Thoughts on Work

I've been reading a book lately by Matthew Fox (the activist and former Catholic, now Episcopalian priest who founded Wisdom University) called "The Reinvention of Work," and it's a fascinating read. Work is something that I've spent a great amount of time pondering, and I think this book is helpful in guiding these questions forward: What does work mean? What do we do when there isn't enough "good" work to go around? What do we do when the "good" work keeps getting outsourced or offshored and those who can still stay employed find themselves in an ever more insecure and stressful position at work? What if the "work" we're creating is destroying the Earth we depend on for our very sustenance?

I remember years ago seeing a documentary on a Department of Energy site on some river on the East Coast (likely the Savannah River in South Carolina), and how even though the work being done on the site had poisoned the rivers of the town and had been ecologically devastating, there was pressure from the community to keep it there and open because of the jobs that it provided. It started me thinking about the meaning of work and whether there wasn't a better way to sustain human beings.

Fox points out that there are over 1 billion unemployed people on the planet; that this of course is a huge problem in and of itself. But he also points out that "Jobs, jobs, jobs" isn't necessarily the answer; that the type of work we create matters. He cites a Canadian study that showed that life expectancy is more closely linked to how much of a sense of control people feel in their work lives than it is to their access to health care, something we might do well to keep in mind as we push for universal health care coverage. Having lived with crappy but expensive health insurance for three years, I think the health care crisis is real and I'm all for single-payer universal health coverage. But we also need to be thinking about how to allow for people to live lives of dignity and meaning, and how to restore health and balance in this crazy world.

An Evening with Bill Clinton

We spent last evening at a fundraiser for Jim McDermott in Seattle, at the beautiful Benaroya Hall, where we were entertained with some great music, edified by the words of my most esteemed Thom Hartmann, educated in the some of the vagaries of the first amendment case that Rep. McDermott has been fighting for the last nine years, and inspired by Bill Clinton, talking about what Democrats stand for.

Now, I must say, I have mixed feelings about Bill. I think he's smart. I think he's an inspiring speaker. I also know that there were a lot of things that he did as President that I don't think best represented the interests of most of the people of this country. That said, I think he spoke with some insight, contrasting those who hold an ideology ("Don't bother me with the facts!") to those who hold a philosophy ("I know what I believe, but I also know that I can be wrong--so let's talk--and let the best ideas win."). He said that the ideologues can't win an argument, which is why they have to rely on attacking their opponents.

I thought that was a good distinction. A useful one. I also know that we can all be fundamentalists about some of our ideas, and that we need to be watchful lest we also let any ideology pump us up with self-righteousness, so that we don't recognize how we ourselves contribute to the quandary that we find ourselves in on planet Earth at this time at the start of this new century, where so much that is so serious must be resolved so quickly.

Sharing Dar Williams

I've been meaning to post this for a while...Dar Williams is one of my very favorite artists. I was very grateful to be able to meet her last year in Seattle and thank her for her music, which has shepherded me through some great trials and tribulations in my life.

When she came out with her new album last year, Dar partnered up with TrueMajority.org (link on the right) to offer up this song, called Empire, from the album. It's a song about empire and those who promulgate it, saying it's all for our own good, pulling us along until it's too late.

And the empire fell
on its own splintered axis.
And the emperor wanes
as the silver moon waxes.

And the farmers will find our coins
In their strawberry fields
while somebody somewhere
twists his ring as someone kneels.

Dar has also offered up for free download one of the most beautiful songs I know about what it is to live with faith as an American at this time in this world. It's called I Had No Right, and it's about Father Daniel Berrigan and his compatriots who were arrested for burning draft files during the Vietnam war.

God of the just I'll never win a peace prize
Falling like Jesus
Now let the jury rise
Oh it's all of us versus all that paper
They took the only way
They know who is on trial today
Deliver us unto each other, I pray

You can download Empire here (lyrics here) and I Had No Right here (lyrics here).

Dar also has a lovely song on the new album, My Better Self, called Echoes. It's about how what we do affects the whole world.

Every time you choose one more morning
Goodness or meanness, life has one warning
It echoes all over the world

You can actually download that one, too--follow the links from the same spot as I Had No Right. I get to see Dar in a few weeks on tour with Shawn Colvin and I can't wait. Go Dar!

TerraPass

Having recently seen An Inconvenient Truth and now reading The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, by Thom Hartmann, I was inspired yesterday to buy a TerraPass. It's not much in the face of the breadth of the problems we are part and party to, but it's something.

Basically, a TerraPass allows you to invest enough in alternative energy to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of your car. You put in the make, model and how many miles you drive a year and they tell you what level of TerraPass to buy.

Their blog is worth checking out too.

Pondering the Immigration Issue

I've been thinking quite a bit about this issue. I don't like the evidently prominent Dem position that I heard Harry Reid articulate yesterday from the Take Back America conference: just let them pay a fee, learn English, "go to the back of the line", etc. Expand guest worker programs.

I know something about immigrants. I married one once. I taught ESL. I've known more than one who came here under questionable circumstances. I know many people come because US government policies have messed up their countries, and I can sympathize with their plights.

However, I realize we have a problem. It is my conviction that globalizing forces have sought to export as many jobs as possible, and to dilute the labor force here in the US to drive down wages. This doesn't bode well for the future of the middle class in America, and I believe this is why so many Americans are angry about illegal immigration.

If the economy was booming here and we had lots of great jobs, we probably wouldn't care so much about this issue. But it's not, and we don't. And many people in trades such as construction have been tangibly hurt by the government refusing to enforce immigration laws.

I think that Thom Hartmann (see article here) is the most reasonable person I have heard address this issue and I think that if the Dems were smart, they would start here: strengthen enforcement against employers, and a lot of the problem will go away. Reputedly, one of the first acts Bush took upon gaining the Oval Office was to dissolve the IRS group that enforced Social Security number integrity--i.e. they checked the numbers to see if they matched names and other vital statistics. If there was a discrepancy, they gave employers time to correct the error, and then that was it.

I think we should go after the employers: the people who exploit undocumented immigrants. Aggressively. For example, fine them heftily, and lock them up if they persist. And wait and see what happens. Then we can talk about other measures. But unless we start going after the people who offer the jobs and not the people who are desperate enough to take them, I believe the problem will only continue to plague us.

Merle Haggard and Jackson Browne...

...both have interesting vids on their home pages.

Now, Merle's Rebuild America First is interesting, because he's a country-western dude not particularly known for his wild liberal leanings, as far as I can discern, at any rate. I don't agree with all of his sentiments--I don't believe that we are the ones who are "worst off" and that other countries should be helping us instead of us helping them, at least not precisely as the song states. We give foreign aid that is largely a form of corporate welfare and is often useless to the recipient countries. And we ARE being supported by other countries in the form of our enormous trade deficit and current accounts deficit that is being financed largely by foreign concerns. And I know enough about the "rebuilding" going on Iraq to know that it has also been a corporate welfare project, which has failed to put Iraqis to work in the reconstruction of their own country and has done little to increase good feelings on the part of the Iraqi people, as it has been part of the selling off of their own country under their very noses.

That said, I think this video is important because I think it shows just how lost this war is from the perspective of the American people. The chorus goes, "Let's get out of Iraq, get back on the track, and rebuild America first."

Merle ends his song by saying "You think I'm blowin' smoke? Boys, it ain't no joke, I make 20 trips a year coast to coast."

Jackson Browne's video Lives in the Balance comes at the same subject from a different angle, and has some incredibly difficult-to-watch footage, but is incredibly powerful, in a heart-wrenching kind of way.

An Inconvenient Truth

Just got back from seeing the movie in downtown Seattle...by the end I was close to breaking out crying. I don't know if a movie has ever done that to me before. This was more than just tears sliding down the cheeks. This was the verge of sobbing, held in check only by my social sensibilities!

I had a lot of complex feelings watching Al Gore. I think there was a lot more he could have done while he had the chance, but he was too much of a politician, watching where the wind was blowing. He admits some of that himself in the film. I couldn't help but think, watching the movie, what more could have been done by Clinton and Gore if they were really so interested in the health of the earth--and for that matter, the long-term survival of the human species. I've read that while in office Gore specialized in running intervention for the benefit of corporate campaign contributors with regulatory agencies. I'm glad he's doing what he's doing now. Certainly we would have been better off in some significant ways with a Gore/Lieberman administration...but perhaps we needed Bush to wake us up, I don't know. I hope it's working. It seems like maybe it's working. But there is a lot of work left undone.

I heard on Air America radio last week or so a conversation where they were talking about GWB and how sure he was that he was on a mission from God--and someone (Thom Hartmann?) said, "Well, perhaps God is using George W. Bush--just not in the way that Bush thinks he's being used!" That made me laugh. Perhaps it's true.

At any rate--regardless of the lack of sainthood on the part of Al Gore, I think the movie is a must-see. If you care about the earth. If you care about the future. And don't leave while the credits are rolling, because the message continues nearly till the end. More info about the film here.

New Video from Ian Rhett for Memorial Day

Ian Rhett has a new video that he's released for Memorial Day, in honor of his 19-year-old sister who is serving in the Marine Corps. It's subtle, but powerful. Great for sharing.

If you haven't seen his first video, it is a must see. It is called "(Didn't Know I Was) Unamerican" and is incredibly powerful. Just make sure you have tissue handy!!

Marianne Williamson and the Message of the Powerful

Marianne Williamson's talk at the Sacred Activism conference last week was quite remarkable in a number of ways. Some of the things she said made many of us squirm. And perhaps I'll talk more about that later. But I think one of the most powerful things she talked about was the message that was sent to those activists in the 60's who were daring to stand up and speak truth to power. The message that was broadcast loud and clear through the shootings of the students at Kent State, and through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. The message that it was time to shut up and go home, and retreat into private life. She said that they took those messages to heart, and that many continued to try to fix the world in their own way, but that the collective energy was dispersed by the fear. The threat felt very real. She said that that time was the time of great leaders; that this time was the time of the chorus, a chorus so big that they wouldn't be able to shut us down or shut us up so easily.

I'm too young to remember those things happening in real time. But when I was little, my parents had a record that had the song "Abraham, Martin and John" on it, and I remember listening to that song over and over and being so moved by it. I don't remember learning about what the song was about; that knowledge must have come to me before memory. But I know it put its mark on me. I always felt that something should be done to fix all the injustice that seemed so evident in the world. But the message crept into my heart too. What will it cost you? What will you be willing to give? And I think it's been part of the answer to why I have held back; why I didn't pursue a career that would have been more meaningful to me; why I was afraid to put my skin in the game.

Dr. King said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Maybe I haven't been totally silent. But in many ways I've lived to keep safe.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day on the way to work: "Your silence will not protect you."

Indeed.

The Cultural Creatives

One of the more interesting things that happened at the Sacred Activism conference (to me), was to hear Paul Ray talk about the Cultural Creatives, a term I first ran across in this book. This term describes a growing demographic in America (that they estimated at about 50 million people). These people have these hallmarks (among others) according to the Cultural Creatives web site FAQ: they are interested in holistic health, sustainability, and spirituality, and they tend to think in planetary and not just national terms. One of the big revelations for me was that these people fall across the political spectrum, and often have trouble with politics because issues important to them are mostly ignored by both main political parties (I knew something about the Cultural Creatives, but had sort of jumped to the conclusion that they tended to fall more on the lefty side). He also talked about the two other main groups in America: 1) the Traditionals, who tend to be more traditionally religious and also concerned about certain types of moral questions, and 2) the Moderns, who tend to emphasize rationalism and to believe that technology is the answer to difficult questions.

At the conference, Paul Ray talked about the "new political compass" in America, a four-directional compass with the Left to the West, the Religious Right to the East, the Big Business/Globalization people to the South, and the Cultural Creatives to the North. I thought this was fascinating, and explained much of the quandary that the Democrats have found themselves in trying to get elected--something that made sense to me viscerally (since I think I tend to fall into this group), but have not had the words to express. It made me understand more deeply the problem of having to choose between the lesser of two evils--however a person defines this (something that I've been willing, however reluctantly to do, but which I've found has become harder and harder to take). To anyone thinking about the direction of politics in this country, I would much encourage checking this out.

Finding our Voices as Spiritual Activists

We live in troubled times, perhaps unrivaled in human history. The trend I have witnessed, during my lifetime, has been toward increasing insecurity. The news about the future that we face tends toward the bleak, and you have to really search for portents of hope. Between the devastating results of globalization and the consolidation of corporate power, and the sheer weight of the environmental consequences of human actions on this earth, it is easy to feel despair. I even understand to some degree those who hope for divine deliverance in the form of a Messiah who will rescue us from the enormity of the problems we face. While I believe that the divine will have a part to play if we are to come through this in any kind of form that most of us will want for ourselves and our children and their children to come, I think that the divine works most often through our own frail and human hands.

I spent last weekend at the Sacred Activism conference in Lynnwood, Washington, organized by Wisdom University. It gave me great hope to see so many come together, searching for a way that the "Spiritual Progressives" among us here in America may come together to offer a different version of hope for the future than what we are offered by the Religious Right. I believe that Michael Lerner ("The Left Hand of God") is on to something--I believe that there is a spiritual crisis here in America. For so long, in order to survive in an increasingly harsh world, more and more of us have been forced into the tyranny of maintaining somebody's bottom line, no matter the cost to our families, our communities, and indeed our very souls. I think that there is another vision--that another world is possible. But I think that as spiritual progressives, or sacred activists, or whatever name you want to use, the world needs us, and we need to find our voice.

At the conference, Michael Lerner told a great story about a woman who had come up to him at one of his talks in Seattle when he was here recently promoting his book and his new Network of Spiritual Progressives. She said she'd met a man who she'd really hit it off with, and he'd asked her to go out on a Sunday morning picnic. She asked if they could meet a little later, since she was going to be in church on Sunday morning. He looked at her, shocked, and said, "But I thought you were a Democrat!" This parallels a story told by Jim Wallis, of Sojourners magazine, published in the American Prospect, where he was told on a book tour by someone in Boston that it was easier to come out as gay in the Democratic Party than as a religious person (link). I think it's sad, and I think it needs to change. As Michael Lerner said, we (OK, I can't speak for everyone--but most of us) don't want to convert anybody. It's not like gays came to the Democrats and said, "Hey, not only do we want you to be gay-friendly and supportive of us as we strive for equal rights--we also want you all to become gay!" As a person who is spiritually inclined, although not "religious" in any strict sense of the word, I think he's right. As spiritual progressives, whose faith impels us to act in the world to stand on the side of the powerless against the powerful, I think we need to come out of the closet.

It is time.

So may it be.