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?
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