Urgent.....

[Edward Schreiber]

Hi Regina,
Thanks for your thoughtful note.  My sense of urgency (and here is  
the strangeness of sociometric coincidence) comes (in part) from  
Joanna Macy.   She comes to a conference center out this side of  
Mass. at times, so I'm close and familiar to her work.  Glad you  
mentioned her.  Lately I've been studying with a colleague, an  
amazing man who some on our community know, Christian de la Huerta.    
Time is an interesting thing.  The most important element in my view  
is to wake up, spiritually, whatever that means.  For me it means to  
realize our ultimate identity is not ego but source, or the godhead,  
or whatever we want to speak of it.  Years ago I was active in the  
political left and came to realize that the left solutions replicate  
the same sociodynamic effect that Moreno warned us about and that  
evolution of our species is the path.  What is most compelling for me  
is the transformational nature of the instruments we have and the  
desire to move them, as Moreno called them under the umbrella of  
sociatry, forward in some way.  I am certain this is what you are  
doing, all of us are - my hope is to further the conversation.  And  
there is an urgency, at least for the beings that Joanna writes about  
and teaches about.  She offers a training program, a workshop, in  
which she conducts a sort of sociodrama called the Council of All  
Beings (close to the name of it I hope) and it's quite compelling.   
For myself, Moreno's work is a pathway to awakening to the nature of  
life beyond ego and this is not an easy process to any means nor do I  
feel I am well along that path.   In any case, much thanks for all  
your thoughtfulness.   Ed
On Aug 11, 2009, at 12:11 AM, REGINA SEWELL wrote:

> Ed,
>
> I do not disagree with you about the urgency of the situation.   
> Personally, I am horrified.  Politically, I am active.  And, I also  
> know from personal experience, on both ends of the bat used to beat  
> our points in with, that beating a point in doesn't work.  People  
> get angry.  Ronald Reagan was once a Roosevelt Democrat.  He was  
> somewhat socialist... the head of a union... the Screen Actor's  
> Guild.  After getting death threats and condemnation from the more  
> radical actors union (I can't remember the name off hand) he became  
> the Ronald Reagan who we all know and love for his reactionary  
> conservative political policies, not to mention his callous  
> dismissal of the AIDS epidemic.
>
> More close to home, I have been stumping about saving the whales  
> and the elephants and the earth since I was a small child.  I rode  
> my bike or took the bus to school and work for years.  I don't now  
> because it is a 40 mile drive and there is no way to get there that  
> is safe.  And I won't move because it's not that safe to be queer  
> in the town where I work.  I buy organic.  I buy local.  I  
> recycle.  Whatever...   I have a housemate that recently discovered  
> the environment and every time I fail to avoid him, lambasts me  
> about the importance of biking to work, taking cold showers, being  
> vegan, not using the lights and lately, washing clothes by hand.   
> He sounds pious, judgmental and condemning.  My reaction:  I go to  
> the "dark side" and wish to beat him to a bloody pulp with the axe  
> handle I have in the attic for self defense.  I imagine maggots  
> eating him from the inside out.  I want to buy a Hummer, park in  
> the drive way with the engine running, listening to my $5000 stereo  
> or watching movies on my surround sound HD big screen TV in the back.
>
> It's basic counseling 101...  joining....   I have to "be with the  
> peeps" where they are in order to lay the path made up of  little  
> crumbs of bread to get them pointed in the direction of where I'd  
> like them to be.  To tell people what is, what they should think,  
> how they should be is, I think, is arrogant, condescending and  
> devisive. And it pisses people off.
>
> This is why, I think, urgency is highly over rated.  It drives  
> people to act without being connected to our shared humanity.
>
> Slowing down allows us to be present.  It gives us time to look at  
> and let go of the fear, guilt, shame, and anger that gets in the  
> way of action.  Joanna Macy has some really good stuff on this.
>
> So yes, we need to act as if our lives depend on it.  And we need  
> to be absolutely present in each moment because our lives and our  
> planet depend on it.  Note that the buddhists do a very slow  
> walking meditation rather than a running meditation.
>
> celebrate whirled peas,
>
> regina sewell, Ph.D.