Beyond Caste: thoughts on Isabel Wilkerson's bestseller

           Isabel Wilkerson’s landmark book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents opens our eyes to the harmful hierarchy of categories of race in the United States, by comparing it to India’s well-studied caste system, and the Holocaust resulting from Nazi Germany’s caste system (which in large part was based on U.S. Jim Crow laws). Caste, as Wilkerson so ably shows us, has roots in biblical old testament beliefs. Post-WWII Germany, Wilkerson holds up as an example of how to dismantle caste. Germany has multiple monuments to those harmed, such as a bronze plaque in the sidewalk outside the door of every home where a lesbian, Jew, or gypsy was kidnapped from and later murdered in a concentration camp. Germany and zero monuments to those who inflicted the harm, unlike that U.S. that lionizes slave owners and has scant public accounting and honoring of individual’s harmed be slavery and the later Jim Crow segregation whose mindset continues to harm Black folks today.

However, I suggest Wilkerson’s book Caste is the tip of the iceberg. There is more to explore about caste, and how to change caste-based behavior. Going beyond caste as a hierarchical ordering of categories, we can explore other ways that our Western, Indo-European, belief in the notion of categories and hierarchy as resulted in other forms of dominance, abuse, and destruction. And we can look at alternatives that are embraced by other cultures, which result in what systems scientist Riane Eisler calls “partnership” structured societies. Instead of believing that everything is divisible into discrete hierarchical categories, separated by what Wilkerson calls “boundaries” or “lines”, we can embrace the world view of many indigenous peoples and even Nichiren Buddhism, which see everyone, everything, and even space and time itself, as an interconnected whole that is imbued with life. In this non-Western worldview the macrocosm is the macrocosm, and vice versa. What appears to be two, such as oneself and one’s environment, is actually one; the indigenous Japanese word “funi” describes this view of reality—two but not two. In short, instead of thinking of us versus them, or humans versus nature, we could think—“we are one.” When everyone and everything is part of yourself, of your family, of your group, no longer do you destroy Mother Nature and all her inhabitants by blowing up the tops of mountains for fossil fuel extraction. Because mountains are sacred. Mountains are members of the family with whom you converse in reciprocal relationship, like is practiced today in many indigenous communities in the Andes mountains of South America. You can imagine many ways our behaviors would change as more and more we embrace “we are one”.

How can we move from racist domination of caste towards partnership? Are education and laws enough? In regards to post WWII Germany’s example of educating all school children about the horrors of the holocaust, and numerous memorials to invoke reflection about the atrocities committed against so many siblings in our human family, Germany also legally enforces laws against hate speech (unlike the U.S. which considers hate speech to be protected as freedom of speech). The book Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment notes that several years after World War II the leaders of many nations met and conferred about how to prevent increasing racism from creating another holocaust. Under the auspices of the United Nations, most countries agreed to outlaw the dissemination of racist ideas. Entered into force on January 4, 1969, the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination reads in part,

Article 4

States Parties condemn all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote racial hatred and discrimination in any form, and undertake to adopt immediate and positive measures designed to eradicate all incitement to, or acts of, such discrimination and, to this end, with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights expressly set forth in article 5 of this Convention, inter alia:

(a) Shall declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred . . ..

But the United States declines its responsibility to “. . . declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred . . .”. Instead of punishing hate speech, the U.S. protects “dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred” as freedom of speech. But is punishment by law enough?

Fear of jail reduced the amount of hate speech in Germany, but it did not eliminate it. Racist hate speech continues, as recent headlines show:

·         April 14, 2020, “Neo-Nazi Provocations on the Rise in Germany”.

·         September 16, 2020, “Germany far right: (29) Police suspended for sharing neo-Nazi images”.

·         December 1, 2020, “Neo-Nazi Sturmbridage 44: How serious of a threat is it?”; its subtitle reads, “Germany has banned the extreme-right group known as Sturmbrigade 44 or Wolfsbrigade 44. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer accused the organization of aiming to ‘rebuild the former Nazi state’.”

These headlines show us that those who spout hate speech still embrace the notion of hierarchical categories and that their personal category is at the top of that imagined hierarchy. Minds and hearts have not been changed by legislation.

It's like Lundy Bancroft’s work with domestic abusers. In his book Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, Bancroft notes that the convicted domestic abusers he attempted to reform, through court orders, were mostly white men whose jobs put them in positions of power over others (such as a policeman, or CEO). Most of these abusive white men would profess to have seen the error of their ways, and only wanted to be free and reunited with their wives (who they had been convicted of abusing), promising they would never do it again. But the evidence showed time and again that those men were lying through their teeth, saying what they knew the person in authority over them wanted to hear. Once these men were freed and reunited with their wives, the men resumed abusing them. The only times (which were very rare) that Bancroft saw a convicted domestic abuser truly change his ways was when every single person in his social circle shunned him because of his violent behavior. To not be completely shut out of his social circle of family, friends and work colleagues, he becomes motivated to do the hard work to find respectful ways of relating to his wife, instead of abusing her. However, if the convicted abuser has even one person in his social circle who approves of his abusive words and actions, according to Bancroft’s research, the abuser has zero motivation to change.

The same is true with caste and racism. If a racist has no one to sympathize with, he will necessarily behave in ways his social circle finds acceptable. But if he can find even one racist buddy to fuel each other’s hatred against anyone they perceive as different than themselves, he is unlikely to change. You can make those racist buddies’ hate speech illegal and throw them in jail (where they’ll likely meet even more racist people like themselves), like is done in Germany, but they will not have a change of heart.

One unrepentant example that comes to mind is Charles Manson. The category of people he hated (and had brutally murdered) were folks he considered to be in the “in crowd” in Hollywood—a crowd he had tried, and failed, to enter. Manson’s behavior perhaps points to the reasons of other mass murderers, which for a time were referred to in the press with the moniker of “going postal”, which referred to a disgruntled former postal worker who machine gunned down his former co-workers. Wilkerson might argue that Manson and the more recent mass murderers “going postal” were almost all white men, and that the notion of white male supremacy influenced their extreme aggression against other people, whether the other people were white or not. I agree that belief in categories and hierarchy are the root causes of racism and all forms of domination.

On another note, Wilkerson raises the issue of changing demographics in the U.S. fueling fear in many people born with (or passing with) white skin. One forecast is that in 2042 whites will no longer be the majority of the U.S. population. Right wing fundamentalist white Christian groups seem to be fanning the flames of fear and hatred of increasing numbers of people of color in the U.S. population. I’m guessing those churches don’t teach the Sunday School song I learned as a child in a white Methodist church, which goes like this:

Jesus loves the little children

All the children of the world

Red or yellow, black and white

They are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Does all of this mean there is no hope of changing society to become more just, based on the vision that all are created equal? No. There is hope. Problems created by people can be solved by people. Adrienne Lafrance, in her recent article in The Atlantic about the danger of Facebook as a breeding ground of hate based on hierarchical categories that has devastating real world consequences, states, “We need people who dismantle these notions by building alternatives.” 

Lafrance’s envisioned alternatives appear to be technological in nature. Others such as Gandhi and Buddhist thinker Daisaku Ikeda promote education in critical thinking and ethics, and individual spiritual development and awakening (human revolution) as necessary for building peaceful and nurturing alternatives to Western society’s blind belief in categories and hierarchies. 

Here's an example of what an alternative to racism and all types of domination looks like. Were you one of the millions participating in the Women’s Marches around the world on January 21, 2017? If so, you experienced a powerful alternative—a sea of women and feminist men whose loving power was a sea of refuge, an embracing sea of oneness. No pushing or shoving. Only mutual respect and a clear desire for justice, in all its many aspects. When a pair of counter protestors stood on a curb in Washington, D.C. with their banner against women's reproductive freedom, they cowered in silence as the feminine masses like a mighty river flowed around them; for hours 1.2 million unified women pumped their fists in the air and in unison chanted, “My body, my choice!” as they passed by those two silent and blank-faced men who limply held their banner like deer frozen in the beam of headlights.

In other words, when hate speech is isolated and surrounded by people living truth with compassionate hearts, it withers. As more and more people open and develop their wise hearts of compassion and wisdom, with courage, to embrace the reality that we are one, we can turn the tide. And as anyone walking at the base of cliffs along a rocky seashore at low tide knows, when the tide turns, there is no stopping the tide. All are swept along in the tide’s cleansing flow.

 

I voted. Have you?

ABC’s of Accountability for Black Lives Matter

 Pass it along:

Accountability

Black reverence

Compassion

Dismantle White supremacy

Equality

Fairness

Generate healing

Hold peace and listen

Insist on systemic reform

Justice

Kindness

Mobilize

No one can be a bystander

Organize

Peace and pluralism

Queer/LGBTQIA community protected & uplifted

Reach out

Show solidarity

Think consciously

Unlearn bias

Violence ends

White Humility

Xenophobia ends

Youth Empowered

Zealous commitment to end hate

Lynette's Art on Exhibit thru 9/19 at Alberta Street Gallery

Forest Lily. Plein Air watercolor by Lynette Yetter, 2020.

The pandemic has reminded me that Mother Earth is the grounding of my community.  Forest Lily is part of a series of watercolors I have been painting in our NE PDX backyard since March 2020, honoring the Mother of all communities on this planet.

Right now Forest Lily is on display in the window of the Alberta Street Gallery. You can visit some of my other watercolor paintings inside the gallery in the "Engage the Change" community art show until September 19th.

Alberta Street Gallery

1829 NE Alberta St (corner of NE 19th)

Portland, OR 

(503) 954-3314

Open Daily 11-7

You can see some of my other watercolors online here, here and here.

Stay safe! Keep shining your light, illuminating humanity.

Appreciation nurtures health and peace

Create the world you want to live in, by appreciating what there is to appreciate. Here is a watercolor sketch I painted yesterday of Sein Creek where it flows into Hagg Lake in Oregon.

Wall of Moms: War is not healthy for children and other living things

My mom was Another Mother for Peace. She posted this poster on a childhood bedroom wall, "War is not healthy for children and other living things." (She posted the poster in my brother's room, in case he got any notions of growing up to become a murderer-for-hire for the government--(aka, joining the military.) When the current pandemic hit, the United Nations called for a ceasefire for health reasons. And the Wall of Moms link arms (while wearing the prescribed face masks to prevent their exhalations from affecting the health of someone else) as they stand united in front of federal troops who are sent out to attack the populace. Moms keep standing up for peace, and health. The camouflaged and arsenal-loaded federal troops all looked like boys to me, in the photos I saw. Not a single mom among them. It's long past due to have the boys (of any age) step aside in the name of public health. There are a whole lot of moms who can do it all better. My mom, even when she had Alzheimer's, recalled at a Mother's Day tea in her assisted living facility that her proudest memory was getting arrested with Maya Angelou at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site as they all chanted, "No More War! No More War! No More War!"

Mi madre era otra madre para la paz (Another Mother for Peace). Colocó este póster en la pared de un dormitorio infantil: "La guerra no es saludable para los niños y otros seres vivos". (Colocó el póster en la habitación de mi hermanito, en caso de que tuviera alguna idea para convertirse en un asesino mercenario para el gobierno, es decir, ser soldado en el ejército). Cuando la pandemia actual golpeó todo el mundo, las Naciones Unidas pidieron un alto el fuego por razones de salud. Y el Muro de las Mamás (Wall of Moms) une los brazos (mientras usan las máscaras faciales prescritas para evitar que sus exhalaciones afecten la salud de otras personas) mientras se unen frente a las tropas federales que fueron enviadas para asaultar a la población. Las mamás siguen defendiendo la paz y la salud. Las tropas federales camufladas y cargadas de arsenal me parecieron todos niños, en las fotos que vi. No hay ni una madre entre ellos. Ya es hora para los niños (de cualquier edad) se hacen a un lado en nombre de la salud pública. Hay muchas mamás que pueden hacer todo mejor. Mi madre, incluso cuando tenía Alzheimer, recordó en un té del Día de la Madre en su centro de vida asistida que su recuerdo más orgulloso era ser arrestada con Maya Angelou en el sitio de prueba nuclear de Nevada (Nevada Nuclear Test Site) mientras todos gritaban: "¡No más guerra! ¡No más guerra! ¡No más guerra!"

New Memes: Global Feminism and World Peace

Global Feminism. 

2001 Earth drawing by Lynette Yetter, 

she transformed into a women's-symbol meme in 2020.

A meme I just created with my 2001 Earth drawing is the woman's symbol above. This meme has many meanings: Mother Earth, and women as Earth's foundation--in other words, Global Feminism. Women's power and Mother Earth's power need to be the guides for human societies. That's my intention with this meme.

Here's some background on my earth memes. The earth drawing, I created back in 2001 just after the twin towers in New York blew up. I drew a new view of the world to promote mutual understanding of each other as family members on Mother Earth. I shrunk the Atlantic ocean so that New York and Afghanistan share the same side of the planet. 

On the Saturday after the Twin Towers blew up I went to perform music with my panpipes and kena on the Santa Monica Pier, even though all large gatherings were cancelled due to fears of getting bombed by terrorists. To express my hope for world peace, I cut out my earth drawing and glued it on a tall blue candle in a glass--like the candles that usually have a picture of a Saint. I lit my candle and set it on my little table near my tip bucket and CDs for sale as I played to the massive emotional crowds roiling along the pier. 

I printed my earth drawing on to greeting cards, with the caption, "Shine your light. Illuminate humanity." 

Then I created the World Peace Flag project with this image, a community art project for all ages, which displayed in art galleries in Los Angeles. I'll dig in my website archives and find the page I made for this project, with downloadable earth to color with your hopes and dreams for the future, to add to the World Peace Prayer Flag Project. When I find that archived link, I'll post it here.

More recently, I re-purposed my Earth drawing into this meme for World Peace.

As you can see, I turned the south-pole up. And I titled it in Spanish, "Paz Mundial." I made this meme with the passion for people in so-called "developing countries" to be the voices, the agents, for world peace. The people that suffer the most from transnational capitalist greed and destruction need to be the people who define world peace--and how to get there. That is why the south is on top in my meme of World Peace.

What are your thoughts about world memes, world peace memes and women symbol memes?

Share the wealth!

So many changes happening, thanks to massive ongoing protests in the streets. One change was someone I used to argue with about values and money. He believed getting rich yourself had no connection to values bad or good. Well, this friend just emailed me that he woke and will no longer teach his lucrative online class on achieving financial independence. Yay! 

He asked me (and others) for suggestions on how to rethink wealth in a racially just way. Here are some of my ideas:

What if we redefine wealth as happiness? Bhutan has done that. Instead of a Gross National Product index, they have a Gross National Happiness Index. Racial justice adds to happiness.

Developing compassionate action builds a wealth of happiness. You can check out some compassion research here: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-compassionate-mind It turns out we (and baby chimpanzees) are happier when we altruistically give (or even see someone else give), than we are when we receive. This is assuming one has the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and money to pay the bills, clean air, water, soil to plant their veggie garden; and friendly people around in an atmosphere of mutual respect. 

To start balancing the scales so everyone has the basics from which to altruistically give, Cameron Whitten two weeks ago launched The Black Resiliency Fund. Portland, Oregon Black folks in need receive funds donated by non-Black folks. In the first four days people's donations totaled about a quarter of a million dollars. At the two week mark, the total is half a million dollars and growing. Funds are getting disbursed directly to Black folks in Portland to pay for rent, utilities, internet, transportation, medical costs, student loan debt, credit card debt, child care, moving costs and more. The Black Resiliency Fund is compassionate action creating happiness for the givers and the receivers!

Along these lines, my book 72 Money Saving Tips for the 99% focuses on nurturing happiness by strengthening relationships and building local community (the real wealth!), while weaning away from corporations, and saving money in the process. (Thank you, Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben&Jerry's, for endorsing my book!)

What ideas do you have for sharing the wealth?

BLM: How to remedy "lack of care or compassion"? Free medical and dental clinics staffed by volunteers

New Portland, OR police chief Chuck Lovell points out on CBS News the "lack of care or compassion'' by the officers involved in killing George Floyd.

"When I watched the video of what happened to Mr. Floyd ... I remember the big takeaway I had ... it wasn't the tactics, it wasn't the number of officers who were there ... it was really the lack of care and compassion. The thought that this is an idea that could exist ... it almost felt like you're not important. To me, the fight is not with each other. The fight for all of us is against that idea that people, institutions, agencies ... can harbor that feeling and it has bad outcomes for people."

Lovell is right-on naming the root of racism and so many other -isms; it all comes down to harboring a lack of care or compassion in one's heart. 

How to change hearts? How to remedy harboring "lack of care or compassion" in people's hearts? 

Many spiritual teachings present tools for doing just that; it's sometimes called "The Golden Rule"--treat others as you would like to be treated. And sometimes we need a road map, a guidebook, an instruction manual for how to get from here to there.

History presents many examples to guide us, both negative and positive. U.S. history seems rife with negative examples of what happens when we harbor lack of care and compassion in our hearts (slavery, police brutality, wars of invasion and aggression, settler colonialism, strip mining, clear cutting old growth forests, massacring indigenous people, polluting industries, discrimination in all its forms, and on and on).

However, Portland history also presents examples of people uniting together with hearts brimming with care and compassion. 

One such example is the Free Medical and Dental Clinics founded and run by the Black Panthers and staffed by volunteer doctors and dentists from OHSU. 

(You can read all about this inspiring time in Lucas Burke and Judson Jeffries' book The Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City.) 

Although Black Panther free medical and dental clinics were eventually destroyed by a series of decisions by Portland city officials and urban planners (whose hearts apparently harbored lack of care and compassion), now is the perfect time to start fresh. Here's one way.

OHSU, I'm talking to you. You can encourage dentists and doctors to once again volunteer to treat folks for free. In addition to studying the Black Panthers' Free Medical and Dental Clinics as a model of care and compassion, you can also emulate the volunteer-run Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. 

Founded in 1967, the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic's mission is "provide compassionate care regardless of anyone's ability to pay." It was the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic's volunteers who coined the now famous phrase, "Health care is a right, not a privilege." 

In conclusion, there are many ways (beyond a major restructuring of how police behave) we can nurture each other with hearts harboring care and compassion. One way is for volunteer doctors and dentists from OHSU to ASAP staff free medical and dental clinics in locations accessible for lots of Black folks and everyone. Follow the successful models of the former Portland Black Panthers', and current Haight-Ashbury, Free Clinics. Quickly establishing volunteer-staffed free medical and dental clinics is one of many ways to follow Portland's new police chief Chuck Lovell's implied advice to harbor care and compassion in our hearts. 

George Floyd and History's inspiring lessons / Lecciones de la historia

(El español sigue el inglés)

Bread and Roses

As we go marching marching
in the beauty of the day . . .

Blacks suffering extreme racist abuse, women treated like property, immigrants blamed for everything--yet we united 30,000 strong, demanded better wages, and though they tried to kill us, we won! 

The New York Sun reported: 

Never before has a strike of such magnitude succeeded in uniting in one unflinching, unyielding, determined and united army so large and diverse a number of human beings.

Reporter Mary Heaton Vorse explained why The Lawrence Strike of 1912 made such an impact:

It was the spirit of the workers that seemed dangerous. They were confident, gay, released, and they sang. They were always marching and singing. The gray tired crowds ebbing and flowing perpetually into the mills had waked and opened their mouths to sing, the different nationalities all speaking one language when they sang together.

Give us Bread and give us Roses

 The lesson here? More singing! Chants are good. Singing is better. Write songs. Sing songs.

The Velvet Revolution

The power of the powerless, writes Vaclav Havel, is to live in truth. When enough people live in truth, a society built on lies crumbles of its own accord. Faced with about 500,000 peaceful people in the streets of Prague protesting police violence (sound familiar?) in November 1989, the Soviet Government resigned. From night to day Prague went from authoritarian dictators to electing a playwright former political prisoner as President. Freedom and creativity flourished.

George Floyd memorial marches today

History teaches us--stay focused and peaceful. Stay united. Be specific in our demands. Give specific action steps to politicians that they can enact immediately. In a thoughtful hour-long press conference, New York Governor Cuomo spells out specific demands and articulates action steps--a primer for seizing this moment for making massive positive reform. 

And sing!

As we go marching marching . . . 

Coyote

Trickster coyote knows how to navigate the world’s tricks. 

When all is in confusion, pandemic of chaos, 

coyote knows the route through the darkness. 

She sees better in the night than I. 

She guides me. 

Coyote is at home in tricksterville. Nothing new there. 

Or rather, everything new and constantly changing is her eternal reality. Although, 

they say to keep a coyote out of your backyard, constantly rearrange your outdoor furniture; she doesn’t like novelty. 

Nevertheless, trotting along, following her nose, 

Coyote leads me safely through the valleys of darkness to my destination morning home.

About this poem:

This week a coyote visited me twice. Once in a dream, guiding me on a long dark path to my home. And for the first time, I saw a coyote in our neighborhood. 2:30 in the afternoon she stood motionless on the neighbor’s lawn, next to the massive Douglas Fir where a pair of bald eagles rested one night a few summers back. She stood there for a few minutes in the quietude of quarantine. Instead of coyote as trickster, she appeared to me as calm, certain and trustworthy. She led me home in my dream, and stays close in my neighborhood.

Tulip painting, Make Art! Heal the spirit!

Watercolor of a tulip I painted in our garden during quarantine. 

Make art! Heal the spirit!
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/tulip-lynette-yetter.html

Make Art to heal humanity

Trillium I painted in our garden during this global quarantine.

Shine your light! Illuminate humanity. 

Peace, Lynette
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/trillium-lynette-yetter.html

Anxiety (or: I’ve Got Those Novel Corona Virus Blues)

Stop.
Stop in the name
of love. Let it be. There
will be an answer, Let it be.
Musicians sing the answer, There
will be an answer, Let it be. When news

seems hopeless, full of anxious worry, despair,
Let it be. But John Lennon was murdered. Climate crisis
escalates. Maybe fears of corona virus (headlines say) are affecting sales of fossil fuels. Stock market dropping. Maybe these changes, like stars in a black night sky, are a new way of seeing, of living. Using less fossil fuels is good for all species. Right? Anxiety, corona virus. Shall I bring my books all home from my thesis desk in the Reed library? Shall I cancel all my social encounters? Shall I hole up with my partner at home—no guests—in order to protect ourselves from corona virus?
The thought of acting on this anxiety by shutting down, shutting away, isolation, makes me weep. Mourn. Pink POLST on my fridge tells first responders not to resuscitate me. Life I want to live while I’m alive. To shut out all joy of human interaction in order to hopefully avoid illness or death—for me is a kind of living death. Day by day, I’ll decide what’s appropriate, based on ever-changing public health warnings, and my own conscience and heart. Let it be. Swine flu. 2009, Lima, Peru. Quarantine. The SGI Buddhist group (and other groups) cancelled all gatherings.Advised everyone to stay home. Do not visit each other. It passed. Before that, it was bird flu. Someone I know survived bubonic plague. That was H., who grew up on a ranch in Colorado, and now lives on 100 acres of
Minnesota forest where she makes pottery. Let it be. Bridge over troubled waters. If you can’t let it be, walk over it to the other side. Poking a pimple doesn’t help it heal. Let it be. One foot in front of the other, eyes open. Reminding myself to enjoy the moment, slant of dawn light on the upper branches of the giant fir next door. Glisten of frost on green lawns and black mud tire tracks. Song of a flicker greeting the day. This morning my partner saw two crows outside our kitchen window. They bobbed in unison as they cawed—a mating ritual. Celebration of connection, love, cycles of life, rooted in their lizard past, dinosaur scales evolved to glistening black blue iridescent feathers. Moon last night, round white crisp disc beaming reflected firelight from the blazing sun through our
bedroom window, coating our comforter and wool blanket humped bodies in its light that has shined since before humans were a glimmer on the evolutionary calendar, and will continue to shine billions of earth cycles looping through space into the future. There will be an answer, Let it be. Stop (worrying) in the name of love. Get your rod and reel and go fishing from the bridge over troubled waters; enjoy the sight and sound of its tumbling rapids.
Let it be.

About this poem: I wrote this March 10, 2020 in an interfaith spiritual writing group. We'd chosen our topic months before: anxiety. Wow! Mystic, eh?

"Master your mind" or play with your inner (grand)child? Another perspective on Nichiren and Joanna Macy

"One should become the master of one's mind rather than let one's mind master oneself." ––Nichiren Daishonin

A grandmother helped me see things in a new way. I had been trying to follow Nichiren's advice that we must master our minds or our minds will master us. But that dominator/obedience approach wasn't working. Buddhist activist scholar Joanna Macy urges us to focus on gratitude first, as we set out to change the world. But, the more I focused on gratitude, the more ungrateful (complaining, worrying) thoughts ran rampant in my disobedient mind. This COVID-19 situation is scary!

Then my Buddhist grandmother friend taught me that she calls those "disobedient" swirls of thoughts "creative." She sees them like her preschooler grandchildren who spend much time in her home. Enjoying the children's creative play, she lovingly distracts them if their creativity is leading towards harm.

Imagining my mind as a creative preschooler whom I dearly love helps me take a deep breath and relax a bit as we begin to play together during this pandemic quarantine.

Oh, that we may better learn to play with our inner (grand)child in a loving joyful way, even when she's freaking out and throwing a temper tantrum in these turbulent times.

Is this the beginning of the beginning? Tips for your health and happiness during the corona virus pandemic

The Great Turning is what buddhist activist scholar Joanna Macy calls a massive wake up call heard around the world. It is a time when we reconnect to each other, to Mother Earth, to life, and begin of a new way of living, a new way of structuring societies. Along those lines, an email I just received from her organization has personal tips for your health and happiness during the corona virus pandemic.

• Remember gratitude for this moment, for the earth, the air, the water, the sun, our friends and family, the plants and animals with whom we share this gorgeous planet.


• Stay informed but check only trustworthy sources and limit it to once or twice a day. 


• Practice self-care; nature connection, movement, spiritual practices, journalling, meditation, art-making. Reach out to give and receive community support. 


• Avoid putting yourself or others in situations where you can spread the infection. Cancel or postpone in-person events. Self-isolate. There is still no known prevention other than avoiding contact with those who may be infectious. There is no cure, other than what a healthy and strong immune system could provide. 


• Shift to online tools for communication 

I especially love the "Remember gratitude" part. How about you?


Here is Joanna Macy's longer description of the importance of gratitude in what she calls "the Spiral of the Work that Reconnects," which helps us usher in the Great Turning:

The Spiral of the Work That Reconnects

The truth of our inter-existence, made real to us by our pain for the world, helps us see with new eyes. It brings fresh understandings of who we are and how we are related to each other and the universe. We begin to comprehend our own power to change

By Dori Midnight

and heal. We strengthen by growing living connections with past and future generations, and our brother and sister species.

Then, ever again, we go forth into the action that calls us. With others whenever and wherever possible, we set a target, lay a plan, step out. We don’t wait for a blueprint or fail-proof scheme; for each step will be our teacher, bringing new perspectives and opportunities. Even when we don’t succeed in a given venture, we can be grateful for the chance we took and the lessons we learned. And the spiral begins again.

There are hard things to face in our world today, if we want to be of use. Gratitude, when it’s real, offers no blinders. On the contrary, in the face of devastation and tragedy it can ground us, especially when we’re scared. It can hold us steady for the work to be done.

The activist’s inner journey appears to me like a spiral, interconnecting four successive stages or movements that feed into each other. These four are:

1. opening to gratitude,
2. owning our pain for the world,
3. seeing with new eyes,
4. going forth.

The sequence repeats itself, as the spiral circles round, but ever in new ways. The spiral is fractal in nature: it can characterize a lifetime or a project, and it can also happen in a day or several times a day. The spiral begins with gratitude, because that quiets the frantic mind and brings us back to source. It reconnects us with our empathy and personal power. It helps us to be more fully present to our world. Grounded presence provides the psychic space for acknowledging the pain we carry for our world.

By Angella Gibbons

In owning this pain, and daring to experience it, we learn that our capacity to “suffer with” is the true meaning of compassion. We begin to know the immensity of our heart-mind, and how it helps us to move beyond fear. What had isolated us in private anguish now opens outward and delivers us into wider reaches of our world as lover, world as self.

The Spiral of the Work That Reconnects

Bernie wants to hear your story--how is this pandemic affecting you?

(Letter from Bernie Sanders)

Please email us at plan@berniesanders.com to let us know what your ideas are and what you’re experiencing — we are here, and we will be reading replies.

I don’t have to tell anyone that our country and the world are facing an unprecedented series of crises. We’re dealing with the coronavirus, we’re dealing with a growing economic meltdown that will impact tens of millions of workers in this country, and we’re dealing with a political crisis as well.

The main point to be made is that in this period of crisis it’s imperative that we stand together. Understand that right now throughout this country, there are so many of our people throughout this country wondering what’s going to happen to them.

What happens to people who lose their jobs? What happens to people who worry they have the coronavirus but don’t have the resources to get the test they need, or the treatment they need?

This is a moment that we have got to be working together and going forward together.

What I wanted to do is talk about a series of proposals that we are working on and that we will introduce to the Democratic leadership about how we can best go forward.

I am going to tell you about all of these principles, and then I’m going to ask you to sign our petition to say you support these ideas, and want to see them taken up in Congress.

But it’s also important for me to hear your comments. We need to know what you are experiencing right now. It’s hard to write proper legislation if we are not familiar with the kinds of pain and problems that people across this country are facing.

We want to hear not only your ideas, but for you to talk about your experiences. In every state there is a different level of crisis, in every occupation there is a different level of concern. Please communicate with us by emailing us at plan@berniesanders.com so we can come up with effective remedies.

So here’s what I think we should do. Read on, give your support, and then let us know what’s happening with you.

Solving the Health Care Crisis

Let’s start with the basics.

We need to make certain that everybody in our country who needs to go to a doctor can get health care they need regardless of their income. In this crisis we must empower Medicare to cover all medical bills during this emergency.

This is not Medicare for All. We can’t pass that right now. But what this does say is if you are uninsured, underinsured, if you have high copayments, high deductibles, or out of pocket expenses, Medicare will cover those expenses so that everybody — regardless of their health care needs, and not just for coronavirus — will get the health care they need. That is what we should be doing in this moment of crisis.

We need to make sure that hospitals have all of the ICU units and ventilators that are needed to respond to this crisis. What the fear is, is that there will be a surge of patients coming into the hospitals and we will not have equipment we need to deal with it. The federal government must work aggressively with the private sector to make sure that this equipment is available to hospitals and the medical community. The government needs to tell the private sector that this is a major priority and to get the job done.

We must also:

• Increase provider capacity. During this crisis, we need to mobilize medical residents, retired medical professionals, and other medical personnel to help us deal with this crisis.


• Implement successful testing models. Our testing capacity and process has been woefully inadequate. We must massively increase the availability of test kits for the coronavirus and the speed at which the tests are processed.


• Use the Defense Production Act to mobilize resources. Under this proposal, we will use existing emergency authority to dramatically scale up production in the United States of critical supplies such as masks, ventilators, and protective equipment for health care workers.


• Utilize the National Guard, the Army Corp of Engineers and other military resources to build mobile hospitals and testing facilities, assist providers, reopen hospitals that have been shut down and expand our health care capacity in at-risk areas.


• Dramatically expand community health centers. Pass emergency funding to dramatically expand access to community health centers which provide primary, dental, and mental health care, as well as low-cost prescription drugs, to nearly 30 million Americans, 63 percent of whom are racial and ethnic minorities.


• Keep health care workers safe. We need to make sure that doctors, nurses and medical professionals have the instructions and personal protective equipment that they need.

Solving the Economic Crisis

We must also respond to the global economic crisis that this pandemic is causing right now.

First and foremost, we must make sure that anyone who has a job right now receives the paychecks they need and does not lose their income. Think about the millions of workers who are being laid off in the tourism industry, the fast food industry, the restaurant industry, the transportation industry.

These are folks that don’t have a lot of money, as you know. Some 40% of the people in this country cannot afford a $400 emergency. So people are sitting out there thinking, "What am I going to do? How am I going to take care of my family?"

That has got to be the major economic priority we address: how do we take care of the working families of this country?

Small and medium sized businesses, especially those in severely impacted industries such as restaurants, bars, and local retail need immediate relief. We must tell these businesses, who are being forced to lay off their entire staff or possibly even shut down through no fault of their own, that we will not allow them to go out of business. The federal government will work with affected businesses to provide direct payroll costs for small and medium sized businesses to keep workers employed until this crisis has passed.

We must provide direct, emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person in America every month for the duration of the crisis. We are likely already in a recession. Workers are losing income while their bills pile up. We must begin issuing cash payments of $2,000 a month for every person in America to provide households with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families.

It is key that we get this money out and to families as soon as possible, which means we must make the payments universal with little bureaucracy. For those who will not need their payments, we will partner with organizations to take donations from patriotic families who can contribute their payments to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

We must also do the following to solve the economic crisis we’re facing:

• Expand Unemployment Insurance. We must provide emergency unemployment assistance to anyone who loses their job through no fault of their own. Under this proposal, everyone who loses a job must qualify for unemployment compensation at 100 percent of their prior salary with a cap of $75,000 a year.


• Protect non-traditional workers. In addition, those who depend on tips, gig workers, domestic workers, freelancers, and independent contractors shall also qualify for Unemployment Insurance to make up for the income that they lose during this crisis.


• Guarantee that no one goes hungry. We need to make sure that seniors, people with disabilities and families with children have access to nutritious food. That means expanding the Meals on Wheels program, the school meals programs, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) so that no one goes hungry during this crisis and everyone who cannot leave their home can receive nutritious meals delivered directly to where they live.


• Place an immediate moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, and utility shut-offs, and suspend payment on mortgage loans for primary residencies and utility bills. No one should lose their home during this crisis and everyone must have access to clean water, electricity, heat and air conditioning. And we must restore utility services to any customers who have had their utilities shut off. We must also provide funding for states and localities to provide rental assistance for the duration of the crisis.


• Waive all student loan payments for the duration of the emergency. More than 45 million Americans struggle with $1.6 trillion in student debt. We must lift this burden during the crisis and for one month after. Long-term, we must cancel all student debt and make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition free and debt free.


• Construct emergency shelter and utilize empty or vacant lodging. We must ensure the homeless, survivors of domestic violence and college students quarantined off campus are able to receive the shelter, the health care and the nutrition they need and connect those individuals with social services to ensure nobody is left behind. We must also utilize empty hotel beds and other vacant properties to ensure everyone is safely housed during this crisis.


• Use the power of the Federal Reserve to support state and local governments. Through the power granted under section 14(2)(b) of the Federal Reserve Act, the Fed will buy short-term municipal debt securities. This will help stabilize state government finances and provide states and localities the financial support they need to address this health and economic crisis.


• Protect farmers. Suspend all Farm Service Agency loan payments to protect farmers during this crisis, extend crop insurance and emergency loans to all affected farmers, extend rural development loans, and expand the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to both help alleviate hunger throughout the country and support our farmers during this crisis.

Making Sure Our Response is Not a Money-Making Opportunity for Corporate America

Our response to this health and economic crisis cannot be another money-making opportunity for corporate America and Wall Street. We need to ensure no one is profiting off of the economic pain and suffering of our people in crisis.

• Bail out working people, not corporate executives. Any emergency credit extensions or loans to insolvent companies or industries as a result of this crisis must come with strict protections and benefits for workers, unions, and customers, not no-strings-attached handouts for executives. During this crisis, we will ban stock buybacks and bonuses for executives. We will put conditions on this financial assistance to make sure that any corporation in America that benefits from emergency aid does not lay off workers, pays workers a livable wage, provides equity to the government, puts workers on corporate boards, and does not rip-off consumers.


• Prevent price gouging by pharmaceutical companies. As soon as a coronavirus vaccine is developed it must be sold for free. Further, all prescription drugs that are developed with taxpayer dollars must be sold at a reasonable price. This agency shall use the federal government’s authority to take away patents from pharmaceutical companies that are gouging consumers and allow generic companies to manufacture prescription drugs at a substantially reduced cost. The pharmaceutical industry must be told in no uncertain terms that the medicines that they manufacture for this crisis will be sold at cost. This is not the time for profiteering or price gouging.


• Investigate and prosecute price-gougers and corrupt dealings. This agency will have the authority to crack down and prosecute illegal price gouging and corruption. It shall also conduct an independent and transparent audit of all of the emergency financing programs to make sure that American taxpayer dollars are not wasted.

We Are All In This Together

What this country is experiencing right now is something that we have not experienced in the modern history of this country: a pandemic and an economic crisis, threatening the lives and income of millions of people.

I have the strong belief that if we work together, that if we do not turn to fear and panic, but if we understand that the way we solve this is by going forward as one people, remembering those that are hurting tonight and those that will be hurting in the future.

This is the richest country in the history of the world. This is a country with unbelievable energy, unbelievable talent, and with incredible resources. We can address this crisis and minimize the pain.

Please add your name to say you support these ideas to ease the health, economic, and political crises we are facing.

Again, I look forward to hearing from you as well. Please email us at plan@berniesanders.com to let us know what your ideas are and what you’re experiencing — we are here, and we will be reading replies.

Let us go forward together. Thank you.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

ADD YOUR NAME

P.S. You can read our entire response to this crisis on our website, and we invite you to email us at plan@berniesanders.com with your ideas and experiences.