A Valentine for Being in the Moment, and the Moment
We did not solve the world’s economic crisis, but we shared our ideas about how to create common ground as the extremist right tries to push the dialogue further and further away from community and into isolation.
You can imagine my level of excitement when I received an invitation to a political strategy meeting on Valentine’s Day.
I somehow managed to drag myself there and have no regrets about it. It was truly a valentine that meant more than any Hallmark card, because we were talking about how we build a Beloved Community.
Rural Organizing Project (ROP) brought together some 160 people through five different strategy meetings in five days. The one I attended was at the tail end, so we got to benefit from all the smart thinking that happened in the previous sessions.
Of course, it’s hard not to feel like you’re in the company of a lot of smart people when you have Suzanne Pharr, political handywoman, on the scene to help break down the last 25 years of political context into a stream of events and dates that suddenly no longer look so accidental. And the purpose of these conversations? To reflect on where we are now, in this political moment, and how we are responding to it.
Smart organizing is about taking advantage of key opportunities. Sometimes we are so busy we miss the opportunities before us. ROP structured the space to encourage reflection on where there was opportunity: not just small personal change opportunity, but big picture thinking on how we can take this crisis moment and tip the balance toward liberation rather than domination.
Thinking that big can make my head swim, personally. Normally my vision is quite good, but I hear suggestions about creating a real, locally based sustainable economy and feel like I need glasses to see what others are seeing. I see the need for it, but I have a hard time seeing how we get there from here.
Suzanne, Amy, Cara and the rest of the crew at ROP helped people start to envision that path. We did not solve the world’s economic crisis, but we did share ideas about what might be working in Monmouth and Astoria and Prineville. And we shared our ideas about how to create common ground as the extremist right tries to push the dialogue further and further away from community and into isolation.
As ROP knows, the best way to create a shared path is by eliminating isolation. I am glad they wanted to spend Valentine’s Day with me.
