Greetings.
In the context of this discussion about Work Life & Living, I propose that living be looked at as the outcome of having life and working to enrich the experience. That we are talking about he functional meaning and the purpose of living. So I am not just surviving, it is not only that I have a pulse, but that there is opportunity for the expression of the creative impulse and some capacity for the appreciation of that fact. In this discussion, I seek to explore the idea, that living is in effect mostly about being on the upward trend. We should truly appreciate the opportunity, the blessing, the hope that obtains, when regardless of how desperate conditions are, how oppressive the situation, the observation that "she, he, they are still living" is made. That you, me and so many loved ones are still alive is inspiring, offers hope, challenge and also begs the question how are we honoring this fact and what responsibilities accrue to us. The proposal is that regardless of the circumstance we do have an opportunity to be about the business, to do the work of living life in expression of our highest creative potential, for the enrichment of whatever we hold most sacred.It is an act of grace, of self nourishment to be in that state of awareness, engaged in that most vital activity, where living is good because we are working to make it so. Let us continue to explore the ideas/thoughts that may be stimulated by these questions?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Conceptualizing Life and Loss
Greetings, and I hope that you are all walking in balance.
In continuing to lay out the conceptual parameters or entry points of this discussion on Work Life & Living, this is my preliminary offering.
The dominant, western culture offers in Webster's Dictionary, that life is a noun, a time of existence, a state of being, it distinguishes, organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms.
Here we seek the definition offered by other cultures, want to share your experience,we want to look at how life is related to work and living, and the values that obtain therein.
Life, in my opinion , is the result of work( all action, even thoughts that become action, which are productive, as noted before). Work can also result in the denial or destruction of life...death. This angle of discourse is in response to a particularly tragic series of events that occurred in the Caribbean/South American country of Guyana this weekend, Jan 26th-..., I will explain in a minute.
Life is not only a quantitative result/product of work but the most qualitative value of our individual and collective endeavors, humble or grand, an expression of our most sacred intentions and efforts.
The actions and ideas, the work, that deliberately or inadvertently lead to death, destruction or in any way threatens life , are the ultimate expression of dehumanization. So a routine checkpoint for me is to ask the question and be guided by the answer to..
Is my work life giving, life affirming or are my endeavors serving the goal of death?
Did I honor life today in work and thought?
Thankfully, humanity, has endorsed the obvious sanctity of life despite the prominent contradictions. I imagine you would agree that indigenous communities, nation states, and the other actors in the international community, in principle if not practice, accept that premise. The premise being that survival and reproduction remains the most basic and essential responsibility of all living things.
Without life obviously, all else amounts to naught, this is given expression in the third Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the Constitution of the Organization of Afro American Unity point one, about the right to self defense, and the endless examples of law , declarations other social values and practice.
Yet we live in a world where the so called most advanced societies utilize most of their resources, their power not to work for the preservation of, or integrity of life, but towards death and destruction. Even with the ridiculous, juvenile claim of fighting for peace, or by killing as a culture/or institution to, defend life.
Our challenge is to reorient our thoughts, ideology, individual and collective, to the sacred work of life, facilitation, preservation and enrichment.
The salary for that is not measured by finance capital, whose mammoth contradictions are not the result of mistakes or system failure but is the inevitable result of a process that seeks to reduce the infinite worth of human endeavor to a paper receipt, to a numerical restriction, but that is another discussion.
Bear with me as I turn, with some anguish to the experience of life and the tragic loss of life, in Guyana, that resulted from the work of elements now choosing to use brutalization as an instrument, in a societal structure that emerged from the same impulse to dominate, to use society, other humans as a footstool , a drug to feed ones' own desperate cravings for survival, power and control, in effect to cover an internalized sense of inferiority, the failure to appreciate ones' own worth by absolutely denying the right of the other to life, to be.
I guess I should be cautious about jumping to conclusions about the source and origins of this behavior, about examining the prevailing and historic social dynamics in the country and globally, yet I can't help but look at the massive meltdown of integrity of the state as a major contributor to these tragedies. One wonders about caution, and a more pedestrian approach as sometimes being an act of avoidance, even enabling the continuation of destructive action and maintaining the status of oppression. So I'll take the leap and raise the following concerns.
Has the constitution of the nation again been hijacked? One may understandably question even that document as a valid expression of the most vital national values and responsibilities.
For me the ultimate responsibility of the state is the protection of the lives of its' citizens and guests, when the state fails in that sacred trust, even becomes a hazard to its people and its services are diverted for the benefit of sub- national, of extra-national actors, then that ship of state seems to achieve the status of being a pirate ship. In Guyana's' case it seems that the skull and crossbones rather than the beloved Golden Arrowhead now flutters from its' main mast.
Thoughts about the eruptions in Kenya, Somalia, Congo, Darfur, Colombia, Nepal flood into my mind and of course memories of Jonestown. I understand that the connections will not all stand up to scrutiny but they are viscerally triggered by the loss of life the killing of these 11 humans.
The guarantee of the right to life, the restoration, recognition and elevation of civil society, of the integrity of the working people of Guyana are in my opinion essential requirements for the nation to function, to call itself legitimate, to be a valid state.
The discussion of this issue will continue at another time, but I would like to offer my condolences to all the relatives of those who lost their lives and solidarity to that community.
In Guyana and I am sure in every place where life is threatened with disrespect and destruction, where to recall Dr Martin Luther Kings' observation on the implications of having, a thing rather that a people oriented society, some noble souls have always emerged to restore integrity, to heal and offer hope, to do the work of life itself. There are citizens in Guyana, in Darfur, in the USA and elsewhere who are doing this work even as we speak.
They are those women/mothers in the village of Lusignan, who will rise today, weep and wail, attend to the sick and wounded, bury their dead and clean their humble homes, wash feed and dress their children and continue to provide for the physical and emotional needs of their families They out of the pain of oppression, of deprivation and brutalization will reach deep in their souls and create a new tomorrow evolving nobly through the process from being victims , to survivors to the architects of the future. No grandiose enterprise but the humble nobility of common people, of everyday people who suffer but rise and carry on because of their devotion to work for life. Today in this time of tragedy and for all the other days I appreciate you. I salute you because now as always, yours is the most sacred work that not only helps us heal and recover but honors that inherent, uncompromisable human impulse towards the upward trend, to life itself.
So those who sought to diminish the human experience have only deepened our appreciation of life and the need to, even in this moment of tragedy, honor and be enriched by the most mundane, basic elements of life's journey. Through humble, unsung efforts, the common people, will as they always have, continue to do the work of life.
The question is for me and maybe you... How will I Work for Life today?
In continuing to lay out the conceptual parameters or entry points of this discussion on Work Life & Living, this is my preliminary offering.
The dominant, western culture offers in Webster's Dictionary, that life is a noun, a time of existence, a state of being, it distinguishes, organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms.
Here we seek the definition offered by other cultures, want to share your experience,we want to look at how life is related to work and living, and the values that obtain therein.
Life, in my opinion , is the result of work( all action, even thoughts that become action, which are productive, as noted before). Work can also result in the denial or destruction of life...death. This angle of discourse is in response to a particularly tragic series of events that occurred in the Caribbean/South American country of Guyana this weekend, Jan 26th-..., I will explain in a minute.
Life is not only a quantitative result/product of work but the most qualitative value of our individual and collective endeavors, humble or grand, an expression of our most sacred intentions and efforts.
The actions and ideas, the work, that deliberately or inadvertently lead to death, destruction or in any way threatens life , are the ultimate expression of dehumanization. So a routine checkpoint for me is to ask the question and be guided by the answer to..
Is my work life giving, life affirming or are my endeavors serving the goal of death?
Did I honor life today in work and thought?
Thankfully, humanity, has endorsed the obvious sanctity of life despite the prominent contradictions. I imagine you would agree that indigenous communities, nation states, and the other actors in the international community, in principle if not practice, accept that premise. The premise being that survival and reproduction remains the most basic and essential responsibility of all living things.
Without life obviously, all else amounts to naught, this is given expression in the third Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the Constitution of the Organization of Afro American Unity point one, about the right to self defense, and the endless examples of law , declarations other social values and practice.
Yet we live in a world where the so called most advanced societies utilize most of their resources, their power not to work for the preservation of, or integrity of life, but towards death and destruction. Even with the ridiculous, juvenile claim of fighting for peace, or by killing as a culture/or institution to, defend life.
Our challenge is to reorient our thoughts, ideology, individual and collective, to the sacred work of life, facilitation, preservation and enrichment.
The salary for that is not measured by finance capital, whose mammoth contradictions are not the result of mistakes or system failure but is the inevitable result of a process that seeks to reduce the infinite worth of human endeavor to a paper receipt, to a numerical restriction, but that is another discussion.
Bear with me as I turn, with some anguish to the experience of life and the tragic loss of life, in Guyana, that resulted from the work of elements now choosing to use brutalization as an instrument, in a societal structure that emerged from the same impulse to dominate, to use society, other humans as a footstool , a drug to feed ones' own desperate cravings for survival, power and control, in effect to cover an internalized sense of inferiority, the failure to appreciate ones' own worth by absolutely denying the right of the other to life, to be.
I guess I should be cautious about jumping to conclusions about the source and origins of this behavior, about examining the prevailing and historic social dynamics in the country and globally, yet I can't help but look at the massive meltdown of integrity of the state as a major contributor to these tragedies. One wonders about caution, and a more pedestrian approach as sometimes being an act of avoidance, even enabling the continuation of destructive action and maintaining the status of oppression. So I'll take the leap and raise the following concerns.
Has the constitution of the nation again been hijacked? One may understandably question even that document as a valid expression of the most vital national values and responsibilities.
For me the ultimate responsibility of the state is the protection of the lives of its' citizens and guests, when the state fails in that sacred trust, even becomes a hazard to its people and its services are diverted for the benefit of sub- national, of extra-national actors, then that ship of state seems to achieve the status of being a pirate ship. In Guyana's' case it seems that the skull and crossbones rather than the beloved Golden Arrowhead now flutters from its' main mast.
Thoughts about the eruptions in Kenya, Somalia, Congo, Darfur, Colombia, Nepal flood into my mind and of course memories of Jonestown. I understand that the connections will not all stand up to scrutiny but they are viscerally triggered by the loss of life the killing of these 11 humans.
The guarantee of the right to life, the restoration, recognition and elevation of civil society, of the integrity of the working people of Guyana are in my opinion essential requirements for the nation to function, to call itself legitimate, to be a valid state.
The discussion of this issue will continue at another time, but I would like to offer my condolences to all the relatives of those who lost their lives and solidarity to that community.
In Guyana and I am sure in every place where life is threatened with disrespect and destruction, where to recall Dr Martin Luther Kings' observation on the implications of having, a thing rather that a people oriented society, some noble souls have always emerged to restore integrity, to heal and offer hope, to do the work of life itself. There are citizens in Guyana, in Darfur, in the USA and elsewhere who are doing this work even as we speak.
They are those women/mothers in the village of Lusignan, who will rise today, weep and wail, attend to the sick and wounded, bury their dead and clean their humble homes, wash feed and dress their children and continue to provide for the physical and emotional needs of their families They out of the pain of oppression, of deprivation and brutalization will reach deep in their souls and create a new tomorrow evolving nobly through the process from being victims , to survivors to the architects of the future. No grandiose enterprise but the humble nobility of common people, of everyday people who suffer but rise and carry on because of their devotion to work for life. Today in this time of tragedy and for all the other days I appreciate you. I salute you because now as always, yours is the most sacred work that not only helps us heal and recover but honors that inherent, uncompromisable human impulse towards the upward trend, to life itself.
So those who sought to diminish the human experience have only deepened our appreciation of life and the need to, even in this moment of tragedy, honor and be enriched by the most mundane, basic elements of life's journey. Through humble, unsung efforts, the common people, will as they always have, continue to do the work of life.
The question is for me and maybe you... How will I Work for Life today?
Friday, January 25, 2008
About work and a tribute
Discussion
Work, life and living means many things to us all, and in many ways the interaction or intersection of these elements has had a profound impact on our history, current life and the life we will have in the future. So this discussion is huge and what immediately jumps out is the relationship to identity, how we are defined by this process and not just how we define it.
At risk of hampering the rising arc of your creative thought I will offer a few of my own thoughts and interpretations of work, life and living and hopefully stimulate some challenging questions.
Work has been defined as movement and direction, and can be said to be activity aimed at the production of goods and services.
But for this investigation it is the questions of meaning and purpose, of getting to the value of work, that are vital. Central to this thought, is whether the essential purpose of work (labor or creative capacity) has been well served, in other words, have we been the ultimate benefactors of our work? If not, why and what personal and collective responsibilities therein accrue? Who benefited from the work our ancestors and may continue to do so even now?
As to life and living, I'll wait for the next posting as the above thoughts marinate, but think about this, if our work is not serving our lives and those of our beloved ,then who are we living our precious lives for?
I would like to refer you to the lyrics of the veteran reggae group Culture, and their piece titled "Too Long"
Tribute.....
This blog is dedicated to you who toil and create for a system that does not adequately reward your devotion and cannot really appreciate your worth, here we honor you. But this tribute is also a celebration of those of you who have found the courage, beautiful valor and in the tradition of our ancestors, dare to strike out, work for and create that sacred space where we can fulfill our historic duty and live our lives with integrity in honor, I say medase.
There are many beautiful souls who have nurtured and inspired me on this sacred journey even as they struggled with seemingly, relentless forces of oppression, their stories are integral to this investigation of work life an living and their wisdom indispensable in this work of healing, restoration, of renaissance and the birthing of a new day, a beloved community where our work, our creativity and our worth will truly be unbound. I will share more about these sacred encounters as I am permitted, it has been been and continues to be a distinct pleasure and great honor to serve, be served by, and serve with these beloved comrades, this being my most essential job and I have been paid very well.
In relation to this blog spot, this space of being and becoming, tribute, I must thank my guide, my teacher, healer, guru and more,you know the kind of friend who believes in you even when you don't or forget to believe in yourself. Ever supportive and encouraging as you continue to soar.......from the bottom of my heart, I thank you sistah goddess for yesterday, today and many tomorrows
Work, life and living means many things to us all, and in many ways the interaction or intersection of these elements has had a profound impact on our history, current life and the life we will have in the future. So this discussion is huge and what immediately jumps out is the relationship to identity, how we are defined by this process and not just how we define it.
At risk of hampering the rising arc of your creative thought I will offer a few of my own thoughts and interpretations of work, life and living and hopefully stimulate some challenging questions.
Work has been defined as movement and direction, and can be said to be activity aimed at the production of goods and services.
But for this investigation it is the questions of meaning and purpose, of getting to the value of work, that are vital. Central to this thought, is whether the essential purpose of work (labor or creative capacity) has been well served, in other words, have we been the ultimate benefactors of our work? If not, why and what personal and collective responsibilities therein accrue? Who benefited from the work our ancestors and may continue to do so even now?
As to life and living, I'll wait for the next posting as the above thoughts marinate, but think about this, if our work is not serving our lives and those of our beloved ,then who are we living our precious lives for?
I would like to refer you to the lyrics of the veteran reggae group Culture, and their piece titled "Too Long"
Tribute.....
This blog is dedicated to you who toil and create for a system that does not adequately reward your devotion and cannot really appreciate your worth, here we honor you. But this tribute is also a celebration of those of you who have found the courage, beautiful valor and in the tradition of our ancestors, dare to strike out, work for and create that sacred space where we can fulfill our historic duty and live our lives with integrity in honor, I say medase.
There are many beautiful souls who have nurtured and inspired me on this sacred journey even as they struggled with seemingly, relentless forces of oppression, their stories are integral to this investigation of work life an living and their wisdom indispensable in this work of healing, restoration, of renaissance and the birthing of a new day, a beloved community where our work, our creativity and our worth will truly be unbound. I will share more about these sacred encounters as I am permitted, it has been been and continues to be a distinct pleasure and great honor to serve, be served by, and serve with these beloved comrades, this being my most essential job and I have been paid very well.
In relation to this blog spot, this space of being and becoming, tribute, I must thank my guide, my teacher, healer, guru and more,you know the kind of friend who believes in you even when you don't or forget to believe in yourself. Ever supportive and encouraging as you continue to soar.......from the bottom of my heart, I thank you sistah goddess for yesterday, today and many tomorrows
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