For justice to be embodied rather than contrived, we have to walk our talk…radical refers to the root. In choosing Radical Relationship as the perspective that leads every action we take internal and external, real change arises from, gets at, and returns us to our roots: the fundamental Truth of our interconnectedness and unassailable Love that sources us all.
Vowing To Save Them All
The fact that the task is already pre-determined to be impossible, and one commits to it anyway, assures that it isn’t about you—-your sense of gain, accomplishment, or even your fear of failure—-AND you put your full effort in. And the most important thing is — it must be something you cannot possibly do.” What is that task for you?’ Zen Buddhists the world-over chant what is called the Four Vows.
The Year of X
Where we find ourselves now is a unique moment in time in which the ability to dig deep into this internal arsenal to express our full collective selves as the mighty and powerful agents of justice, freedom, and love that we are is available to us en masse. We can wait for a messiah, preacher, guru, or President to part the raging sea of conservatism or we can disarm the resistance with our capacity for charismatic conversion. Who needs to win when you can win over?
Meeting Change
Transitions are the doorways to change. Choosing to engage in transition and enter each doorway as consciously as possible but with a willingness to not know what’s on the other end is makes that change intentional. To have continued on with folks that I had a felt sense belonged somewhere else would have been to opt for convenience over integrity, thus dishonoring this work—as Khalil Gibran named: my love made visible in the world—at its core.
The Courage To Be Human
New York City — September 11-12, 2001. The devastation of this day is staggering beyond measure. The ground has fallen out beneath us America. Let us all find the wisdom to see this unspeakable tragedy as a doorway to meaningful change, as a precursor to collective transformation. If we do not accept this challenge if we are not brave and unrelenting in our demand…the loss of thousands of lives will not be merely unspeakable, they will be in vain.
Beyond The Boycott
Commit to taking the Whole Foods Boycott to another level by telling Whole Foods “I Don’t Buy It.” It’s time to increase the pressure and urgency on Whole Foods. Some powers that be, naysayers, talking heads, and even John Mackey may believe Whole Foods can just wait out a boycott and continue business without significant impact on their bottom line. I don’t buy it. And you shouldn’t either.
The Practice of Inconvenience
This is, more often than not, the nature of deep practice: It isn’t convenient. It doesn’t fit your schedule. It doesn’t conform to your whim. It isn’t selectable for good days instead of bad. In short, it isn’t a hobby…it’s a practice…Now is not the time to hold out. Not on your commitments, not on your practice, and not on change. Change IS on the horizon and the best thing about it is that, at this moment, we can’t actually make out what it’s going to look like. Like much of the unknown, that’s either a mark of real danger or real hope. I’m opting for the latter, but practicing comes what may.
This Is Our Time
We, the willing practitioners of transformative social change, are the only ones who can shift the paradigm. We are the moral & inspirational frontline of America. Like no other movement before us, we span the globe, defy description, and transcend all boundaries: some of us wealthy in cash, some in culture, we are cross-class and transgendered, Caucasian and Cablinasian, neo-social and hyper-spiritual, we bow at the altar of Authenticity.
Seven Deadly Sins of Change
Together we are the Jedis of Justice. We are The Ones that We have Been Waiting for to illuminate the Matrix and reveal the passage out of Babylon. We are the Agents of Transformative Social Change. X-Agents for short. (Yea, I know, but X-Men was already taken and it’s chauvinist anyway…)
Can You See Me Now?
Just three days after the New York Post’s brazenly racist cartoon managed to slip past all editorial checkpoints to subtly (or grossly) depict the nation’s first Black president as a rabid chimp gunned down by NY’s finest, the online Opinion section of NYTimes ran an article on race.