Community Rebuilding
This is, embarrassingly so, a very old article sounding “good as new”. Please do feel free to share, read our Networking poem by then-UN-secretary Robert Mueller (see below) to be inspired. And as we roll up our sleeves and begin to network our powers and abilities, we’ll start to "retro-green" and “retro-heal” our own fragmented communities. Most local newspapers are even happy to help publish about such efforts to further spread the good word.
Suffering per se is not necessarily bad. It has been during the times in my life when I experienced the most profound losses or long-lasting pain that I also learned and grew the most. So I have a deep respect and appreciation for healthy pain. It is as much a part of living as are joy, fear, contentment, sadness, frustration, exhilaration.
What I would be much more concerned about is numbness, detachment, automated "sleep-walking." It is then that we stop living and stop having control over our own life and its direction. Once numb, detached and automated in thinking and behavior, we can easily fall prey to indoctrination, mass-mindedness, empty-mindedness. It is by questioning these phenomena that we are more apt to answer the riddles of health and disease. Mass-mindedness and automatic behavior necessarily mean lack of spontaneity, creativity, individuality. With such basic human needs squelched, emotional and physical health are but elusive dreams.
I am touched deeply by the many people I work with and the courage they show in confronting themselves and their own fears. Let’s face it, we humans are by nature cowards and will avoid change at all cost. But wouldn't the effort of avoiding change in an ever-changing universe be asking for trouble? Yet oftentimes, we seem to prefer the trouble of our old patterns and problems over the promises of new life, new possibilities, and new choices. Healing the human spirit takes the extra guts and courage of facing one’s own demons, but it also takes a social environment that supports such expressions – your community.
Indeed, to make for a healthy society, we need sound individuals, a sound community, as well as a wholesome physical environment. We also need a viable philosophy to share and live by, so that the people gathered in one living environment are not just thrown together willy-nilly, but are held together by common ideas, hopes and dreams for their lives.
My line of work makes me aware of many people, programs, dreams and possibilities that seem to exist in many communities. For instance, here where we live, we have countless, quite unusual programs which are carried out, more or less quietly, in the service of human growth and of healing the wounds of modern living. In talking to people who are involved with such programs, I realized how important it would be to acknowledge many of these special undertakings in a more systematic way, so that other communities not so fortunate may profit from people’s experience. Indeed, some of these programs have been developed and have grown because others freely shared their experiences and in that way, brought hope to so many of the deeply troubled living environments in our country and the world.
I remember reading a poem by Nikos Kazantzakis many years ago which touched me greatly.
Of course, some of it takes the kind of courage I talked about earlier. But then again, I think it takes even more guts to sit still and watch quietly what is happening to us and our children.
Again, that's why we are offering another poem, by Robert Muller, the former United Nations Secretary-General; Chancellor for the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, and nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Price: Decide to Network, attached. It so aptly describes what we believe has to happen if we want to sanely survive the modern madness – coming back to each other and sharing in small and larger ways who we are and what we have to give. (From: The TeamNet Factor, John Wiley & Sons).
Community Rebuilding Anyone?
by Regina B. Jensen, Ph.D
Many of us have talked about the need to heal our human spirit. What does it take for people to live full, creative and satisfying lives? And what is it that brings so much suffering, or boredom, to so many?Suffering per se is not necessarily bad. It has been during the times in my life when I experienced the most profound losses or long-lasting pain that I also learned and grew the most. So I have a deep respect and appreciation for healthy pain. It is as much a part of living as are joy, fear, contentment, sadness, frustration, exhilaration.
What I would be much more concerned about is numbness, detachment, automated "sleep-walking." It is then that we stop living and stop having control over our own life and its direction. Once numb, detached and automated in thinking and behavior, we can easily fall prey to indoctrination, mass-mindedness, empty-mindedness. It is by questioning these phenomena that we are more apt to answer the riddles of health and disease. Mass-mindedness and automatic behavior necessarily mean lack of spontaneity, creativity, individuality. With such basic human needs squelched, emotional and physical health are but elusive dreams.
I am touched deeply by the many people I work with and the courage they show in confronting themselves and their own fears. Let’s face it, we humans are by nature cowards and will avoid change at all cost. But wouldn't the effort of avoiding change in an ever-changing universe be asking for trouble? Yet oftentimes, we seem to prefer the trouble of our old patterns and problems over the promises of new life, new possibilities, and new choices. Healing the human spirit takes the extra guts and courage of facing one’s own demons, but it also takes a social environment that supports such expressions – your community.
Indeed, to make for a healthy society, we need sound individuals, a sound community, as well as a wholesome physical environment. We also need a viable philosophy to share and live by, so that the people gathered in one living environment are not just thrown together willy-nilly, but are held together by common ideas, hopes and dreams for their lives.
My line of work makes me aware of many people, programs, dreams and possibilities that seem to exist in many communities. For instance, here where we live, we have countless, quite unusual programs which are carried out, more or less quietly, in the service of human growth and of healing the wounds of modern living. In talking to people who are involved with such programs, I realized how important it would be to acknowledge many of these special undertakings in a more systematic way, so that other communities not so fortunate may profit from people’s experience. Indeed, some of these programs have been developed and have grown because others freely shared their experiences and in that way, brought hope to so many of the deeply troubled living environments in our country and the world.
I remember reading a poem by Nikos Kazantzakis many years ago which touched me greatly.
And I strive to discover how to signal my companions…
to say in time a simple word, a pass-word, like conspirators.
Let us unite. Let us hold each other tightly,
Let us merge our hearts,
let us create for Earth a brain and a heart,
let us give a human meaning to the super-human struggle.
to say in time a simple word, a pass-word, like conspirators.
Let us unite. Let us hold each other tightly,
Let us merge our hearts,
let us create for Earth a brain and a heart,
let us give a human meaning to the super-human struggle.
Of course, some of it takes the kind of courage I talked about earlier. But then again, I think it takes even more guts to sit still and watch quietly what is happening to us and our children.
Again, that's why we are offering another poem, by Robert Muller, the former United Nations Secretary-General; Chancellor for the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, and nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Price: Decide to Network, attached. It so aptly describes what we believe has to happen if we want to sanely survive the modern madness – coming back to each other and sharing in small and larger ways who we are and what we have to give. (From: The TeamNet Factor, John Wiley & Sons).