the truth.

Hector Delgadillo, CEO of Durbo Coil, bought a whole page of the Pasadena Weekly (October 20, 2011) to publish an open letter to President Barack Obama and Members of Congress.  In this letter, he wrote:

“I used to buy Ralph Lauren suits, shirts and pants.  They used to be made in the U.S.A.  I paid top dollar.  Then they moved their production to China.  Funny thing though, the prices stayed the same or even increased.  Why?  Even when the manufacturing costs were lower?  More money goes into Mr. Ralph Lauren’s pocket.  And the lower costs are due to slave labor that is used to build these and other leading consumer brands:  Nike, Puma, Calvin Klein, New Balance, Eileen Fisher, Apple, Motorola, J Crew, Gap, and Zara.”

So the people who stormed the malls looking for bargains are not the ones responsible for the recovery of our economy.  In fact, their spending, however large, will probably not revitalize our economy in the long run.  Take a look at the labels of the stuff people buy on Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.  When we spent over 52 billion dollars last weekend, whose economy are we revitalizing?  Not the United States!  The clothes I am wearing now are made in the Dominican Republic, Columbia and China.  In fact, everything I have on was made somewhere else other than the U.S.!

The English words "economy" and "economics" can be traced back to the Greek words οἰκονόμος, i.e. "one who manages a household", a composite word derived from οἴκος ("house") and νέμω ("manage; distribute").  When I manage my household, I track where my money comes from, and where it goes.  If we are to be good managers of our common household—our nation—we need to take a look at where the money might come from first.   The U.S. government doesn’t have it; the tax money we paid did not seem to be enough to cover our spending and that’s why we have the huge deficit. The banks have money, but they are not lending them out easily to the good people who need it.   The 99%, as the Occupy Wall Street movement called us, don’t have the money either; that’s why we stayed up all night in order to get into the stores to get that bargain we need to save a few dollars.   Yet the spotlights are constantly on us, watching how we spend our money – to save the economy.

Here is a straight path to the truth!   The rich have the money; that’s why they are called rich. So, why don’t we put a spotlight on the rich and watch how they spend their money.  Better yet, we can challenge them to spend their money in ways that will actually boost our economy.  They are the ones who have the money to put back in circulation so that resources can flow through the wider system rejuvenating more people and communities.  Here are some suggestions for the rich:

1. Spend your money to buy U.S. made products even when it costs more.  Why? Because you can afford it.
2. Use your money to create local jobs in your own communities. According to a study conducted by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, that as of May 2011, there are approximately 10.5 million people living in the United States classified as U.S. dollar millianaires. If every U.S. millionaire takes a small fraction of his/her income and created 2 jobs locally, there would be 21 million new local jobs.  This will guarantee the economy’s recovery.  If you need help in creating jobs, just look around your neighborhood, town and city and see what needs to be done for the benefit of the community and pay people to do it.  It is that simple.
3. Use your influence to keep jobs in the U.S. even though it means you make a little less money.  You will feel much better knowing that you are providing good salaries and health benefits for fellow citizens.
4. Use your influence to make sure that the U.S. made products are of high quality and beneficial to the environment and to those who will buy them. Have pride in what we make and export them.

If you have other suggestions of how the rich in the U.S. can spend their money to boost our economy, write back and share them with other readers of this blog.

Reflection Questions for 2nd Sunday of Advent (Year B) Isaiah 40:1-11     How do you prepare the way of God? Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13   How are mercy, truth, righteousness and peace related? 2 Peter 3:8-15a   What needs to happen for God to find you at peace?     Mark 1:1-8   What can you learn from John about making God’s path straight?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first  two opportunities: February 27–March 2, 2012 Kaleidoscope Winter Institute Holy Currencies Conversations on Money and Sustainable Ministry March 14–18, 2012 Face to Face Seeing and Hearing Each Other . . . Knowing God Creative liturgy & music for a diverse and changing world An ecumenical gathering of church leaders to create worship experiences that are authentic, relational and missional

A Sustainist Thanksgiving

My Hebrew Scripture Professor, Harvey Guthrie, once said in his class on the Psalms, “Thanksgiving is about remembering.”   To give thanks is to remember.  In the Biblical tradition, to give thanks to God is to remember what God has done for us.  The people of Israel gave thanks by remembering how God had delivered them from the oppression of the Egyptians, from slavery to freedom, in the Exodus experience.  In remembering this event, they gave thanks to God by offering a sacrifice.  The sacrifice of an animal was a sign, an action that symbolized this remembrance.  And then by remembering and taking a symbolic action, we renew our vows to be faithful to God.  

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and make good your vows to the most high.  (Psalm 50:14)

In Psalm 50, the psalmist sang about how God did not want our sacrifice as a hollow gesture with no meaning and lead to little actions.  To the Psalmist, the best sacrifice we can offer is to give thanks and this thanksgiving should move us to renewing and keeping our vows—our promises—to God.

As we remember the blessings we received and give thanks, we must renew our promise to sustain each other and the earth so that the blessings will continue to flow.  Here is a sustainist approach to celebrating Thanksgiving that you can do on your own or with a group.

1. Recall an event:
   1. Review this past year and recall an event of blessing or transformation for you. 
   2. Write down the sequence of events leading to this blessing or transformation. 
   3. Name the persons or groups that had facilitated this transformation.  Describe their actions.
2. Symbolic Action:  
   1. Create a symbolic action that can help you remember this event.  This symbolic action may or may not involve the people who had facilitated your transformation.  For example, the symbolic action can be writing a thank-you card to a person recalling the blessings that this person has been for you.   Other symbolic actions may include inviting another to a meal, offering of a gift, creating a photo album, creating a video, making a public announcement, . . . etc.
3. Renew a Promise: 
   1. As part of your symbolic action, offer or renew a promise that you would carry out for the persons or community involved.  For example, a promise can be:  I will volunteer at the homeless shelter for this coming year or I will spend 15 minutes a day to pray or I will visit with a person at least once a month, etc.

Here is dialogue process that you can use during Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

1. Invite your family and friends to complete the sentences:
   • A blessing I received  this past year was . . .
   • In remembering these blessings, I give thanks to  . . .
2. Give them time to write down the sentences.
3. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his/her sentences
4. Invite them to complete the sentence:
   • As a symbol of my thanksgiving, I promise to  . . .
5. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his/her sentence.
6. End the sharing by a prayer or a song that everyone knows.

You may incorporate a symbolic action for participants to do while they share.  For example, put pebbles in a bowl making sure that there are at least one or two pebbles per person.  In step 2, each participant takes a pebble before she shares her two sentences.  For step 5, participants put the pebbles back in the bowl as they share their promises.  The bowl of pebbles is placed somewhere visible through out the year.  The same bowl of pebbles can then be used again next Thanksgiving.

 

Rewiring Our Brains

During a Holy Currencies Workshop last week, I offered suggestions on how to transform a linear goal-driven program to feed the hungry into a relational-focus ministry that might lead to greater sustainability for this project.  One participant kept responding to every suggestion with a “we can’t do that” rebuttal.  After my fifth suggestion, I finally realized that this participant has a different “brain.”  Her brain was wired for living with limits and scarcity.

My brain is wired like a sustainist.   I see limits as opportunities for creativity. I see an unemployed person as a resource of time and energy.  I always look for ways to do more with less.   I see wastes as resources.  I see leftover as signs of abundance.  The first place I go to when I am faced with an obstacle is not “we can’t do that” but “what are other creative ways we can follow to do this better?”  

My friend, Lucky Lynch, had told me in more than one occasion, “What you are trying to do in your training programs is nothing short of brain surgery.”  She is referring to some of the tools I created, such as Respectful Communication Guidelines and Mutual Invitation.   These tools might look simple, but when practiced regularly, we are changing the way people think.  Over time, people learn to think in inclusive ways.

Nicholas Carr, in his book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, reported a number of experiments that demonstrated how repeated physical actions, such as learning to play a musical instrument, can rewire our brains. Not only that, he also reported an experiment that demonstrated “purely mental activity can also alter our neural circuitry, sometimes in far-reaching ways.” (P. 32)  The experiment, conducted by Pascual-Leone of the National Insititutes of Health, went like this: 

Pascual-Leone recruited people who had no experience playing a piano, and he taught them how to play a simple melody consisting of a short series of notes.  He then split the participants into two groups.  He had the members of one group practice the melody on a keyboard for two hours a day over the next five days.  He had the members of the other group sit in front of a keyboard for the same amount of time but only imagine playing the song –without ever touching the keys.  . . . Pascual-Leone mapped the brain activity of all the participants before, during, and after the test.  He found that people who had only imagined playing the notes exhibited precisely the same changes in their brains as those who had actually pressed the keys. (P. 33)

How can we move more people in our community to think like a sustainist?  Besides finding opportunities for people to experience physically and emotionally how a sustainist approaches work, we can try using imagination.

As Christians move toward the beginning of Advent – a season of anticipation of the coming of Christ (Christmas), Christians are asked to be alert and stay awake.  The key image of our role in creation is that of a steward who is put in charge of a household while the owner is away.  Because we don’t know when the owner will return, as stewards, we are challenged to stay alert because at any moment, we might need to account for how we have nurtured and sustained that which has been put in our charge.  This Advent challenge is asking us to rewire our brain from thinking that we are owners to just being stewards of this earth.  

Now, imagine that you are only stewards who are only put in charge of what you have for the time being. And every moment of everyday, you are to stay alert as if you are to give account for what you have done to create a sustainable future for the next generation.  What would life be like?  How would you make decisions in what you buy, sell, give and accept?   What would you do with the properties and resources over which you have influence and control?  Imagine each step, each decision with your mind and then, even better, implement these steps in reality when the opportunities come.

Reflection Questions for 1st Sunday of Advent (Year B) Isaiah 64:1-9    What does it mean for God not to hide her/his face from us? Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18  How does God show the light of his/her countenance on us? 1 Corinthians 1:3-9   How does the Grace of God prepare you for the end time?    Mark 13:24-37   As stewards of this creation, how do we stay awake?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first  two opportunities: February 27–March 2, 2012 Kaleidoscope Winter Institute Holy Currencies Conversations on Money and Sustainable Ministry March 14–18, 2012 Face to Face Seeing and Hearing Each Other . . . Knowing God Creative liturgy & music for a diverse and changing world An ecumenical gathering of church leaders to create worship experiences that are authentic, relational and missional

Fat sheep, Lean Sheep

Ever since the Occupy Wall Street Movement gained international recognition, I have been hearing questions about this movement.  “How do I know whether this movement is something that I should support?”  “Are they the same as the Tea Party?”  “Just what do they want?  They don't seem to be very organized or have a focus.” 

These are questions about making a judgment.  While I prefer not to make judgment until I have seen the whole picture of any issue or situation, I started reflecting on why I have been supportive of this movement almost from the start.

I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. (Ezekiel 34:20-24)

This Hebrew Scripture text from the prophet Ezekiel uses the image of a shepherd (God) and the flock (people) to explain the way God makes judgment.  It is the fat sheep that God has a problem with because of their bullying, causing division and suffering among the flock. God yearns for the whole community to be fed and to live well, not just the fat few!  I am enthusiastic about the Occupy Movement because they are naming the fat sheep, the one percent, as they called them.

In the Christian Scripture, there are also passages about judgment.  In Matthew 25:31-46, again the divine presence is depicted as a shepherd sorting the sheep and the goat.  The sheep are invited to enter God’s pasture and these are the criteria:

. . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.

When I visited Occupy Oakland, I did see the hungry being fed, the stranger being welcomed, the homeless offered shelter, the sick being taken care of, and the naked clothed.  Based on these criteria, I did make a judgment that this movement is good.  I don't want to paint a completely rosy picture of this movement.  I also observed that there were issues of safety and conflicts caused by individuals and groups that had a more extreme sense of what this movement was about. However, I also observed how the leaders of the movement handled these conflicts with compassion and grace.

Why do we make judgment?  We tend to think the next step after judgment is punishment.  But punishment will not restore the social and economic wellness.  The purpose of judgment is the movement toward repentance, which, in Judeo-Christian terms, means “turning around,” returning to the right relationship with God and with each other.  By pronouncing judgment, we are calling the “fat sheep” to repent, to act in ways that will re-establish the right relations among people and resources so that we can create a sustainable community in which all may have their basic needs met and the opportunities to pursue happiness.

Invite members of your community to visit the local Occupy Movement. From small group of 3 participants.  Invite them to share: What do I know about the Occupy Movement? What am I excited about in this movement? What am I afraid of? What do I want to find out more about this Movement? Send each group to visit the local Occupy site to:  Walk around the site and observe. Talk with at least 3 people and listen to their experiences. Gather all the small groups and invite them to share using sentences beginning with: I noticed . . . I wonder . . . Invite the community to consider whether they would support this movement.

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first  two opportunities: February 27–March 2, 2012 Kaleidoscope Winter Institute Holy Currencies Conversations on Money and Sustainable Ministry March 14–18, 2012 Face to Face Seeing and Hearing Each Other . . . Knowing God Creative liturgy & music for a diverse and changing world An ecumenical gathering of church leaders to create worship experiences that are authentic, relational and missional

Currency of Place

Government leaders were attempting to remove people of the Occupy Movement from public places in the last weeks. These conflicts resulted in more people noticing this movement and the truth they are trying to tell with their bodies, their tents and their voices. Occupy Oakland was one of the places where the use of teargas, which resulted in serious injury of a veteran, became national news.

I was in Oakland last weekend and decided to visit Occupy Oakland. I witnessed an assembly in progress in which the speaker spoke into a not-so-loud bullhorn speaker, and people closer to him repeating each sentence so people in the outer perimeter can hear. There were places for people to eat, to donate food and clothes, to get medical treatment, to read, to play and to sleep. More importantly, the place they occupied became a space for dialogue, amongst the gathered – curious bystanders, passionate protesters, truth-seekers, law enforcement personnel, public officials and media. By occupying this space, relationships, antagonistic as some of them might be, were created where there was none before. The Occupy Movement showed us that public places can be occupied in exchange for relationships and truth, and hopefully will leads to changes – changes that would create sustainable wellness for more people in our communities.

In Detroit, places where there were houses crumbling, boarded up or missing altogether, are now occupied by community gardens and urban farms, some legal and some illegal. Andrew Kemp tends a lush garden on 7 city lots he owns. “It could never happen in another city. I mean, this is ridiculous to think about this much land,” Kemp says in an NPR radio interview. “There are very few houses that have another house next to them. So everybody can have at least an extra yard, you know. That’s really the gift of Detroit.” The urban farmers occupy Detroit and transforms parts of this economically desolate land into places where wellness can be recreated by reconnecting with the abundance of the land.

What I admired most about the people of the Occupy Movement and the urban farmers of Detroit is their courage to take risks. Without their risk-taking, the land in Detroit will continue to be wasted and the public squares or parks are just front lawns for the government and corporation buildings. If a place is not being used as a currency exchange, it becomes a buried treasure that does not serve any purpose or good for anyone; it is just buried. In order to turn the places we occupied into a currency, we need to not be afraid and take risks, so that in these places, new relationship can be built, truth can be told, wellness can be established, and leaders can be formed.

What places are you occupying these days? What currencies (leadership, relationship, truth, or wellness) can these places exchange into? What risks do you need to take?

I and my partner occupy a big house with 3 big bedrooms on ½ acre of land in Rancho Mirage, CA. (About 10 miles from Palm Springs.) It has been a safe place for me to rejuvenate in between my travels and as well as a place for families to come and reconnect and strengthen relationships. But this place can be so much more. Over the years, I have offered the house for retreats and leadership training programs periodically. The guests who came to the first retreat helped me name the house: La Casa de Gracia (House of Grace.) In the coming years, I will increase the time set aside for these retreats to maximize the currency of this place in exchange for wellness and leadership for my friends. The next retreat is scheduled on December 8-14, 2011. Anyone interested in coming for 3 to 6 days of prayer, reflection, leadership development, and incubation of new sustainist ideas can register through our website: HERE

Gather your community to explore the currencies of the places they occupy. Invite participants to list the places that they own or have access to. Write down a list of activities that has taken place at each location. Categorize each activity according to the currencies into which they are exchanged:  Leadership, Relationship, Truth and Wellness. Invite participants to explore the strengths and challenges as they discover how they are using their currencies of place. Invite participants to discuss how they can increase their community’s sustainability by developing the use their currency of place.

Reflection Questions for Proper 28 (Year A) Judges 4:1-7    What can you learn from Deborah, the prophetess, about God’s action in human community? Psalm 123  When have you related to God depicted in this psalm? Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18   Why is God angry at those who rest complacently on their dreg?    Psalm 90:1-9, (9-11)   How do you number your days and apply your heart to wisdom? 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11   How do you become a child of light? Matthew 25:14-30   What stops you from being an entrepreneur of ministry?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first  two opportunities: February 27–March 2, 2012 Kaleidoscope Winter Institute Holy Currencies Conversations on Money and Sustainable Ministry March 14–18, 2012 Face to Face Seeing and Hearing Each Other . . . Knowing God Creative liturgy & music for a diverse and changing world An ecumenical gathering of church leaders to create worship experiences that are authentic, relational and missional

What would the celebration of Halloween be like if we decide to measure our success using the following currencies: