Por

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DESPAIR IS NOT A STRATEGY

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

1

issue TWO

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

CONTRIBUTORS

Melvin Bray is an Emmy® award-winning storyteller

Teresa Pasquale Mateus is a trauma therapist,

who resides with his wife, three kids and dog in Atlanta,

contemplation and action educator, author, and speaker

helping communities find better ways of thinking and

based in Chicago. Learn more about her work at

doing. melvinbray.com

teresapasqualemateus.com

and threecirclescc.com.

Michael Citrini is a photographer, poet, certified

Spiritual Director, and School Counselor. His

photographs seek to connect outer landscapes and

Tyler McCabe has served three times as a reader in the

subjects to our interior journeys. Michael lives in

Pacific Northwest Writer Association's annual poetry

Raleigh, NC.

contest and his nonfiction has been honorably noted

by Best American Essays. His writing has most recently

Steve Daugherty is an ordained minister, storyteller, and

appeared in The Other Journal and at The Toast. He lives in

writer hailing from the Research Triangle NC with his

Seattle and tweets @tylermccabe.

wife Kristi and three children. Make his interests yours at

stevedaugherty.net

Mallory McDuff teaches at Warren Wilson College and

is the author of Natural Saints (OUP, 2010) , Sacred Acts

Belfast born and Kelowna, B.C., planted, Lesley-Anne

( NSP, 2012), and Conservation Education and Outreach

Evans watches, listens, and wonders about most things.

Techniques (OUP, 2015).

Her poetry is in print, and sometimes installed.

laevans.ca

Jasmin Pittman Morrell is a writer and editor living in

Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and two

Cathleen Falsani is a longtime journalist and author

daughters. She enjoys facilitating healing through

who specializes in the intersection of spirituality and

creativity, feminist theology, and Steve Martin.

culture. You can find her at cathleenfalsani.com

Ruthanne Niehaus is devoted to the experience of

Mona Haydar is a performance poet, activist, life-

gracious mysticism that connects us all. She is an eclectic

enthusiast and liberationist. In 2015, her #AskAMuslim

chaplain and meditation teacher. Her mantra is Wow,

stand inviting healing dialogue went viral. She is

Whoosh and Wheeee!

working toward her Masters in Divinity.

Heartwisdomforus@wordpress.com

monahaydar.com

Mike Riddell is a Kiwi who writes novels, plays, films,

Gareth Higgins is an Irish writer, founder of

poetry, and apology notes. He cooks when he can, and

moviesandmeaning.com, and publisher/editor of The

breathes intentionally on a daily basis.

Porch. He's sometimes also at garethhiggins.net

Steve Tomkins is the editor of Reform, a magazine

Michelle LeBaron is a conflict transformation and legal

published by the United Reformed Church in London.

scholar/practitioner in British Columbia. Working in a

He has written a number of books on Christian history.

wide range of conflict settings, she writes and speaks

internationally on creative ways to engage intractable

Peterson Toscano promotes justice and equality through

conflict.

storytelling. With his original theater pieces and

performance lectures, Peterson opens up discussions

about LGBTQ issues, privilege, the Bible, justice, and

climate change. petersontoscano.com

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

2

C O N T E N T S

5

GREETINGS!

33

I WANT TO KNOW

52

WARREN

A Note From

WHAT LOVE IS

BEATTY’S RULES

Gareth Higgins

Steve Daugherty

Gareth Higgins

8

DESPAIR IS NOT

36

PATTI SMITH

56

PROGRESS:

A STRATEGY
DREAMS IN

TEN REASONS TO

Mallory McDuff

BLACK AND

LOOK FORWARD

WHITE

TO THE FUTURE

13

AT THE EDGE OF

Cathleen Falsani

Johan Norberg

MNI SOSE: HOPE,

Book reviewed by

PRAYER &

39

LOST AND FOUND

Steve Tomkins

REVOLUTION

Mike Riddell

Teresa Pasquale

58 PROMETHEA

Mateus

Alan Moore,

42 CALLING ALL

J. H. Williams III,

ARTISTS, AND ALL

Mick Gray,

16 JUST ONE

OF US ARTISTS

Charles Vess

REDWOOD

Michelle LeBaron

Reflections by

A Daydream

Jasmin Pittman

Remembered

46 #BETTERISCOMING

Morrell

Ruthanne Niehaus

The Porch has a

conversation with

60

OLLY OLLY IN

20

A CONVERSATION

Melvin Bray

COME FREE

WITH BILL

A poem by

MCKIBBEN

49

DARING TO

Lesley-Anne Evans

DREAM

Peterson Toscano

61

NO EASY

29

VISION

TRANSMISSION

Mona Haydar

Tyler McCabe

discusses the album

PRIVATE ENERGY

by Helado Negro

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

3

I.

One day through the primeval

wood

A calf walked home as good

calves should;

But made a trail all bent askew,

A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years

have fled,

And I infer the calf is dead.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

4

Greetings, Porch

friends!

It’s the beginning of a new year, and many of

physical needs is more like the scaffolding

us are feeling relief to see the back of 2016. The

necessary for beautiful buildings to emerge.

notion that the last twelve months were

The deepest human need is for connection -

somehow extraordinary in the history of bad

with friends sharing their journeys toward

years is a widespread one, especially on social

becoming more human, with mentors who

media. But if you talked with people who are

guide us a little further up the road, with a

used to being marginalized, it wasn’t the end

sense of purpose beyond ourselves, and with

of days. This was the way things had always

strangers who need and offer the shelter of

been. What was different was that privileged

difference and the gift of need. Perhaps the best

people were seeing an unveiling: power tends

thing to come out of a year that, no matter how

to corrupt, and holding onto power even when

distorted our view, felt to many of us like a

it harms the powerful is one of the most

pretty terrible time on the planet, is the fact

prevalent forms of that corruption. No

that the experience of pain can encourage

surprises there, or at least none of us should

vulnerability. And when vulnerability is

have been surprised. At the same time, stories

handled with care, the possibility of connection

of fear tend to colonize our minds, and

emerges. When we’re in pain, we might learn

justifying the fears that keep us in the false

one of the most courageous things of all: how

comfort of isolation from our neighbors is one

to ask for help. I need help to discern the shape

of the most prevalent forms of that

of the world around me. My mind is too easily

colonization. Many of us saw too much pain in

immersed in the propaganda that says

the past year. Many of us wanted to hide, to

everything is getting worse. I owe it to myself

ask for a sabbatical from the world. The pain

and others to think carefully, to ask questions

was real, but the way we talked about it wasn’t

about the stories behind the headlines, to take

always sane.

responsibility for the impact of my being in the

world, and be grateful for the gifts. That’s what

Amid the loss, and the empathy, and the

leads me to think differently about 2016.

anxiety, when we could, we were listening,

waiting, watching, participating, dancing,

celebrating, arguing, creating, loving. What we

were left with was something else that

shouldn’t have been a surprise: a deepening

knowledge that the deepest human need is for

shelter. Shelter is not just food and a place to

sleep; in fact I’d suggest that meeting such

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

5

In that light, what a year it's been! A peace

It was a good year, in those respects at least.

agreement in Colombia, Michelle Obama's historic

speech about gender violence, a whole six months

I know I haven't mentioned at least one major story,

in which the UK generated more energy from solar

but weeks after the upheaval occurred, it's still

power than coal, a visit to Hiroshima by a sitting

difficult to talk about. We knew something like this

US leader, the release of MOONLIGHT and

could happen, but didn't quite want to believe it.

LOVING, two of the most profound, challenging,

When it did take place, many of us were so stunned

and hopeful movies about race, and sexuality, the

that it took a few days to pick ourselves up and face

victory at Standing Rock, the fact that more is now

reality. We turned to each other, heavy-hearted,

spent on foreign aid—for the first time— than it

with an invitation.

would require to end global poverty... The sun

continued to rise, the earth turned, we loved each

"Let's listen to some of his records together. It's

other, we argued with each other, we took more

what he would have wanted.”

stumbling steps toward becoming more human.

The death of Leonard Cohen, for me, perhaps the

most world-changing event of 2016, left a gaping

hole in the soul of community. Thankfully, of

course, the poetry and song he left behind were

there to fill it, and now that we weren't taking it for

granted anymore, perhaps we could let it lead us.

We needed such guidance, because a lot of us were

, Creative Commons

already feeling depressed. Another poet, the one

who likes to add stream-of-consciousness to

Twitter, was apparently in the act of smashing up

the playroom. He seemed fearsome, his words ugly,

akahiro Kyono

his distance from compassion obvious. What was

T

more frightening was the fact that some other folk -

about 25% of the US electorate - seemed to think he

was the best thing since sliced bread. They were

oblivious to the impact of his words and actions

Photo Credit:

regarding folk who didn't look or sound like him;

or they didn't believe those words; or they didn't

care.

But the world continued to turn, and Leonard

Cohen, whose poetry will outlast any president,

was still speaking.

Of the US, Brother Leonard had written,

"It's there they've got the range

The machinery for change,

And it's there they've got

the spiritual thirst”

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

6

He's right. The US is a laboratory for democracy.

At The Porch, we want to live in the awareness of

The failure of conventional institutions to offer

our gifts and challenges - while some of us are

spiritual solace, wholeness, or connection has been

among the most privileged people in our society,

exposed by the election. People will vote for

some of us are also among the very people targeted

someone who speaks so diabolically of

by aggressive rhetoric and policy. Many of us are

marginalized others because he promises the

some mingling of both. And we know that there is

security so obviously missing from our common

more than enough suffering in the world today to

life. The fact that he could still win when 75% of the

occupy a lifetime of activism and the courage that

US electorate didn't vote for him is both an

sometimes seems out of reach.

indictment of the system, and a more hopeful sign

than the catastrophizing of recent weeks. Three out

But we also believe that the stories we tell will

of every four US American adults did not support

shape our lives. Because of that, we refuse to give

Donald Trump, and many of those who did were

in to despair, or to participate in the thoughtless

drawn by fear, or a sense of loss, rather than malice.

propaganda that suggests everything is going to

hell. In solidarity with targeted people, without

And now, the need for conscious community is

demonizing our opponents, stepping into the

more obvious. The responsibility to stand in

beauty that will save humanity, at The Porch in 2017,

solidarity with people who are targeted for their

we we seek to learn, and live, community,

gender or skin color or beliefs or sexual orientation

connection, purpose, and healing.

or identity. The invitation to learn more about the

world beyond the narrow circles of self and "people

Keep in touch!

like us". The necessity of listening to the voices of

indigenous people who understand and care for the

land even when empires have tried to take it from

them. To mourn with those who mourn. To build a

bridge to a more hopeful future. John O'Donohue

said that the duty of privilege is absolute integrity.

Gareth Higgins, Publisher/editor, The Porch

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

7

mallory McD Despair

UFF

is not a

strategy:

On the death of a cat, the election of Trump, and action for the climate.

My ten year-old daughter, Annie

racist, misogynistic, and

“What happened last night?” she

Sky’s black cat, Edgar Allen Poe,

discriminatory taunts, words she

asked, blinking her eyes while

died on the same day that

couldn’t spell but actions she

posing a question about both

Donald Trump was elected

could recognize as wrong. She

Poe and the presidency.

president of the United States.

came home from school with

Poe died from kidney failure,

questions: “Why is he so mean

“Trump won,” I said, “and I

the result of eating poison left in

to so many people?” and “Why

haven’t heard from Daddy about

the yard of her father’s next-door

don’t people like Hillary?” and

Poe.”

neighbor who was apparently

“What will happen if he wins?”

trying to kill some critter. Maybe

Her blue eyes widened. Her

a possum. My ex-husband found

She staked her claim as a

mouth opened.

Poe paralyzed in his backyard

Democrat, predictably aligning

and rushed him to the

with my own political views, but

“How could they have elected

emergency vet, as my daughter

she also talked about wanting to

that stupid man?” she said,

and I snuggled on our couch,

see an African-American

invoking a word rarely used in

watching the early-evening

president and a female president

our house and implying that

election coverage on my

in her lifetime. Most days, she

“they” represented all adults.

MacBook Pro.

simply questioned how

Somehow I felt implicated,

someone could be “mean” and

guilty by association. Before she

Much like the election results,

have a chance at leading the

ate breakfast, I tried to explain

this story is bizarre but true.

country.

the basics of the Electoral

That night, I was drinking an

College. It felt like teaching

IPA, relishing the hoppy

“Why can’t I stay up to see who

bridge to a toddler at nap-time.

beverage after a day of teaching.

wins the election? When will I

“Your only job today is to be

At the time, I hadn’t considered

know if Poe is going to live?”

kind,” I said, knowing that other

either the possibility that Poe

she asked me, as I tucked the

students in her school wouldn’t

might die, even less that Trump

white comforter under her chin

share her feelings about the

might win.

in the bunk bed she shares with

election. “As a kid, your job is to

her older sister. Tears pooling in

be kind to others and to

My daughter spends her days in

her light blue eyes, she turned

remember what you believe in

a fifth-grade classroom at a

her body to the side, facing the

your heart.”

diverse rural school, only a mile

wall adorned with pictures of

down the road from the liberal

cats, her companions for the

As I graded papers at home that

arts college where I teach. In the

long night.

morning, stopping every few

weeks before the election, she

minutes to check Facebook or

conducted an informal

The New York Times for post-

playground poll, concluding that

* * * *

election coverage, my ex called

only three people in her class

to tell me that Poe had died in

had parents who supported

When the alarm rang at 6:30 the

the night.

Hillary. The rest were voting for

next morning, I pulled the

Trump.

comforter off her head, covered

with strands of damp brown

Even though we don’t own a TV,

hair tangled from the hours of

Annie Sky had heard Trump’s

sleep.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

8 8

We decided that he would pick

couldn’t bring the cat back to

The knock-off soda cans had a

up Annie Sky the next day so

life.

bold check mark on the can, but

they could bury the cat in his

for some reason, the brand was

backyard. But I would tell her

Between her sobs, she cried

spelled with four letters, rather

the news that afternoon.

out one word, one syllable

than five.

punctuating the warm air in our

When I picked her up after a

car: “Why? Why? Why?”

“Well, Chek died on Good

running club at school, she

Friday after being hit by a car,

jumped into the car with her

“He was my baby, he was my

and I was convinced that he was

brow sweaty and face flushed.

best friend, he was my cat, and

going to rise from the dead the

he was only one year old,” she

next day, just like Jesus!” I said.

“It was so hot today!” she said,

said. “Why did he have to die?

“I was in the sixth grade and

noting the 75-degree November

Why did this happen?”

knew that it was improbable,

weather, unusual for our home

but if Jesus could do it, why not

in the mountains of Western

Why?

Chek?”

North Carolina.

That night, she asked me to

She raised her eyebrows,

“How did it go at school after

come into the bathroom, where

amazed that I could be this

the election?” I asked. “Did y’all

she drew a bath, sinking her

irrational.

talk about the results?”

thin body into the hot water.

Sitting on the cold white tiles of

“You were in middle school,

“No, we just played and did our

our tiny bathroom, barely large

and you thought a dog would

work,” she said, retreating to

enough for one person, I pulled

come back to life like Jesus?

the pragmatic perspective of

my knees into my chest, my

Wow.”

fifth-graders.

eyelids heavy from lack of sleep

on election night, my emotions

As the bath water cooled, I

“I’ve decided that Donald

tangled with the death of a pet

imagined her recalibrating her

Trump can’t hurt me, so I’m just

and the state of the country.

odds of emotional success in

going to live my life,” she said.

life, as compared to her

During the campaign, we had

“Did I ever tell you about the

mother’s naiveté.

talked about how some students

death of my dog Chek?” I

in her school might be worried

asked, when she came up for

“I’ll always remember that Poe

about the impact of Trump’s

air, after submerging her tear-

died on election day,” she said.

proposed immigration policies

stained face into the water.

“But I don’t think he will ever

on their lives, but I realized that

Annie Sky knew about my

come back from the dead. That’s

I had to tell her about Poe’s

allergies to cats and dogs, one of

crazy talk.”

death, rather than digress into

the reasons she cherished

the politics of the election. So I

having a cat at her dad’s house,

When my seventeen-year old

took a breath and delivered the

but I had rarely shared that I

daughter Maya came home, she

news that mattered to her that

once was a pet person. Now

seemed undisturbed by the

day.

seemed like the appropriate

news of Poe’s death, as by this

time.

time in her life, she had faced

Looking in my rear view mirror,

the deaths or disappearances of

I watched her face crumble and

In the 1970s in Alabama, my

five different felines. But she did

tears spill onto her cheeks

siblings and I had a dog named

share that her principal began

within seconds. As she cried, I

Chek, whom my brother named

the day by announcing a

pulled the car into a side

after a non-brand soda at our

message of civility in this rural

parking lot. Somehow driving

local grocery store, I told her.

high school.

seemed like sacrilege, even if I

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

9

9

“She told us on the intercom

experiences watching the

The morning of our lessons,

that our job was to be kind to

election results and their fears

however, while thousands of

each other and respect each

about the intersection of the

acres burned, the winds shifted,

other’s differences,” my

environment with immigration,

and blue skies emerged for the

teenager said. “And she also

healthcare, marriage equality,

first time all week. One of the

said that the president of this

and more. Then I told them that

second grade teachers e-mailed

country doesn’t define who we

in one week, they would enter a

me: “We can go outside today!”

are in our school. We define our

classroom at the elementary

school by how we treat each

school to teach, and the parents

And we did. My students led

other.”

of at least half the students,

four classes of seven year-old

probably more, had voted for

children - Caucasian, African-

Two hours later, with Annie Sky

Trump. Their job was to connect

American, and Latino - in

asleep in the lower bunk, I

these students to the natural

explorations of nature around

heard the bedroom door open,

world around them, regardless

their schoolyard. Magnifying

and my older daughter

of political views.

glasses in hand, students

emerged, mascara smudged on

crouched on the ground,

her face, cheeks red.

“Despair is not a long-term

observing blades of grass,

strategy,” I said, as if saying the

insects, and soil, and

Tilting her head with a smile,

words aloud would make them

documenting their findings in

she said, “I just had my cry

come true. That afternoon, as

nature journals. Young and old,

about Poe.” Then off she went

we practiced the lessons, smoke

they huddled together,

to wash away the evidence of

from forest fires, some of them

connecting to each other,

her loss.

deliberate arson, filled the air of

connecting to one place.

the valley where we live.

Thousands of acres of wildfires

* * * *

burned across our region,

* * * *

magnified by the extreme

drought and high temperatures.

The next day, I entered a

The cavernous banquet room

classroom filled with

Slightly more than one inch of

began to fill with elders: A

undergraduates who were

rain had fallen in four months,

woman in a royal blue shirt and

scheduled to practice

the most extreme drought in

navy pants shuffled to her seat

environmental education

more than a hundred years, in

by slowly picking up one foot

lessons to teach eighty second-

the hottest year on record. My

after the other; a man with a

graders the next week. The

students knew that these

snowy-white beard took a front-

students looked hung over, their

extreme weather patterns were

row seat, and two other women

faces drawn and tired, although

predicted to increase given the

chose the back row because “the

I knew that they had not been

impacts of climate change.

sound is always better in the

up partying, but rather

back,” they told me.

forecasting their futures in the

Because of the potential for

environmental field under the

unhealthy air quality, they

The week after teaching at the

next administration. This was

needed to prepare for teaching

elementary school with my

their first presidential election:

inside the elementary-school

students, I drove to a local

they weren’t participating in a

classroom, as well as outside on

retirement community to talk

mock high-school poll, but a

the nature trail. That week, my

about my research on the work

real contest in a battleground

daughter’s running group was

of churches to confront climate

state.

cancelled due to code-red air

change. My host had confirmed

quality, making it unsafe for

that the audience members

So we talked for the first few

children to be outside.

would hold diverse political

minutes of class about their

views:

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

10

10

the crowd of about fifty senior

with the question for myself,

When I came home from the

citizens included retired

my daughters, and my students.

retirement community, I tucked

professors, Episcopal priests,

Annie Sky into bed, once again

doctors, scientists, librarians,

“Despair is not a long-term

pulling the white comforter

and social workers – active

strategy,” I repeated, “especially

underneath her smooth chin

thinkers with the resources to

for those us of with resources

and giving her our special kiss:

live at this comfortable

like education, money, and time

one kiss on the left cheek, the

community, where you could

to call out injustice while we

right cheek, the lips, the nose,

glimpse the assisted living

also talk with those who differ

and a final one on the lips.

center in the background of the

from us.”

cozy cottages where many folks

“I’m still sad about Poe, you

began their stay.

“While I don’t have the answer,

know,” she said, “It’s the one-

I do know what gives me hope,”

week anniversary of his death.”

Through stories, I shared the

I said, sharing the story of my

news of people of faith working

student Kelsey Juliana, who is

“I know honey,” I said, although

to protect the climate, like the

the lead plaintiff in a case suing

I admitted that the anniversary

organization GreenFaith

the federal government over

had escaped me.

advocating divestment from

climate change. In collaboration

fossil fuels; Earth Ministry

with Our Children’s Trust, this

“I’m still sad – like really sad,”

partnering with Native Peoples

case, Juliana et al. vs. United

she said. “But I am trying to

of the Northwest to block

States, asserts that failure by the

move on with my life.”

construction of coal export

U.S. to protect youth from

terminals; Muslim mosques

greenhouse gas emissions is a

I tried not to grin at the gravity

adding solar panels to their

violation of their constitutional

of her words, the wisdom from

places of worship; and clergy

rights.

one single decade of life.

joining the protests at Standing

Rock. But I also told them about

Indeed, in the days after the

“I think that if I got a kitten for

the majority of my own

election, my student, who is

my birthday next week, that

students and their fear for their

taking a semester off to

would help me,” she said. “But

future given the election results.

participate in the court case,

even if I don’t get a kitten, that’s

hosted an after school camp for

what I’m going to work on.

One gentleman in the front row

young people who want to

That’s my goal.”

raised his hand, “In the wake of

learn how they can take climate

the election, how can you have

action to protect their future. I

In that evening hour, kneeling

any hope for the environment?”

know that Kelsey feels great

by her bedside, I felt a small

despair about the election

part of what activist Van Jones

From the wide-open look on his

results, but she doesn’t have

describes as an “army of love,”

wrinkled face, I could tell that

time to stay in that mindset.

emerging from his call to

he wasn’t chiding me. He didn’t

There is too much at stake to

surround and protect the most

have an answer in mind when

ignore the radical responsibility

vulnerable as we face an

he asked the question.

that we must exercise for our

uncertain future. And just

neighbors and the places we call

because I could, I gave her our

So I paused, because I don’t

home.

special kiss, one more time, and

have one answer, as I struggle

turned out the light on another

day.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

11

11

II.

But still he left behind his trail,

And thereby hangs my moral

tale.

The trail was taken up next day,

By a lone dog that passed that

way;

And then a wise bell-wether

sheep

Pursued the trail o’er vale and

steep,

And drew the flock behind him,

too,

As good bell-wethers always do.

And from that day, o’er hill and

glade.

Through those old woods a path

was made.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

12

AT
THE

EDGE

OF

MNI SOSE:

HOPE,

PRAYER &

REVOLUTION

Teresa Pasquale Mateus

At 6 a.m. the call goes out, as it does every

It’s the day before Thanksgiving.

morning, “Relatives, wake up! It’s time to

pray! This is what you’re here for!”

The Oceti camp sits on treaty land, owned by

the Standing Rock Sioux from 1851—stolen

The sun isn’t yet ready to peak over the

by the American government, like much other

prairie but the cold and the sacred call to

native property, as soon as it served a

ceremony gets bodies moving, even though

purpose. This camp is Lakota community

drumming, singing, and whooping went late

come to full life — a circle which daily begins

into the night.

around the Sacred Fire moments after the call

to prayer.

I begin to move around in my sleeping bag,

slowly unzipping as I reach for my second,

Two hours of prayer around the fire end with

third, fourth, and fifth layer of clothing, much

a communal march to the water’s edge, the

of which made up my makeshift pillow from

very thing the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven

the night before. I wipe the condensation off

Council’s Fire (of the Lakota people), fight for.

the top of my bag—the only place my breath

Chants ring out, “Mni Wiconi! Mni Wiconi,”

touched in the night, leaving dew where my

which translates to, “Water is life.” The last

internal oxygen hit freezing air.

time the Seven Council’s Fire was gathered

before this Standing Rock standoff was at

I wrap myself in my scarf and the warm wool

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known

covers where sleeping bag once warmed that

as Custer’s Last Stand, and by Lakota people

delicate part of the neck. I make my way to

as the Battle of the Greasy Grass. They

morning prayer at Oceti Sakowin Camp,

remind us at camp that the Lakota won.

Standing Rock.

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ISSUE TWO

13

An elder stands up and reminds us that this water,

ambulance set up to transport people out with

the water that we pray for and over and with, has a

emergency wounds. “I wanted to serve my country

very specific name: Mni Sose. We call out, “Mni

to protect the people,” he explains, “and here I feel

Sose,” as I can hear another chant come from the

I can do that.”

other end of the crowd. There is thumping and

there are guttural sounds; it’s a language I have

The water protectors built a wooden bridge that

heard before. I look down and see a gathering of

they completed with hundreds of hands to help in

Maori warriors sharing their prayer offerings in

less than an hour and soon it is bent over the water,

their native language to the water. They traveled

holding firm on the other side, and ten, then

thousands of miles to share in this moment of

twenty, then fifty or more protectors head onto

powerful resistance with the Lakota people and

Turtle Island, with signs and banners and prayers

their allies. Prayer closes with words from the

of remembrance for those sacred souls who lay

elders, tobacco offered to the water, and the call

under the ground. Water cannons spray down on

that is both affirmation and “amen” — the word,

those closest to the top of the hill and despite their

“A’ho!”

bodies shivering in the cold and wet, still they

stand strong.

Thanks and Giving

Hours go by and they continue prayer and

ceremony on the island while the rest of us support

The next day we march at the water’s edge in a

from the other side of the water. Those of us in

different place for a different reason. It is the day

crisis response roles hoping and praying that

that the settlers of this land have named

things don’t escalate. In the end it seems that the

Thanksgiving, but for the native people in

militia on the hill didn’t want blood on their hands

community it is the anniversary of pain, genocide,

on the day they call Thanksgiving.

and a history rewritten.

We all rejoin at the bottom of the hill, six hours

We march to Turtle Island, the ancient burial

after we began, and gather in circle for closing

ground of the ancestors of this land, atop which

prayer. Sage moves its way through the circle—

sits a militarized crow’s nest where privately

smudging as a cleansing practice. We all turn

funded militia sit with full police regalia, water

towards the hill and say thank you to the men on

cannons, tear gas and all the accoutrements you

the hill. Even though they sit on the graves of

would need to commemorate this holiday if you

loved ones and ancestors, even though they are

wanted to actually approximate its true origins.

paid by private oil business to be there, and even

The irony of the moment is not lost on our circle of

though less than a week earlier they had barraged

water protectors, hundreds lining the edge water

the community with hours of suffering and abuse,

that separates the protectors from the ancestors.

we say a collective "Thank you,” as we raise hands

into the air to wave in their direction. We give

thanks for not spraying (most of) us with water

I stand with a white cross on my arm with a heart

hoses in hypothermic cold. It is thanks for not

in its center. This was the decided upon emblem by

shooting us with rubber bullets. We give thanks

the mental health team earlier that day to mark

thanks for not arresting indigenous women and

ourselves as crisis support should events turn

women of color—as was most common practice on

dangerous, as we knew from the past few months

the front lines. We give thanks, that, at least today,

could happen quickly.

none of the medic trucks are necessary. In that way

it was a day of thanks and a day of giving—just not

I stand with a combat veteran, an Army medic,

the way the history books remember. It is being

there to support the first aid response. He’s

remade in every way. In these moments, in these

equipped his team for response to possible

days. In this stand at Standing Rock.

hypothermia and they have a make-shift

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ISSUE TWO

14

Wake Up!

The refrain in my head ended that day, and sits

with me still. Both beginning and ending each day,

each moment of peaceful resistance, and

everything in between, we are all reminded,

“Relatives, wake up! It’s time to pray! This is what

you’re here for!”

It’s time to wake up! Our world needs us to be

awake. It is time for sacred practice—a recollection

of the ceremonies that inform our own traditions.

This is what we are here for. I am called into deeper

practice for having served in community with

those that stood before and stand still at Standing

Rock—in action and contemplation. I am grateful

to the witness and example of the Lakota people

at the front lines of resistance. Their stand is the

new paradigm of hope, prayer, and revolution.

They are remembering something ancient and

calling us to be stirred to that ancient part of

ourselves. They are putting back together the

kind of community that honors its

ancestors, and lives in such a way that

generations to come will be able to

remember it with respect.

This is what we’re here for.

Sitting Bull (1831-1890), Lakota Sioux Leader

who led a resistance among indigenous

people against the U.S. Government in a

conflict over South Dakota gold.

Image Credit: Library of Congress

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ISSUE TWO

15

15

Public DomainWiki Commons

JUST

ONE

REDWOOD

A personal recollection of a

daydream, or a dream of

a memory

by Ruthanne Niehaus

Tip Top: (calls down) HELLLOOO!

One redwood in a California

Deep Trunk: (answers with joy) Well, hello! So nice

grove talks to herself. Two

to hear from you!

voices are heard: One voice

comes from the tallest tip-top

branches and the other from the

Tip Top: Yes, and thank you. The sky is glowing

widest of trunks merged deep in

peace today! I just noticed a breeze of wisdom go

the ground.

through our branches.

Deep Trunk: Mmm, please tell me about it. The

ground around our trunk is sweet and solid, but

breezes are a treat down here.

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ISSUE TWO

16

Tip Top: The breeze said you and I are one. That is

and earth. Many grow silent with the thrill of

quite obvious, but isn’t it glorious still that even

walking in our very own Redwood grove.

those beings with cameras have to juggle several

shots just to capture us? The spirit of the breeze

Tip Top and Deep Trunk: (in unison) Let us speak up

said I am close to heaven, and you are earth. I find

together and show our beauty so our visitors can

the simplicity of the truth quite striking.

see their own.

Deep Trunk: It feels great to all my roots to stretch

and see from different perspectives. Do you

Within this moment,

remember that one human being who came back

two days in a row last Spring? She was a blonde

Within this one breath

grandmother! She leaned in all directions. I felt her

earnest heart.

We are descendants of conifers and dinosaurs

Tip Top: Not sure I can recall her.

We are 144 million years old.

Deep Trunk: She read every word of the park ranger

signs as if they were a sacred vow. The history of

our Lady Bird Grove and the three presidents who

were here showed her the connections of reverence

Within this moment,

and action. People believed these places were

sacred, and presidents have been designating

Within this one breath

national parks since 1872. She chanted the Heart

Sutra of the Buddha and the cells of wonder inside

We are five or even fifteen feet wide

many beings smiled.

Tip Top: Oh, yes, now I remember, I was lulled into

Bring a friend and stretch.

a sweet ancient memory and the ancestors drew

near. The wisdom of their hearts create sparkling

warmth as each scene permeates the present

moment. It was so luscious my thoughts vanished. I

Within this moment

love it when a direct experience of the moment is

wildly sensual and erases ordinary time.

Within this one breath

Deep Trunk: Exactly! She felt the history of this

We are 300 feet tall

grove just like that. The grandfather who didn’t

meet even the first of his six grandsons was here

Step back and see.

leaning on the tree over there. He died before they

were born but is nearby ….always. His nickname

was Tree—really I couldn’t make this up. Every

time she says the word tree, he perks up in spirit

Within this moment

form even if she is talking about us!

Within this one breath

Tip Top: Oh, yes he is persistent and quite a comic.

Ancestors do continue to breathe with us. They’re

Our roots live in harmonious interconnections

always present offering their support and heart

wisdom. The light from way up here atop our 300

foot trunk shines on our eternal puzzle, showing us

how we all fit. I wonder how each person may be

When change occurs—new life grows

inspired and immerse their own lives in heaven

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ISSUE TWO

17

Within this moment

Within this moment

Within this one breath

Within this breath

We lose our lower limbs

We awaken soul growth

protecting the ferns that love us.

We inspire your balance.

Within this moment

Within this moment

Within this one breath

Within this breath

We clean more air than any other

A bridge leads to a grove

Forest on the whole planet

dedicated by presidents.

Within this moment

We are the Redwoods

Within this one breath

We are grateful to have been saved

We heal ourselves

Our very essence is to offer you beauty

Our red tannic acid protects us.

Our very essence is to help you reach deep and to

stand tall.

Within this moment

Mystery is our true nature right here in the natural

Within this one breath

world. Awe and wonder guide each movement of

air, earth, water and fire contained in us all. The

Our view is wide

personal really is political when it is fueled by

inspiration and silence, and transformed into action

Our perspective deep

on behalf of the magnificence of our world. A

surprising fact: The rings inside our massive trunks

don’t always complete concentric circles inside of

Within this moment

us. Sometimes our rings are uneven and create new,

unforeseen pathways. Please, bump gently into the

Within this one breath

opportunities of life. Step back. Look and feel from

all perspectives. And begin again.

Our ancestors are here

A council of spirit to serve you

“Where flowers bloom so does hope.”

-Lady Bird Johnson

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ISSUE TWO

18

III.

And many men wound in and

out,

And dodged, and turned, and

bent about,

And uttered words of righteous

wrath,

Because ‘twas such a crooked

path;

But still they followed—do not

laugh—

The first migrations of that calf,

And through this winding wood-

way stalked

Because he wobbled when he

walked.

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ISSUE TWO

19

A CONVERSATION WITH

BILL MCKIBBEN

BILL MCKIBBEN is a writer and

and very odd and very busy, sometimes

activist, and co-founder of 350.org.

much too busy.

This conversation took place at the

GH: So, at this point today, what's your

Greenbelt Festival in England.

thirty-second answer to the question,

what do you do?

BMcK: I think I'm more an activist than a

Gareth Higgins: So, Bill, you got in here

writer at the moment. Ten years ago,

this morning. You flew overnight from the

along with seven college students, I

U.S. and you're leaving again on Monday.

founded a thing called 350.org that

You have a busy life.

became the first big grassroots climate

movement around the world that operates

Bill McKibben: Yeah. A very different life

now all over the world. I'm still a

than the one I thought I would be leading.

volunteer at it. I've never really had a

I am, by craft and background, a writer,

position or anything, but that's what fills

which is in many ways the most solitary

up most days. Every day I help in some

of occupations, which is fine by me. Left

way or another with that.

to my own druthers, sitting in a room and

typing is my just about favorite thing. But

Gareth: Looking back, when was the first

life in the last ten years, because of this

time you can remember noticing that

need to build this movement around

there are some things in the world that

climate change, has been very different

need to be changed?

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BMcK: Well, that's a good question. I'm

in America and I was just whatever flavor

sure it was through church youth group

happened to be available depending on

growing up. When we were young, we'd

where we lived. So I was baptized

take service trips to the poorest parts of

Presbyterian, grew up in the United

the United States when we were in fifth

Church of Christ, and ended up a

and sixth grade and spend a week

Methodist, because that's what was there

working. As a good suburban boy, it was

when I eventually moved to the

interesting and pretty shocking to see the

mountains.

poorest parts of the country. And, of

course, in the context of church, it struck

GH: So, how did this dissident thing begin

hard with good moral meaning of some

to then manifest beyond taking people on

kind.

tours to tell them the revolutionary story?

Gareth: Where were you growing up and

BMcK: So, my first job out of college was

what was your childhood like?

writing for The New Yorker magazine. I,

sort of through a fluke, ended up at The

BMcK: I sort of grew up all over. But by

New Yorker and wrote The Talk of the Town

the time I was in junior high school, we

column for some years. Every other week

were living outside Boston in the suburbs.

or so, I'd write the political editorial in the

And actually it was kind of useful too. I

front. A wonderful man, a great man

grew up in the suburb of Lexington in

named Jonathan Schell and I would share

Massachusetts, which in a way was a kind

this duty.

of interesting place to grow up. No

offense to the British, but Lexington was

I had always been kind of interested in

pretty much where the world's first revolt,

politics—this was in the era of Reagan

the revolt against colonialism,

and of the U.S. involvement in Central

imperialism, and that sort of thing began

America and things like that. At the same

in 1775. My summer job in high school

time, it was the beginning of what we

was giving tours of the battle green. I’d

now think of as the homelessness

put on my tricorne hat, the tourists came,

epidemic in America, the beginning of

and I would get to explain to them the

when there were large numbers of

story of how the British took a licking in

homeless people showing up on the

Lexington, and I think it's one of the

streets. At the time we thought it was a

reasons that I've never confused being

kind of crisis that was going to be

dissident with being unpatriotic. I think

addressed; we didn't know that it was

maybe it's one of the things that's helped

going to become a endemic feature of

me get around a little bit of some of the

public life. To write for The New Yorker, I

conservative/liberal dichotomy in a sense.

spent a fair amount of time living on the

streets in New York, and I also started a

Gareth: What were the politics in your

shelter for homeless people in the

family when you were younger?

basement of my church.

BMcK: Sort of mainstream liberal

I was going to quite a wonderful church,

Democratic politics in the 1960’s and ’70’s,

Riverside Church, and the pastor was a

and my father was a business reporter

man named William Sloane Coffin who

and business editor. So, it was not a

was a wonderful, wonderful preacher. But

radical household by any means. He

it was a church that was very committed

worked for Business Week magazine all the

to justice of all kinds and hence

time that I was growing up. This was the

uninterested in charity and thinking them

heyday of the mainline Protestant Church

as quite opposite things. And I remember

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it was hard work to persuade William

then in my mid-20’s, my future wife

Sloane Coffin that we should have a

handed me two things. One was the

homeless shelter in the basement, because

Stephen Mitchell translation of Job. I

[he believed] that just put a Band-Aid on

mean, it's by far the most gloriously

things, which of course it did, but [the

written book in the Bible, but the Stephen

shelter] seemed important too. So, those

Mitchell translation really makes that

were the kind of early years before I

clear. She also handed me the first book I

started doing what I do now, before I

read by Wendell Berry, who went on to be

moved out of the city into the very deep

the person that really changed how I

wilderness.

viewed the world in profound ways and

became a great friend and mentor and

GH: So, is there a through line to today

things as well.

when you look back at your twenties and

maybe your early thirties? And I'm also

GH: How has Wendell Berry changed

interested to know, along with Coffin,

you?

who were your mentors?

BMcK: This is the one useful thing you can

BMcK: The New Yorker is where Rachel

take from this conversation of mine is his

Carson published Silent Spring and where

name, a Kentucky farmer, essayist, poet,

Jonathan Schell published The Fate of the

and novelist. I read his essays first and it's

Earth and John Hersey published

possible that I've come to love his novels

Hiroshima and a number of things. So it

best of all. Above all, [he’s a] sort of

was, in those days at least, extremely

“writer of community.” The instant that I

progressive. Thinking about turning

began reading him, I began to understand

points in one's life, for me I had never

some of the inchoate longings and

really understood sort of what “the Holy

frustrations of one's life.

Spirit” referred to until it dawned on me

that in my life it had been that force which

I came of age in the suburbs of the United

caused one to pick one book off the shelf

States in the 1970’s, so, really at the close

instead of another one almost at random

to the absolute pinnacle of consumer

and read it. Because I'm a reader and a

culture as one could. If you think about

writer, books have always been extremely

that process, the process of consumer

important to me. In my boyhood, it was

culture is really about the process of

somewhat clichéd - by far the most

making one as much a kind of hyper-

important books were the C.S. Lewis

individual as it's possible to be, because if

Narnia books and did as much to form my

you’re worried about other people, other

character as anything else.

things, whatever, it would interfere with

the efficient process of consuming more,

GH: In what way did the Narnia books

right? So the point of high consumerism is

shape you?

to be about you. And I had obviously had

some sense that that wasn't exactly right,

BMcK: Well, I mean, I think by giving one

hence homeless shelters and hence church

an actual workable image of what God

youth groups and hence the things that

might in some way be like. A talking lion!

really matter. But in an intellectual sense,

it very much came together starting to

GH: I'm thinking of it being asked of

read Wendell Berry’s extraordinarily fine

Aslan, “Is he safe?” And the answer given

take on all of this.

is, “No. He is good.”

And it was at the moment when I, for

BMcK: Not a tame lion, absolutely. And

other reasons, was moving to out into the

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22

wilderness. The New Yorker magazine had

I ever get to contemplative place. But

been taken over by a newspaper baron

those are poor excuses for spiritual

named Si Newhouse, and he fired Mr.

practices I fear.

Shawn, the longtime editor and the

greatest editor of the 20th century in

GH: And you know that that's not true,

America. He had been editor for forty

right? I mean you're friends with Wendell

years or something and I was twenty-six

Berry. He would tell you that your

maybe. It annoyed me, so I quit. My

walking in the woods is your spiritual

parents were appalled and really

practice.

everybody was appalled, because it was

really as good a job as you could have in

BMcK: Probably, probably, but half the

American journalism.

time I just—I'm not skiing, I’m thinking

about how fast I can go down the next hill

But in retrospect it was the smartest thing

or something anyway. It's not very deep a

except for marrying my wife that I ever

lot of the time. But I do find that when I'm

did, because it would have been very easy

writing, that's the only place that

to spend my whole life there doing the

problems get solved; and it comes fairly

same thing. And instead, I suddenly

spontaneously.

didn't have a job and certainly couldn't

live in New York without one. I suppose I

GH: So, you went to live in the wilderness.

could have gone to work at The Times or

What did you do next?

something I suppose, but it was a great

opportunity to move from the middle of

BMcK: Well, two things. One was, you got

Manhattan to the absolute middle of the

to know the community that we were

biggest wilderness in the American East,

living in and it was a tiny community, a

the Adirondack Mountains. And life

town of 300, and it had been an age since

changed very powerfully again.

anybody had moved there from the

outside. And yet, there was no problem of

GH: I want to ask you about how it

“joining in.” It's been my experience ever

changed. But before we get to that, let's

since that as long as one is willing to not

talk about what some people call spiritual

to tell people what to do, but to help out

practices for self-care and nurture and

with whatever is already going on, then

looking after yourself. Do you identify

everyone is happy to have you around.

with the notion of spiritual practices?

What are the things you do that you know

So, I was soon teaching Sunday school

nurture your own soul?

and whatever and it worked fine. And

that was great fun to get to know that

BMcK: So, I can't do most of the ones

community, get to know the people in it

you're “supposed” to. I’m literally the

and feel a fairly strong sense of

world’s worst meditator! The thing where

community. And I also was trying to learn

you're supposed to count your breaths or

how to write. Learning how to write a

something, I can get to about two and a

book is a very different experience from

half before – forget it. So, for me, for the

writing 1000-word pieces for magazines.

last thirty some years anyway, it has

It takes an entirely different set of chops.

involved being outdoors in the woods for

And so I wrote. The first book I wrote was

an hour or two if I possibly can, whenever

a book called The End of Nature, which was

I'm home, walking, hiking. My greatest

also the first book about climate change

vice or passion of all is cross-country

for a non-scientific audience.

skiing, which is a wonderful rhythmic

exercise that does drop me into as close as

I was twenty-seven when I was writing it,

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23

and when I look back on it now, there are

book and you do, too. You’re moving on

parts of it that are quite jejune and that I'd

to the next one.

rewrite if I could. But because it was the

first and because the timing was just

GH: But when you're kind of a celebrity

perfect, it did well. It came out I think

activist, it never stops?

eventually in twenty-four languages, and

it was a best seller in a lot of places. And

BMcK: My mistake for many years in this

the way that book writing goes, if you

climate change stuff, I knew it was the

write one and it's successful, then that sort

biggest story in the world and the most

of gives you the license to write the next

important thing, but I thought that it was

three or four that don't have to be

an argument that was ongoing. Ten or

successful. So, I wrote the next two or

fifteen years in, I figured out that that was

three or four over the next decade, and it

not the case; that it was a fight instead of

was really a wonderful decade. In my

an argument, and that the fight was with

thirties I was sitting at home and writing

the very powerful fossil fuel industry and

and skiing and raising my daughter, and

that they had endless amounts of money,

it was really a sublime period in a lot of

and that we would need to build

ways.

movements to counteract that.

GH: Can I ask you about the temptations

So, the question became how to build one

of ego when you write a successful book?

where there really wasn't very much of

one that existed, and we didn't know

BMcK: Yes, it's a good question. And I had

what we were doing. But we started this

been very lucky up until then, because

organization called 350.org, and probably

when I'd been writing all that Talk of the

because of timing and because there was a

Town stuff for The New Yorker, in those

vacuum, we had enormous success early

days it was all anonymous and that was a

on, which really has continued

very good way to start writing, because if

throughout. At first I was the public face,

I had written four or five hundred pieces

and by default of much of the climate

for The New Yorker as a twenty-one or

change movement building stuff. That

twenty-two year-old and had my name on

was necessary for a while, because for

all of them, I would have been a kind of

organizing purposes there had to be

minor celebrity in New York. Instead I

something to kind of draw people in the

was completely anonymous. I think I was

tent.

lucky that by the time I wrote a book that

did well, I was living pretty far out in the

And so I was on the road as many nights

woods.

as not for four or five years, six years and

it was very hard in a lot of ways,

Of course my neighbors were

including the sort of ego one, which is

unimpressed by any of this. That was

unpleasant thing for me to deal with. At

good. But there's no question that ego,

some point three or four years ago, I

that even mild fame is a seductive thing,

realized that it was not only unhealthy for

and I think actually it got worse for me

me, but unhealthy for the movement to

later on when we were doing this activist

have a focus on particular leaders. We

stuff that required me to be out in public

didn't have Dr. King—maybe if we did,

much, much more. With a book, generally

that would be better—but since we didn’t,

you write a book, you go on what's called

then it was much more useful to imagine

book tour for a couple of weeks, which is

a movement, the way that we were trying

a grim process in many ways. But then it's

to imagine the new energy system. Not

over and everybody forgets about your

with a few centralized power plants, but

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with millions of solar panels on millions

But the idea of “This is the one activist

of roofs and—or imagine a kind of

[we need]!”…that can't be a long lifetime

widespread resistance with thousands

preoccupation, because if it is we will

upon thousands of leaders in local places

have lost. I'm afraid that there'll still be

all over the place doing amazing work

plenty to work on around poverty and

that we then could knit together, thanks to

war and hunger fifty years from now. But

the Internet. That was really the

if we're still fighting the basic battle

movement that we'd been helping build

around climate change fifty years from

and those people really were out there.

now, we will have lost.

So for the last three or four years, I've

There'll be nothing left to fight for. If we

thought of my work mostly as a kind of

don't turn the tide quite quickly, it won't

emcee, helping introduce other people to

be turned. And that is one of the dangers

other people. Many days the most useful

with this particular issue, because it's the

work I do is on Twitter: if someone writes

first truly time limited issue like this

something good or someone is doing

we've ever faced. One does feel a kind of

some good protest or something, it's a

moral imperative to keep battling hard all

very easy way to get it noticed. And when

the time and not take time off, and I

I go to speak to now, I try to make sure

grapple with that on occasion.

that part of it is bringing other people up

on stage. You asked the right question.

GH: So this then may be a counterintuitive

You got to my particular problem.

question given the urgency of the cause

that you've been captivated by. How have

GH: So, you realized it wasn't healthy for

you learned to say no to requests, and

you or the movement. It seems to me that

demands [that could divert you from

a lot of movement leaders never realize

what you should be doing, or from living

what's not healthy for them or the

healthily]?

movement. Do you know what it is that

helped you realize this is unhealthy?

BMcK: Yeah, I mean, I probably get maybe

Sometimes the voices of loved ones can

ten invitations a day to come speak some

point that out to us, sometimes mentors,

place. So, obviously you can turn down

sometimes we read it in a book, and then

90% of them, and you'd still have to go

sometimes there are some people who just

speak someplace every day. And for a

never discover that. They burn themselves

while, that was more or less what I was

out and their movements die.

doing, because we were in this movement

building phase that had to happen. But

BMcK: So, my wife is a great help in many

I've gotten much better at saying no and

ways, and so is my dog, a tremendous

at finding other people all the time to do

help. Absolutely, no question. Very good

things.

at being present in the moment. And I'm

reasonably good. I’m a reporter by

GH: So, an invitation comes in, you might

background and sort of an observer. And

pivot it?

so, it's true that one can see that [burnout]

is a possibility, but some part of me knew

BMcK: Absolutely, yes, yes, yes, yes, and

that one of my goals in all of this was to

absolutely with the conviction that it's

make myself obsolete, not just because

much healthier. The other thing that I've

there were other people to do this work

learned to do that's been very useful is to

and these young people that I had started

say, “No, I'm not coming to wherever you

350.org with. They're incredibly capable,

are, but it would be no problem for me to

more capable than I am in many ways.

go on Skype for ten or fifteen minutes and

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

25

talk with you that way and in fact it

GH: My last question to you, Bill: are you

would be low carbon.” And so, I can do

an optimist or a pessimist?

five times more talking that way than any

other way and that's been a kind of

BMcK: This obviously is a question that I

technological gift I must say.

think about a lot or I used to anyway, and

because people ask it all the time. And if

GH: To move to the art that nurtures you,

you happen to know a lot about climate

let me ask you your favorite movie?

change, the worst thing that's ever

happened in the world, if you happen to

BMcK: My favorite recent movie, was

be a semi-authority on it, then what

Spotlight that won the Oscar last year,

people are really asking you is, “Is

partly because it was about the Boston

everything going to be all right or not?”

Globe where my father worked at the end

And I don't know. I mean we waited a

of his career and partly because it’s about

long time to get started dealing with this.

noble newspaper men. That was in recent

The momentum of physics is strong. So, if

years I think my favorite thing I've seen in

I want to be a pessimist about the future, I

a long time.

can do it on strong grounds.

GH: And music and literature that

But if I want to be an optimist about the

nurtures you?

future, I can figure out some grounds for

that too. The movement to do something

BMcK: I listen to a lot of music, but the

about it is global and rising, and it's

stuff I return to the most is probably the

beautiful to watch and it comes with

Great American soul music of the early

them. We also have incredibly talented

1970’s. People like Marvin Gaye, Nina

engineers in this world who figured out

Simone, for some reason that's very

how to do things like solar panels and

“church” for me. And as a reader, I'm

windmills that could, if we did them with

hopelessly – sit me down with the box of

vigor, get us at least somewhere we

cereal in the morning and I'm reading the

needed to go.

back of it… I consume vast amounts of

junk information along the way and the

Internet has been a real problem in that

sense, because it's an endless supply of

useless stuff that you don't actually need

to read, but you could, so you might as

iki CommonsW

well. And I have to say we could not have

done the organizing that we've done

[without] the Internet.

We couldn't have built 350.org without it.

edit: Hotshot977

There's no possible way. And yet, I find it

in certain ways has wrecked my peace of

mind. I’ve spent – we all may have spent

Photo Cr

half our life on a task answering email

that didn't exist for the first fifteen or

twenty years of my career and it feels like

it must have been such an incredibly

luxurious stretch of time to not have that.

But on the other hand we wouldn’t have

the movement we have without it.

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ISSUE TWO

26

But I think the real answer is that I don't

spend any time anymore trying to figure

out the answer to this question. The job

seems to be just to get up in the morning

and figure out what one can do with

maximum effect that day to change the

odds a little bit. Even if one only changes

the odds a tiny bit in the course of one's

life—the thing that we're gambling over—

the stakes are so high that a small change

in the odds is a useful life's work.

GH: People want to know what they can

do, and knowing that this group of people

will never again be assembled in this

combination, what's one thing you'd like

to leave us with?

BMcK: I've become convinced that at least

with this particular great crisis, the only

useful answer is people coming together

to form a movement big enough to

counterbalance. So, movements require us

to be citizens. Most of the work of

movements goes on weekends and after

hours. And yet it's the highest work and

the one that we've most abandoned in a

lot of ways. You can see that

abandonment right now in my country,

the incredibly sad spectacle of some

significant percentage of people lining up

to vote for Donald Trump, which is just

another way of just saying forget it, this is

too hard, let somebody else deal with it.

And on the other hand, there was the

great pleasure this year of watching lots of

people, young people especially, line up

behind Bernie Sanders who had the most

beautiful political slogan of the modern

age. His slogan was “Not Me, Us” which

strikes me as the most useful kind of

mantra that were I able to deal with

mantras and meditation might be one that

I chose.

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27

IV.

This forest path became a lane,

that bent and turned and turned

again;

This crooked lane became a road,

Where many a poor horse with

his load

Toiled on beneath the burning

sun,

And traveled some three miles in

one.

And thus a century and a half

They trod the footsteps of that

calf.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

28

VISION

MONA HAYDAR

I was recently invited to perform my poetry at Bard

I paused for a moment before responding.

College. It was only a few days after the election,

Sometimes, standing at the mic can leave me

and many students there were feeling depressed

feeling like I have to be on all the time, but I’ve

about the state of the world. Their sad, even fearful

learned after thirteen years of being on stage that a

energy was palpable. I recited my poems from

big part of being truly myself there is that I can take

memory and shared anecdotes from my life.

the time I need to allow what needs to come

Laughter. Tears. And in the room, real alchemy

through. I don’t need to force anything. And the

began. The poems and stories became a vortex

authentically true and honest thing that needs to

through which we channeled our fears, anxieties,

emerge for that interaction, for that moment,

and frustration. We felt our hearts rising. We

always does.

witnessed our connectedness. We felt our minds let

go of some fear. We started to relax. It was a deeply

So I was silent for maybe half a minute. I thought

connective and restorative gathering. The audience

about what brought me to the place where I find

reception was sublimely generous. One young man

myself now in my spiritual discipline. I realized in

especially stood out to me because he was

a very non-abstract way that I owe all my insights

particularly engaged. Audience engagement is a

to my elders, at whose feet I am committed to

central part of my performances and he and I went

sitting. People of vision, people who are weathered

back and forth many times over the course of those

by life, with spirits full like storehouses preparing

seventy minutes. A few themes circled repeatedly

for winter. They are people full of vision ready to

as I shared my poems and invited reflections on

transmit all the goodness they have. The answer I

them. They were wildly juicy and delicious. We

would give the young man came to me: it had to do

spoke of our complete interconnectedness; of

with the difference between visions and ideas and

confident humility, of balancing our feminine and

sitting in intentionally intergenerational circles. So

masculine energies to heal the world, and of the

many in my generation and those which follow

task of visioning the kind of world we want, and

have little to no contact with true elders. I shared

the place we each have in building it. The young

this with the audience, with that young man. It’s

man asked, very sweetly and innocently, “How can

not an easy answer to give or receive but I believe it

I do this in my life? How do I tap into these more

was the right one. It feels important to call on the

esoteric and metaphysical things you’re talking

youth to sit at the feet of elders.

about? Practically, I mean.”

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

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And it feels equally important to call upon elders

whom we respect, at whose feet we sit to soak up

to invite and welcome the youth into their space.

some of their light, sometimes simply by being in

Wisdom belongs to all of us but if we don’t take the

their presence.

transmission of vision seriously, in a few

generations how will we know where to find it? It

We are a society obsessed with great ideas and

doesn’t matter what tradition true elders sit in,

inventions and yet we tend to have little vision.

either. A true elder holds the wisdom of the

Visioning is a process rather than a moment. It is

universe in their heart. How many saints from

the entirety of a journey which may or may not

across the traditions taught of visions which

lead to a sudden moment of inspiration. Visioning

seemed to flow from the same sources? They were

is the depth and breadth of understanding, the way

all tributaries of the same river. In a very real sense,

a tree’s roots reach far down and out into the core

if you read Thomas Merton, you’ve read Rumi. If

of the Earth of knowing: into something which is

you’ve read St. Francis, you’ve read Hildegard. If

ever-present, ancient, and primordial. We are told

you’ve read Hafiz, you’ve read the Buddha. This

so often to think outside the box, and while this

isn’t to conflate all their teachings and to say that

may bring us some innovative ideas, true visioning

they didn’t each come with very special messages,

means reaching into the wisdom of our hearts.

nor that we can do without reading any of them.

There, we can find what we just simply know, and

But it is to say that essentially, at the most basic

trust that knowing instead of casting it aside as

level, they were magnetized by a deep abiding love

unscientific, unquantifiable, or even ineffable.

for that which is ineffable and beyond. They

Visioning leads us to trust the part that thinks

poured out what came from a place of unity, rather

outside the box because we know that the box

than uniformity.

doesn’t actually exist!

A friend recently told me a story of when she was

stuck in a corporate job that she hated. She knew

she wasn’t fulfilling her purpose here on Earth, but

it paid the bills. She had come to believe that in

order to be grateful, she needed to keep doing

what she was doing. On an otherwise ordinary day

“A true elder holds

at work, an internationally renowned guest arrived

who was working on a campaign with her

the wisdom of the

employer. She had been assigned as a liaison of

sorts to this person and they got to talking. He told

her after just a few minutes of conversation that

universe in their

she didn’t belong in that job, that she had great

things waiting for her in the world, that she needed

heart.”

to leave her position and pursue her true purpose.

He told her that when she was serious about

pursuing her dreams, he would help her, but first

she needed to be brave and decide to do it. It didn’t

take much time after that meeting for her to finally

make the decision to leave. She’s now actively

pursuing her dreams. She made a major life

decision because a visionary helped her see

possibility. These visionaries walk among us and

incite us to be our best selves. Sometimes they are

our children who encourage us to activate our long

dormant imaginations—which may be lead us to

the truest vision of all. Sometimes they are elders

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

30

True visioning builds and grows the world into a

Muhammad lived a life of vision, receiving

more beautiful version of itself. Vision is doing

revelation at a mountaintop where it is said that

away with foundational dysfunction instead of

boulders, rocks, and stones could be heard greeting

creating or producing something which simply

him. Animals came to him to complain of the

slows, stagnates, or bandaids the problem: curing

injustice and oppression their masters inflicted on

the disease instead of treating the symptoms.

them. In waking visions he saw the future and his

Vision is seeing the world beyond its maladies and

community was not shocked when they came to

loving it so deeply that its

fruition. This is how true

best manifests itself for

elders and sages lived

you through time and

and continue to live, with

space. Vision is seeing the

the depth and breadth of

world for its potential for

. Public Domain

vision. Not problem-

goodness and love instead

solving or critical

of profit. Vision is about

thinking, but vision. We

community and not the

are still so capable of this.

Divine Comedy

individual, and it comes

s

We are still capable of

with intrepid wisdom that

t h e s e

m y t h i c a l

is passed down in

interactions with the

families, communities,

world around us if we

and lineages. It is reported

open ourselves to our

that Einstein was said to

potential as people of

have visions rather than

vision. As people of

ideas. He saw entire

vision, we can see the

formulas and their

world as an extension of

expositions at once. He

ourselves and ourselves

didn’t just see one piece

as an extension of it. We

and then work on them

Gustave Dore's image of the beatific vision, Dante’

are never separate. In

from there. Visioning is

vision we see the total

non-linear in the way that

interconnectedness of

ideas are bound to time and space. Western society

everything, the complex, tactile, textured, layered

is obsessed with liminal and linear space; we seem

sweetness that is compacted when the realization

to have accepted that we exist in some sort of

strikes, “Ah, I am the medicine I need. I am the

mathematical and scientific equation. I think

beloved I desire.” And beyond, perhaps as far as, “I

therefore I am? I would like to offer to you, my

am the remedy to all the world’s woes.” I know it

beloveds, that my community is and therefore I am.

sounds like this might put too much weight on us

My grandmother Earth is and therefore I am. My

as individuals, but I have found that when we live

elders are therefore I am.

as the medicine, beloved, as the remedy—we

attract others living this way, and they become our

We are a society so wrapped up in our great ideas,

community. Then together we can be a healing

our latest and most efficient technology, and yet we

balm soothing to any weight we might feel

come to be more and more insular and separate

carrying this burden of healing the world. This, my

from one another. Our inventions make it so that

friends, is so much sweeter than dwelling in the

we believe we are beyond the need for physical

alternative of depression, powerlessness, and

community, community which grounds us and

complaint. I choose community. I choose vision. I

gives us purpose and meaning. The prophet

choose this love.

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ISSUE TWO

31

Friends-

As the sun was setting yesterday I came across this anchor

and pier up in St.Mary's County, Maryland…the juxtaposition

of the two seems powerful to me.

-Michael Citrini, Friend of The Porch

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

32

I W A N T T O K N O W

W H A T L O V E I S

steve daugherty

It was the third and final evening at our

bandying about at the Grand Ole Opry as to how

international sales conference in Nashville. The

we intended to become richer than our physicians

main session speakers gave rags-to-riches homilies,

when we got back to our homes were the superstar

shouting at us, whipping us up into a foam for the

magicians and stand-up comics they’d already

company and its wares. The daily electives helped

hired.

us sharpen our skills, increase our motivation and

fealty, and become an unstoppable global force who

The final evening we gathered at our hundreds of

dominated the market one defenseless customer at

round tables, having saved our best finery for this

a time. We, from dozens of countries the globe over,

moment. We shoveled Chicken Cordon Bleu into

ate like kings for those three days.

our faces as the conference host

I learned how to say “profit” in

told us for the last time how

You can say what you

Afrikaans. I got a Russian girl’s

amazing we were, and how much

phone number.

want

more amazing we would become

but you don't know what

if for the next few years we’d

And now there would be this one

work seven days a week. Like

you want

last main session before we

truly happy people do.

I'll say what you want…

would each be released into the

world, like a direct-sales Kraken.

“You all have done so well,”

– Cold Slope, Wilco

intoned our host. “The world

We’d been promised something

better watch out, because this

more than just a closing plenary. They’d said it

room is full of the kind of success others can only

would be more of a closing show. A finale.

imagine.” We whooped and clapped with our

Something unforgettable. If you’ll dig in, engage,

mouths full. “And now, as promised, our surprise

absorb to the very end, they kept saying, you’ll be

entertainment for the week.” We looked at one

rewarded with an act guaranteed to delight.

another, already planning to head back to the hotel

rooms and get a last bender in. The lighting

We could only speculate. And we did so cynically.

ducked. “Ladies and gentlemen, introducing

After all, we were a roomful of door-to-door

international recording artists: Foreigner!”

vacuum cleaner salespeople at our annual world

conference. What closing act could possible cap that

We stopped chewing and stared. There were gasps.

spirit? We assumed it would be some discount

Foreigner? The Band? Like blaring-from-your-Iroc-Z-

Vegas act. Maybe something less. Surely we,

in-1985 Foreigner?

thousands of door-knocking dirt-sucker hustlers

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The first few chords of “Feels Like the First Time”

And you may find yourself

began blaring. Pandemonium ensued. Men and

Behind the wheel of a large automobile

women in suits and dresses they only pretended to

afford rushed the stage, throwing elbows, hurdling

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house

chairs, hip-checking tables. A wave of repressed

With a beautiful wife

rock zealots surged toward the band like a mullet

And you may ask yourself, well

tsunami. And riding this wave’s crest was myself,

How did I get here?

until my elbows were planted into the stage’s edge.

…MY GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE?1

A man in a tuxedo jumped onto the platform and

then dove back into the crowd.

Cheering for a band I did not like at a conference I

did not enjoy about a product I didn't care for as

A woman in stiletto heals tried to hug Lou Gramm

part of a career I didn't want. These were not my

and was tackled by security.

dreams. Who the hell drew this map?

Panties struck the saxophone player’s face during

It would be years before I quit that company

his fingerless-glove solo.

because it was all too easy to slide back into what

my organization and my trajectory wanted for me.

The band’s demeanor transformed from an initial

Income and awards, and lavish vacations

sullenness, which they apparently felt for being a

indefinitely delayed until such time as there was

post-glory rock act reduced to closing out a

more2 income and awards. Leo DiCaprio warned

corporate gig, to wide-eyed elation as they realized

us that waking up from others’ dreams is tricky. It’s

multiple arrests were taking place before they’d

hard to quit when the thing you are quitting is

even gotten to “Dirty White Boy.”

believed to be your very identity.

And there I was, my sternum bruising on the

stage’s rim, vaguely familiar with a few of the

****

songs’ melodies, caught up in the energy and

smiling like an idiot while executives crowd-surfed

René Girard spent his life teaching us that our

behind me.

desires are mimetic. That is, we are unknowingly

assigned our desires, wanting not so much an

And then a strange thing occurred to me.

object, but miming the wanting of others. Like a

child who must have the toy his classmate has set

I don’t like this music.

his sights on, not simply because of the intrinsic

value of the toy, but because his classmate has

I don’t like Foreigner at all.

made it clear just what a kid’s wanting should look

like. “Humankind is that creature who lost a part

I can’t even stand the genre.

of its animal instinct in order to gain access to

‘desire,’ as it is called. Once their natural needs are

The epiphanies compounded; I didn’t give two

satisfied, humans desire intensely, but they don't

shits about selling sweepers at a higher volume

know exactly what they desire, for no instinct

than I had to that point. And I certainly didn’t care

guides them. We do not each have our own desire,

about becoming anyone’s definition of rich. How I

one that is really our own. The essence of desire is

had Talking Heads lyrics in mind while four feet

to have no essential goal. Truly to desire, we must

from Foreigner’s speaker array is a mystery, but

have recourse to people about us; we have to

there they were all the same:

borrow their desires.”3

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ISSUE TWO

34

of our dreams as we have our enemies. The two are

connected after all; are there any worse villains

than those who might get to what you want before

you do? What if you don’t hate who you think you

do. What if instead you only hate who you think

you are supposed to? And if you’re only supposed

to, perhaps you can instead do what you want, and

love them. It’s worth reconsidering.

Our culture seems newly jarred by folks daring to

question the maps. How dare I put words like

meaning, rights, success, career, identity, belief, art,

life, etc., back on the table for evaluation? How

dare I question our anthems and reject the family

business and be content to dance and paint and

live unrecorded lives? Indeed, people are

questioning everything they’ve been told to dream.

But if I won’t face that my desires have been

obscured so systematically by the dreams and

desires of others, if I won’t divest myself of these

From earliest childhood we hunger not simply for

oversized suits of armor given for fights not my

that which we don’t have, but for being like others.

own, then how else can I embrace another? How

As Girard clarifies, "all desire is a desire to be.”4 It's

can I love and serve those I’m trying to beat to an

a scary, difficult thing to reassess your dreams. To

pre-assigned finish line? How can I speak about

reorient their locus. These questions can dismantle

my path, my journey, my life, with any integrity, if

your very name and separate you from those

I won’t allow another lyric to creep in and remind

whose dreams create and validate your own. Yet

me that I’m not necessarily what I’ve been trained

there’s a kind of liberation in understanding that

and incentivized to pretend? And if I’ll dare to sing

not fulfilling your destiny is not so much an issue

that song, underneath the noise preassigned to me,

of not trying, maybe, but one of having misplaced

then I’m free.

your birthright. What if what you’ve come to

assume is laziness or procrastination is actually

your heart waiting for you to chase something

you’re truly attracted to? Something you’re made

for. Unnerving as these questions are, when we

wake up to find a blaring radio was the shape of

our night’s dreams, we turn it off and start our

own day.

If we can experience liberation— in any measure—

_________________________________________________

1 Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads

from others’ desires masquerading as our own,

2 Perhaps the most troublesome abstraction we live by.

perhaps we can be freed from others’ worries and

3 René Girard, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning.

strictures as well. Perhaps we can find we’ve been

4 When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel

recruited into others’ anxieties, prejudices,

Treguer by René Girard

and narrowness without ever having genuinely

asked ourselves why. Perhaps we can wake up and

be what we are, if only incrementally so, while

simultaneously allowing others to be what they are.

Because chances are we’ve been assigned as many

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

35

PATTI

SMITH

DREAMS

IN

BLACK

AND

WHITE

By Cathleen Falsani

The last thing I packed in my aged Subaru before driving from Southern California to Phoenix,

Arizona, on the morning of November 9, 2016 was my Polaroid 210 Land Camera. I carried it in its

original, inelegant gray case with the too-short brown plastic strap.

The 1967 camera, which I bought last year on eBay for $13, is one of my prized possessions. It

reminds me of Patti Smith, the punk poet-iconoclast, who has made ethereal, often haunting images with a similar model for much of her life.

And Patti Smith reminds me to be brave, curious, true, and present; to pay attention, linger, and not give a shit about anyone else’s expectations, fears, or projections about who, how, or what I should be. She reminds me to wander and dream the way we used to when we were children when dreams

were everything, in and of themselves, and not a means to an end, or an ersatz roadmap for the

future.

Film for the Land Camera is both hard to find and expensive. New packs of color film run about $2

per shot. Black-and-white, which I prefer, can be three times as much and as precious. Both film and camera are temperamental, imprecise, and terribly susceptible to human error (if such a judgment

can be applied to the creative process or, say, magic).

THE PORCH !

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Twenty-five years ago in college, when my

afternoon. Gone are the days when I had to be

photography professor said there are no

much more precise about what, when, and how I

"mistakes" when you take a picture, I believed

shot on physical film for fear of running out of

him.. Occasionally he’d give us an assignment to

frames. Now tens of thousands of my

shoot something without looking through the

photographs exist in a cloud somewhere, not even

viewfinder of our camera. Our eyes see one thing

occupying digital space on my camera or phone.

but our subconscious mind (and vision) see

something else and sometimes, perhaps even

That’s what makes shooting with my Land

more often than not, the so-called mistakes are

Camera special. I have ten shots. And that’s if all

more interesting than the images we’d intended or

of them develop properly. From time to time I

planned to capture.

purchase old, expired, unopened packs of Fujifilm

3000-b from eBay for maybe $1 or 50¢ a shot.

No matter which apparatus I’m shooting with, I

Sometimes the film still works, sometimes not. But

love photography. Always have. I recently found

I don’t know until I’ve clicked the shutter, pulled

what is, probably, the first photo I ever took—an

the film from the camera, and waited twenty-five

image of my father at a zoo in 1974, captured with

seconds, forty-five seconds, maybe more if it’s

his Brownie camera when I was three years-old.

cold; carefully peeled the photo away from the

I studied photography a bit in college, but never

paper film that makes the developer adhere to it,

thought of pursuing it as a career, meaning a path,

and expose the wet image to the light and air. It’s

a trajectory that led to a specific goal. It was more

the same thrill of mystery and anticipation I

of a dream or amateur’s passion—a footnote to

would get as a child when my dad would let me

the main story of my life. Or so I believed for far

buy a “grab bag” for a quarter at the country store

too long.

in his home town in rural New Hampshire. I

never knew what would be inside. I just knew

Since smartphones made digital cameras

there would be something marvelous, even if I

ubiquitous a decade ago, I’ve made pictures every

didn’t like everything I got.

day—sometimes thousands of images in an

THE PORCH !

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37

Making photos with my half-century-old Patti

of teenage boys by the ballroom doors. Native

Smith machine is a crap shoot. Every time. You

American brothers, I presumed, from their

can’t really focus a 1967 Land Camera. At least

features, as well as the long raven hair and

not with any modicum of precision. Even

turquoise bolo tie wore by the older of the two.

figuring out what will wind up framed within

They were great looking, and I thought they’d

the white borders of the “instant” photo is

make a beautiful picture if they were game to

largely impossible until it’s a fait accompli. All of

have their portrait taken.

this makes the clunky, gray plastic camera with

its black bellows and creaking viewfinder a

Turns out there were three brothers. They’d

delicious adventure every time I take it out and

come with their mother, a Hillary Clinton

try to make pictures.

As I was packing for the last-minute trip to

Phoenix to help get out the vote in a contested

area on election day, I saw the camera sitting

on a bookshelf in my bedroom. It’d been a

while since I shot with it. Could be a historic

night, I thought. Perfect time to take her for a spin.

I had one pack of black-and-white film that had

expired when Barack Obama was still a U.S.

senator. I loaded the film, dusted off the lens,

put the camera back in its case with a chamois,

and carried it to the car with a large Thermos

full of coffee before hitting the road at 6 a.m.

for the six-hour drive southeast.

I left the camera in the car while I helped

canvass an enclave in the Encanto Village

neighborhood of Phoenix. But I brought it with

me to the “Democratic Victory Party” at the

supporter. And they were Navajo. I took five

Renaissance Hotel downtown after the polls

shots. Three developed. Two were clear enough

closed. The second-floor ballroom was packed

to see their faces. None of the shots included all

with loads of interesting-looking people

four members of the family and I never did get

clutching overpriced beer and wine. Television,

a clear image of the middle brother—the one

radio, and print journalists lined the walls and

with the long hair and the bolo tie—even

wandered the room, stopping a few

though he’s the one I thought would be most

interesting-looking people here and there for

photogenic.

brief interviews. I used to be one of them—a

I told them I’d catch up with them later in the

journalist, that is—and some days I suppose I

still am, even though newspapers have

evening, after the election results were in, to

withered away, taking jobs and careers with

see how they felt about the first woman

them. I’ve covered many election nights and

president. We shook hands and smiled and

old habits die hard.

went our separate ways.

I never saw them again.

After making several laps of the room, I pulled

the Land Camera from its case, expanded the

Hillary lost. And I drove back to California the

bellows, wiped the lens again, and fielded a

next morning with five shots left on the pack of

few questions about what it was, how old it is,

film in my camera, saving them for a moment

and whether it still works. I’d noticed a couple

when the light is better.

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38

Lost and Found. MIKE RIDDELL

"It was a difficult week. It d e c e n c y, r e s p e c t ,

started with the U.S. kindness, or tolerance.

election. Then Leonard But I suspect it’s properly

Cohen went and died on called justice. During my

us. Finally I visited a dear days of childhood

friend who is dying of innocence, the idea didn’t

cancer.

exist — apart from a

selfish desire to make

There’s a broken shard of sure I got my fair share of

a lyric from Joni Mitchell what was available.

that is uncomfortably

lodged somewhere in my At the age of five, it

intestines:

expressed itself as outrage

when my handmade

Don’t it always seem to trolley was confiscated by

go, that you don’t know teachers. When I was

what you’ve got till it’s twenty, it seemed

gone

somehow unfair that I

found myself serving

The sharp edges of it time in a Moroccan prison

irritate my soft tissue, on drug charges. By the

causing me pain of a sort time I’d made thirty-five,

that’s not quickly I was beginning to

silenced.

experience compassion —

feeling the pain of others

And these days I’m who suffered through no

feeling it all the more. A fault of their own.

sense of loss; a feeling

that something sacred is It took a long time for an

draining from our anger at injustice to rise in

community. On my better my soul, despite the fact

days, I convince myself that I’d been an activist

that it’s not lost at all, just for many years before.

hidden. Sometimes Anger is a raw force with

precious things get many faces — it is more

covered over, and can be often destructive than

revealed by taking the constructive. I imagine I

time to find and restore was in my mid-forties

them.

before I started to

understand that the best

I’m not even entirely sure part of my anger was

how to name what I’m generated by a sense of

grieving. It might be loss.

THE PORCH !

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39

In general terms, I think it

Those around me could

wonder of existence. When

e v o l v e d i n t o a n

survive, though it was

we discover ourselves, when

approximation of what

survival at a cost.

we honor our environment,

Walter Brueggemann calls

when we treasure the

“the prophetic imagination.”

I also learned that brokenness

wonderful variety of people

By this I understand him to

may engender acceptance

and creatures who

mean that you can measure

rather than a quest for

accompany us on our

the present against a vision of

revenge. When visiting my

journey, then it as natural as

what the future might hold

family, my temptation to rage

breathing to work together

— what indeed humanity is

about this injustice dissolved

for good.

capable of and is called

in an unexpectedly gentle

toward. This creates a hugely

sorrow, which encompassed

The sense of loss, of being

generative gap, a chasm of

all of us, including the

misheard and neglected, of

despair and longing.

perpetrator of the rape.

being shut out — that grief

Believe me when I tell you

may awaken us to a resolute

The dream of something

this was no wishy-washy

hope, should we choose to

better was a long time

dismissal of the tragedy, but

allow it to. I suspect a little

coming, but once it lodged in

rather an owning of it.

unplugging is vital to such a

my heart it was inescapable.

transformation. We need to

It became the catalyst for

Sometimes it takes great loss

disconnect from the false

dreaming of something more.

to awaken great desire. I find

dreams of fame, wealth,

I dreamed of something

myself now hungering after

dominance, and prestige,

deeper and richer, not for

the goodness in people;

before we become capable of

myself, but for all of us

prospecting for kindness. The

recognizing the larger dream

bound together by our

environment of the West

of justice.

humanity. The sneaking

poisons us all. We are the

suspicion grew: We are better

product of a social and

A porch is a good place to sit

than all this.

economic experiment called

and swap a few stories as we

monetarism — one that easily

ponder a way forward. We

I discovered the positive face

turns us into competitive

have as much time as we

of grief. There is pain in

rats, biting each other for the

need to be human, and

comparing what is against

sake of winning some

sharing songs and laughter is

what might have been. That

reward.

as good a means to

hurt can either drive us into

uncovering what’s lost as any

our shells, or motivate us to

This week I've been to see the

number of lectures or

enlarge our horizons. To be

darkly beautiful Ken Loach

appointments. When an

personal for a moment —

film I, Daniel Blake. It has

archaeologist discovers a

and we are sharing this

reminded me what has been

precious relic, she takes time

conversation on a porch after

lost in recent decades. Mostly

to brush away the soil so that

all — the rape of a close

it seems to be the simple

it might be recovered intact.

family member brought me

human compassion that

to dissolution.

comes from pausing long

These days I find myself to be

enough to understand

something of a trash collector

Certainly there was

ourselves, and to recognize

— looking for that which is

something precious lost in

the wonder of others. If we

broken or discarded, and

that, something unfixable. I

have anger, let us turn it

trying to see what it was part

faced a choice between

against the structures that

of and if it might be restored.

bitterness and acceptance. In

diminish our potential to find

A lot that is precious can be

the words of Robert Frost, “I

community.

casually forgotten, and only

took the road less travelled

later recognized as vital to an

by.” By breathing my way

It may be that the grand

honest life.

through the moments, I

dream of justice is as simple

discovered I could survive.

as having respect for the

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40

V.

The years passed on in swiftness

fleet,

The road became a village street;

And this, before men were aware,

A city’s crowded thoroughfare.

And soon the central street was

this

Of a renowned metropolis;

And men two centuries and a

half,

Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

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41

Calling All Artists, and All of us Artists

MICHELLE LEBARON

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

–WB Yeats

It’s here they got the range

And the machinery for change

And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst.

–Leonard Cohen

Something mythic is happening in the world. We are in the midst of an archetypal changing of the gods moment, when apparent “givens” dissolve. Changing of the gods

moments happen rarely, but when they do, shifts can be rapid. These are moments when

the heroes and the heroines change along with the guiding stars and the constellations of

key ideas guiding a society or a people. In such times, we may find ourselves off-center,

our unrealized dreams tugging at our sleeves with forlorn longing or frantic urgency.

Momentum that we thought was reliable begins to flag. At such times, it is vitally important that the center hold, that the poetry of possibility not yield to the fixed hold of

fear.

In times when the very music of being changes, there is openness and possibility. We

literally look again at fundamental questions: who we are, where we come from (a question that is always answered in the present, through current lenses) and where we are

going (also a question answered in the present, for the future is always beyond our grasp).

Which gods will we choose? Will we fasten our hopes onto a god of generosity, a being

spacious, welcoming, and loving? Or will we choose retrenchment, looking backwards to

gods of old, vengeful, partisan, and anger-filled? Listening to the rhetoric in the post-

election United States, this stark choice has been posed again and again.

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42

How Loki Wrought Mischief in Asgard, Willy Pogany, 1920 Public Domain

But what if the way the choices themselves are

trickster figure Coyote taught native peoples in

framed is part of the problem? As I have addressed

North America how to catch salmon, sing and

lawyers, judges, psychotherapists, dialogue

shoot arrows, and the trickster Hermes taught

practitioners, and mediators in conferences and

people to make fire.

community gatherings over the past three decades,

conversation often turned to bemoaning the

One particularly endearing attribute of trickster is

increasing myopia of the political right. The

his irreverence. He does not take himself too

unacknowledged subtext was clear: we have clearer

seriously. She does not spend time gazing in the

sight. “Our” people hold the best values.

mirror at her flawless countenance. For she and he

Sometimes, I asked audiences how many people

are flawed as we all are, and it is through those

from the other side of the political spectrum they

cracks – to invoke the irreplaceable Leonard Cohen

engage in daily life. Often, the question was met

– that the light gets in. Lewis Hyde’s wonderful

with silence. At these times, I wanted to channel the

exploration of tricksters across cultures helps us see

trickster, to pose practical questions about the

that “[t]he old myths say that the trickster made the

logical consequences of their stance from a bird’s

world as we actually find it. Other gods set out to

eye view. But instead I followed the rules, walking

create a world more perfect and ideal,

away from the podium discouraged.

but this world––with its complexity and ambiguity,

its beauty and its dirt––was trickster's creation, and

Consider the trickster figure in mythologies of

the work is not yet finished.”

many world cultures. Trickster bridges heaven and

earth, practical yet aware of the larger reality.

Given our unfinished state, what is needed now is

Symbolizing the playful and disruptive side of

not a vengeful God who will come down and strike

human imagination, trickster is more at home in the

misguided voters or politicos with lightning. Nor

shadows, on the borders and in the in-between

simply the more perfect God in her crystalline

places neither light nor dark. Trickster has huge

aspects of abundance, generosity, and caring.

appetites that lead to slipping between the rules,

Perhaps the polarization in the post-election U.S.

even lying or stealing. Yet trickster is an

and post-Brexit UK is opening a new channel for

indispensable hero, ingenious inventor, and

the light to come in, a light that more consciously

brilliant problem-solver. Trickster does not accept

includes shadow. For if shadow is excluded, it takes

limitations, but finds ways around them. Thus, the

on even more potent form.

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The most virulent, hate-infused conflicts I have

remind us in narrative form what it means to be

encountered as a mediator over the past thirty

human. They give us meaning and provide a

years have been in religious congregations, not

grammar of being that guides us, often outside

secular settings. In religious groups, shadow is

conscious awareness.

often denied as people come together with an eye

fixed on virtue. Yet shadow exists. Wherever we

If this is a changing of the gods moment when the

humans live, there is hubris, greed, jealousy,

core myths that guide us are up for re-examination,

unkindness, even hatred. And when those shadow

let us turn to Karen Armstrong’s understanding of

qualities are denied or unintegrated, they become

myth as an art form that helps us inscribe meaning

more barbed and potently dangerous.

on our world, inoculating against despair arising in

relation to its (and our) imperfections. We urgently

This is not to argue for a relativist world where

need the leadership of artists to help us see clearly

uncivil, hateful discourses are loosed without filters

through this period of tightening and narrowing.

or protest. A lot of what was said during the

We need artists’ familiarity with paradox, irony,

interminable U.S. election campaign constituted –

complexity; with both the limitations and sublime

in my book – deplorable hate speech. It is to

creativity of the physical body. We need trickster art

observe that the chasm between those who either

that transgresses, posing questions otherwise

have or believe they have agency, voice, and

unheard and unsettling our ideas of how the world

economic mobility and those who don’t, or believe

works.

they don’t. In the U.S., Britain and elsewhere the

chasm seems to be growing, and this is an urgent

It is not scholarly cleverness that is needed now, but

problem. The two votes underlined what happens

the courage to question “common sense”; to

when large groups feel disenfranchised and

uncover ways to engage each other across the

unheard. In the media fog that paints events red or

chasms that gape starkly in our midst. We need to

blue, truth is a casualty. Not truth in a pure sense,

make new myths about who we are, and invent

but the truth of the messy, paradoxical, complicated

processes to share them. Artists have always done

world in which socioeconomic class has become an

this, across societies and empires.

increasingly stark divider, race remains an

unsalved trauma, and the clarion of sacrifice is used

Examples of artists’ pivotal contributions are many,

to bind those who were dealt the worst hand. The

as artists are often activists on the vanguard of

hubris of progressives made us blind to this,

social change. Members of Yuyachkani in Peru

stoking the fires of the over-confident

(whose name, in Quechuan, means “I am thinking/

commentators who predicted sure victories for

I am remembering”) courageously performed work

Clinton or the U.K. Campaign to remain in the

about the civil war in Quechuan communities

European Union.

before members gave testimony to the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission there. Dijana Milošević,

The loud voices of pollsters, analysts, and pundits

director of DAH Theatre in Belgrade, relates how

in the lead-up to both votes were subdued in the

multiple works were created during and after the

face of their undeniable errors. Their errors were

Yugoslav war based on the belief that “we cannot

due, in part, to their blindness to the mythic, and to

move forward until we face what happened in our

the embodied, sensed and lived realities of large

name.” The tradition of artists transgressing

numbers of people.

borders and challenging prevailing politics extends

from Ai WeiWei’s quest for openness in China

Why is it important to be aware of the mythic

through David Alfaro Siqueiros’ Mexico City

dimension of our lives? Because myths, though

murals nearly a century earlier that inspired a

they are sometimes mischaracterized as untrue

generation of Mexican workers to mobilize, and far

stories, are actually part of the “glue” that holds

beyond them back through history.

humans together. Karen Armstrong writes that

myths are “universal and timeless stories”…that

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44

In the unsettling process of birthing a greater

sanctuary from which something new and more

consciousness, old identities, forms and myths are

healthy can be born?

dying, even as those to guide us forward have not

been fully developed. Our work, with which artists

Artists and theologians have always walked this

are intimately familiar, is to do two things: stay

terrain. Macbeth provocatively proposed that “life

connected to our centers without grasping for old

is nothing more than a ‘tale told by an idiot,' a

identities or complacent self-righteousness, and to

purposeless emergence of life-forms including the

continually engage a broad spectrum of others,

clever, greedy, selfish, and unfortunate species that

especially those with whom we disagree. The way

we call homo sapiens.” Counterpoint this with the

forward is to have the most audacious, ambitious,

words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who wrote

and inclusive dialogues we can imagine in multiple

“There is something afoot in the universe,

forums to explore who we as humans can be now.

something that looks like gestation and birth.” I

choose the latter vision as my center, yet I know I

To do so, we need theatre, dance, music, and visual

must include Macbeth in midwifing it into form.

art that provokes and challenges us. In the past ten

years, I have worked with a wide range of artists

This is not only a decision born of conviction; it is a

who know ways to bring shadow and light—within

choice born of my pain when I’ve realized how

us and in communities—into dialogue. The

aspects of my shadow have kept me from the

Canadian dancer Margie Gillis encouraged a

wholeness I desire. Arts practices have helped me

gathering of experts on religious conflicts to set

see how, at times, cleverness has kept me insulated

aside our ideas about religion and our theories

from intimacy and selfishness has masqueraded as

about how to engage religious differences, focusing

healthy self-regard. This is why my work is now

instead on the health of our organisms, collective

solely devoted to integrating the arts in conflict

and personal. She showed us ways to train

engagement: they are the most nuanced mirror I

ourselves through physical movement and

know. Without them, I am not sure how we can

interaction, learning how to move the boundaries

truly do the work of holding both our individual

within and between us. For example, we worked in

and collective centers.

pairs to explore what movement a subtle tap or

light brushing gesture might inspire in our partner.

Doing this made us much more aware of our effects

—moment by moment—on others. We also used

movement to work with strong emotions arising in

interaction, learning how fear can calm as we

engage with a stance that initially scared us in

another. As we did this work, we discovered more

openness, curiosity, and confidence in our safety –

physical and psychological – when we ventured

out of our comfort zones.

Can we preserve our health, individually and

collectively, by dancing together? By creating

theatre together in the tradition of Augusto Boal?

By resisting easy characterizations of right and

wrong, progressive and regressive, instead creating

__________________________________________________

murals that depict the collisions and uncertainties

1 W. B. Yeats. The Second Coming

that accompany and confound our attempts to

2 Leonard Cohen Democracy

build resilient communities? In Margie’s words,

3 http://www.lewishyde.com/publications/trickster

“Can we dance with the monsters (our own and

4 DAH Theatre, a Sourcebook. Dennis Barnett, ed. MD:

others’) until they get tired?” In the space that

Lexington Books, 2016.

5

arises when the monsters are tired, can we find

Jane Goodall, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey. New

York: Warner Books, 1999: xi-xii

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45

#BETTERisComing

A Conversation with Melvin Bray

Melvin Bray approaches finding more

just ways of being in the world with

passion and courage in his new book

BETTER: Waking Up to Who We Could

{ }

Be (Chalice Press, 2017). The Porch

asked him a few questions about the

upcoming release.

The Porch: What do you want us to know about the

world as you see it?

To some degree, MLK and his compatriots shamed

Melvin Bray: Folks are learning the exact wrong

underground the open hostility—what Carol

lessons from the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Anderson describes as "white rage"—directed at

Conservative social, political, and economic abuses

people of color, and by extension, they called into

are only made possible through liberal enabling.

question much of that which was directed toward

White liberalism as a construct seems to have baked

other historically marginalized persons. But that

into it a kind of philosophical hand-wringing,

hostility (not fear, hostility) didn't go anywhere.

apology for wrongdoing, and lack of agency that

Almost immediately, it started working to create

never demands an end to oppression. I'm not

the conditions to strike back and the philosophical

primarily concerned with what people think, feel,

underpinnings to justify it (which even some

or believe. If thinking better helps people do better,

historically marginalized people have bought into).

then by all means, as they say, come let us reason

And political and religious liberals have spent the

together. However, what abusers and enablers DO

last fifty years apologizing for them, anguishing

is my priority. No abuser should be allowed to

over how they must feel, negotiating a nonexistent

continue in their abuse until they agree that what

middle ground between oppression and non-

they are doing is abuse. If they are unwilling or

oppression, allowing their maneuvering to keep

unable to stop of their own accord, then they must

open the option of complete regression, complete

be stopped. Once they stop, then and only then do

repression, at any moment. Then some liberals

they deserve dialogue. And they are welcome to

want to be shocked and appalled when

hold onto their views as long as it suits them.

conservatives finally exploit that option. That's

However, we must put in place mechanisms

what they've been setting up to do all this time! We

(safeguards) that dramatically limit their ability to

never made them STOP; liberals wanted to

enact their views to the detriment of others.

dialogue first (or as they say, "start a conversation"),

Otherwise, they will always come back. The empire

all the while remaining more and more comfortable

always strikes back!

themselves with inequity.

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46

I'm looking for folks to join me in an actual

opposition, any impediment, any small attempt at

progressive—yea, even prophetic—way of being in

equity as oppression. Thus, during the election,

the world. It is never an act of oppression to enforce

many literally celebrated the public denigration of

equity!

female competence. Meanwhile, the story was told

of “white men who felt overlooked,” rather than

What’s most alive in you right now?

broadening the electorate through

As you see, the election is a large part

voter registration and

of what's alive for me—#NotMyFaith

mobilization and be left to have to

“The good news is

#NotMyGod #NotMyPresident

share power, all against the

#BETTERisComing! It means so much

that, if we storied backdrop of a soothing double-

to me, in part, because I work with

dealing lullaby that 'we've always

our way into this

justice organizations trying to figure

been stronger together.' Most

out how to resist the injustice that is—

m e s s , t h e n w e didn't even acknowledge the voter

in the name of God in many cases—

suppression and intimidation

should be able to

building up to roll down on us like a

enacted at every available turn, as

mighty stream. I'm even more

story our way out long as the fallacious mantra

concerned because of the open

of it.”

remained of “protecting the

hostility it directs toward my children.

integrity of the ballot box from

Like Trayvon Martin and countless

voter fraud.” And the vast

others, my children (and their Muslim,

majority quietly came to accept

immigrant, indigenous, and queer friends) cannot

xenophobia, blatant hostility, and outright violence

outrun others' willful misperceptions and

toward historically marginalized persons as

mistreatment of them. At some point they will

tolerable public discourse, in light of media tales of

stand up to their abusers, and that story has

the “legitimate fears of forgotten white voters.” All

seldom, if ever, ended well for those being abused

of these are variations on the same supremacist

in our country.

logic that has to be rewritten.

If the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the good,

What's the BETTER story?

what is your prescription for change?

If what you are asking, “What's the story behind

I've been working on a manifesto for what I'm

BETTER?” I can answer that. I'm a dad, a former

calling The BETTER Movement. What I've got so

literature teacher, and a lifelong lover of good story

far is: Be BETTER! Do more than try to feel better.

who knows first hand its power to create possibility

Think and do better. Actually be the better you

and shape reality. As my children grew, I

want to see in the world; don't just want or wish or

wondered if there was a way to share the stories of

hope or dream. Disrupt and dismantle systems of

faith and possibility with them that have been so

oppression, especially if they privilege you.

meaningful in my own life, without saddling them

Inequity isn't a look. We can be better than that!

with all the baggage—particularly the hostile ways

of being in the world—that their mom and I have

worked so hard to lay down. BETTER is the

culmination of what I've learned from that journey

over the years.

What's not working about the story we're telling?

The most prominent personal, communal, and

national stories tend to be some iteration of “We're

gonna be on top,” a supremacist logic that

enshrines inequity. It's an innately hostile posture

that carries bigotry, strife, and violence in its wake.

"We've got to be on top!” is so deeply embedded in

the western psyche, particularly that of the

dominant culture, that it experiences any

THE PORCH !

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47

Feel free to deconstruct and reconstruct anything that

overflows with practical tools for how both to

falls short of the better you imagine possible. You get

recognize and to tell better stories of faith and

no extra points for being right about everything the

possibility.

first time. If you come up short, compost it! Plow it

under and grow something better. And remember that

Bringing the conversation full circle, if people of

we pass the aspiration for better along through our

moral courage were truly telling more beautiful, more

stories. So tell more beautiful, more just, more virtue-

just, more virtue-filled stories, then islamophobia,

filled stories today. It's simple: better stories, better

misogyny, anti-immigration and anti-blackness would

world.

not have been able to be elected by a clear minority of

the American people. The vast majority of Americans

would have been so excited by the splendor of

It still needs work, but you get the point!

possible, they would have flocked in droves to the

polls on behalf of that vision, as just one small but

BETTER seeks to answer the question: What if the

necessary act in building an equitable world.

world as it persists—with it's racism, sexism,

Communities of goodwill, like those I work with,

heterosexism, ableism, ecological disregard and so on

would be overrun with folks trying to seek the good

—is exactly the world we storied into existence with

of others. And our children and friends would have a

the hostile faith stories we tell? The good news is that,

reason to care about this thing called faith that matters

if we storied our way into this mess, then we should

so much to so many of us. You can't say for with

be able to story our way out of it.

certainty I'm wrong because we've never tried it. So,

for now, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

What are practical steps for us to move forward?

In addition to being chock full of great stories and

better intuitions for showing up in the world, BETTER

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

48

Earthrise, the first photo of Earth as a celestial body, taken by Apollo 8 astronauts. 1968 Nasa/Public Domain daring to dream Peterson Toscano

These are days in which nightmares come easier

the planet and earthlings. To do so requires

than dreams. Many people are struggling to

drawing on my imagination. I must dare to dream.

embrace and pursue their best dreams when

thinking of the future In fact, with the current

So I created a character, a historian researching and

political uncertainty, for some of us, the dreams that

teaching in the year 2166, 150 years from now. His

we dare to dream may seem as if they have been

name is Dr. Timothy Meadows. Instead of giving

put on hold. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to

him a laundry list of all of the failures, abuses, and

envision a dysfunctional and dystopian future.

really stupid steps his dysfunctional and ineffectual

That’s easy, particularly when it comes to issues

ancestors took, I provide him a vibrant past of

like climate change and social justice. The real

climate action, with ancestors who took on the

challenge is to imagine success.

crisis with gusto and enacted real and lasting

solutions. Dr. Timothy’s job then is to highlight the

If we consider what the people of the future might

stunning accomplishments of the climate

have to say about us, we can immediately conjure

generation—you and me today—and to celebrate

up a futuristic host in rags on a burning planet

our successes. I have written fifty monologues for

wagging their fingers at us in condemnation.

this climate historian (you can hear many of them

on my Climate Stew podcast).

But can we imagine another outcome? Can we get

past all of the cynicism, anger, fears, and doubt we

Our brains expect business as usual until we tell

have towards our governments and fellow citizens

them otherwise. The climate crisis, and the

to dream of a different future? And if we do, is it

opportunity for humans to flourish and take

possible that the act of dreaming will not only give

reparative action together, requires us to rewire our

us hope but also help move us to action?

brains. They are already overburdened with the fog

of propaganda and the noise of an over-

For the past four years I have been deep in the

connected world. Rewiring might be just what

world of climate change—a dire, soupy mess of

they need...

fear, blame, shame, future dystopian

catastrophizing, oh, and desperate-eyed polar

So, let's imagine we are in a lecture hall a century

bears. I am optimistic by nature and have recoiled

at the steady stream of gloom and doom. I’m

and a half from now, on the annual day that

learning to force my brain to think differently in

commemorates the climate generation, when the

order to actively consider success in addressing the

eminent climate historian, Dr. Timothy Meadows,

wonky issues of carbon pollution and its effects on

comes to the podium:

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49

Good evening. As a climate historian I look back in time

including a dramatic improvement in health for urban

to consider the amazing people of the climate generation,

dwellers, particularly people of color who had

our great-great grandparents. I have dug into history as

experienced disproportionately high levels of air

early as the 2010’s up through the 2030’s and focused

pollution in their neighborhoods.The Great Transition

my attention on people, institutions, and movements

resulted in a period of innovation and challenges. People

that contributed to the peace and stability we enjoy today

had to live new lives on a new planet. They worked

in the 22nd Century.

together to look after each other during the Great

Transition and during the many extreme weather events

What have I learned about our ancestors and their

that grew in frequency and intensity. Places of worship

responses to global warming?

opened their doors to provide short-term sanctuary

during extreme heat waves and long-term sanctuary to

Initially they were relatively slow to act. In part, the

climate migrants.

emotional shock paralyzed many people into what

became known as CDS, Climate Dismissal Syndrome.

Neighborhoods formed Friendly Collectives where they

worked together to grow food, conserve water, and look

But as we have often seen throughout history, once

after each other during extreme weather events.

humans understand the threats they face, they respond

Engineers and architects used their skills to adapt to the

robustly leading to bold action, inspired innovation,

changing planet, protecting people and land while also

personal and collective sacrifices, and stronger

creating spaces that fostered community.

communities. That is exactly what our ancestors did.

Not only did our ancestors take on the risks that came

To understand this, we first need to put into focus the

with global warming, they relentlessly sought to make

problems they faced. We must remember, the rapid

the world a better place for everyone, not just for some

changes to weather endangered every aspect of their

but with sensitivity to the ways people who had lived on

lives. It affected our ancestor’s food production, water

the margins were more negatively impacted by climate

security, and coastal cities. It magnified existing political

change, including LGBTQ seniors and youth and people

conflicts leading to mass migrations, war, and suffering.

without homes. They also improved policing practices at

And it touched everything including simple pleasures

a time when more and more places regularly declared

like a day in the park, playing in the snow, or

states of emergency where everyday rules did not always

enjoying a cup of coffee.

apply.

The problems loomed so large they nearly crushed our

We can name groups and many individual players. But

ancestors, but they discovered inner resources, and

so many of the efforts were done quietly, out of view, by

together they stood up to myriad challenges. In short,

people who often felt inadequate and overwhelmed. How

they agreed to be responsible and clean up after

can we catalog the relentless willingness to find hope and

themselves. This took on many forms including systemic

pursue solutions? How can we say thank you to the

changes to how they got their energy moving away from

many unsung heroes of the climate generation who faced

pollutants toward healthy energy sources. The Great

an uncertain future and refused to be defeated? Perhaps

Transition came about through citizens who pressured

the greatest way of showing our gratitude is to live our

leaders to change energy policy. The public collectively

lives in full knowledge that the stability and peace we

demanded that polluters must pay a steep fee if they

have in the world today is due to their many efforts long

polluted the skies and oceans. This gave investors the

ago.

incentive to fund renewables resulting in a rapid shift

away from dirty sources of energy to healthy, clean

On this day in the year 2166, we remember those climate

sources. No longer locked into dirty fuel sources, they

action heroes and all they did to safeguard civilization

saw an immediate decrease in respiratory diseases

and all we hold dear.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

50

VI.

Each day a hundred thousand

rout

Followed the zigzag calf about

And o’er his crooked journey

went

The traffic of a continent.

A Hundred thousand men were

led,

By one calf near three centuries

dead.

They followed still his crooked

way,

And lost one hundred years a

day;

For thus such reverence is lent,

To well established precedent.

THE PORCH !

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51

M O V I E S B O O K S M U S I C

WARREN

BEATTY’S

RULES

G A R E T H H I G G I N S

Warren Beatty is one of those actors who truly

He hasn’t written or directed since 1998, declaring

deserves to be called a film maker. Having produced

the joys of parenting superior to making movies,

many of his films, the five that he has also directed

with the lovely phrase, “Each one of my kids is

(four of which he wrote or co-wrote) are unique

more interesting to me than any five movies.” For a

confections that reimagine their own genres. Beatty

time some of us wondered if he would ever make

has a genius for making substance entertaining, or

another movie; when news began to emerge that

entertainment substantial; he's been in the public

his long-gestating Howard Hughes project was

eye for nearly sixty years, and his social conscience

underway, with the title Rules Don’t Apply, some of

has always infused the work.

us were quietly delighted, and quietly nervous. You

never know when the muse will disperse, and we

He has gone from friendship with Robert Kennedy

all knew that an eighteen year gap could point one

and participation in the civil rights movement to

way or another.

confronting the urge to nihilism that seemed to

bubble up for some when the 60s failed to produce

We remembered what we loved about his films—

their hoped-for utopia ( Bonnie and Clyde); to

the edge-of-the-world moroseness of McCabe and

opening audience’s minds to the rise of socialism in

Mrs. Miller; the glamor and cruelty of Bugsy,

the US, imagining what it might be like to build a

equally tempting and repellent (and a film in which

society in which people actually cared for each

Elliott Gould proves that sometimes supporting

other ( Reds); to satirizing the suicidal damage of a

roles can steal scenes if not entire movies); the self-

political system funded by special interests in one

effacement of the absurdly underrated,

of the most truthful mainstream Hollywood movies

extraordinarily funny-smart Ishtar. Then there are

ever made ( Bulworth).

the films he (co)wrote or directed: Heaven Can Wait,

Reds, Dick Tracy, and Bulworth.

Then he disappeared from the screen for almost

two decades.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

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In these films, Beatty reinvents four familiar

It comes as a delight that, despite the message

genres: a screwball comedy, a romantic social

that may be sent by its unexpected box office

epic, a comic book adventure, and a political

failure, Rules Don’t Apply is original, even magical

satire..

entertainment, with something lovely to say

about the real world. Lily Collins and Alden

Heaven Can Wait exchanges predictable alpha

Ehrenreich perfectly play Howard Hughes

masculinity for subtle expressions of the

employees who fall in love in 1958, despite the

universal need for companionship. Dick Tracy

“rules” that say they shouldn’t. They're caught

may be the most exquisitely designed comic book

between the kind of religion that denies love

movie ever made, not to mention a semi-musical

between people, or can’t cope with the fact that

with Stephen Sondheim songs to boot. Bulworth

we will all make mistakes on the way to knowing

is a wildly entertaining political satire (a tough-

who we are; and the temptation to put money,

minded, big-hearted Hollywood comedy with a

position, and ultimately power before people.

Greek chorus played by the political activist poet

Playing Hughes, Beatty invests the character with

Amiri Baraka) that in a parallel universe might

a kind of vulnerability rare in portrayals of too-

have been co-written by Howard Zinn and

easily caricatured famous men. The psychological

Michelle Alexander. Meanwhile, Reds is an out-

complexity that overcame Hughes is handled

and-out masterpiece—a romantic epic about the

with sensitivity, and Beatty never lets the

rise of communism in the U.S., with a convincing

performance turn into attention-seeking awards

central love affair and dramatization of what

bait or a joke at the expense of a powerful but

building a social movement is actually like. What

distressed person. The side of Hughes’s character

Warren Beatty does is rare: big canvas

with which we empathize doesn’t erase the part

storytelling in which the central male figure is

that invites critique: his greed, obsession with

never perfect, always vulnerable, never saves the

control, and manipulations are here too. But what

day by himself (if at all), but always in

the film is really about is how to discern between

partnership with a strong woman, sometimes a

the constrictive rules that diminish us all and

strong community. There’s a nice symmetry in

those that might be, in fact, expansive and life-

the fact that he seems to create community on his

giving. Rules Don’t Apply is a kind of serenity

sets. The same names pop up in his supporting

prayer for people caught between twin American

casts more than once: Paul Sorvino, Oliver Platt,

obsessions: God grant me the courage to

the delightfully grumpy and much-missed

transcend harmful religious puritanism, and

character actor, Jack Warden.

individualistic expansionism both.

In some respects, he’s the philosophical opposite

With it, Beatty has made another genre-

of the star whose creative endeavors his most

transcender: a compelling drama, with delicious

resembles: Clint Eastwood has produced and

light touches, that stirs the heart, too. It’s a film

directed and acted in his own movies, too, but his

that believes in the mysteries of love, and the

archetype always goes it alone. Beatty’s

necessity of forgiveness. Released after such a

protagonists are actually just lonely. They are

divisive election, it’s also a gift from one of the

desperate to connect or be understood, whether

U.S.’s most important film- makers: an invitation

they know it or not. Allowing us to connect with

to reimagine the rules we live by, especially when

our own insecurities and uncertainties and feel

they keep us apart.

okay about them is one of the chief gifts of his

work. Warren Beatty may not have made as

many films as some of us might have hoped, but

Warren Beatty spoke to Gareth Higgins for The

if the distance between them is the price we pay

Porch. Rules Don't Apply is released to watch at

for their authenticity, then that’s okay, too.

home on February 28th, 2017. Please don't miss it.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

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Gareth Higgins: I’ve seen you

GH: He actually feels to me of a

more. But in fact maybe I just

for a long time talking about

piece with several of your other

feel that I’ve let go of it more

wanting to make a Howard

characters, thinking about

because I really don’t spend a lot

Hughes film, and I’m wondering

Bulworth and John Reed

of time in public.

about the gestation of that?

particularly. They’re all men out

of their time, or trying to move

GH: Let’s talk about the religious

Warren Beatty: I never got as

time forward. They don’t belong

questions in Rules Don’t Apply.

interested as I need to be in

in the moment in which they

You've got two lead characters

doing a biopic of Howard

exist; they’re trying to push for

caught between rules that no

Hughes—I didn't even feel the

something to happen that hasn’t

longer function and their desire

inclination to necessarily make

happened yet. That’s quite a

for each other: the religious

him the center of the picture as I

vulnerable thing. One of the

puritanism of both Lily Collins’

did with Bonnie and Clyde or

things I liked is that you portray

and Alden Ehrenreich’s

Bugsy or John Reed in Reds. The

a man who has been previously

characters, and the careerism of

more I thought about it, I wanted

portrayed as beyond eccentric,

Alden’s character which he

to do a movie involving the

but this was quite a tender

doesn’t really realize is getting in

Hollywood that I came to in

portrayal of a man who was

the way of his love. Where did

1958/59, and what it was like,

scared and needed to hide.

this religious question arise for

and the effects of what I would

you?

call changes that were taking

WB: I think that Hughes’ need to

place with the rise of feminism,

hide is one of the things that is

WB: As a teenager in Virginia, I

and the effect that had on what

most distinguishing about him,

went through a very religious

we have grown to call the sexual

and it definitely has its comedic

period of a few years that was

revolution of the 1960s.

side. He needed to be in control;

concentrated in the Baptist

he felt he needed to be in control

church. I was not pushed or

With Howard, I wasn’t even sure

of the way he was seen.

encouraged in that by other

that I was headed to do

people, it was something that I

something that was more

GH: Because he was scared?

did on my own. I didn’t go

comedy than dramatic, or

immediately to Hollywood. I

whether it was what we’ve

WB: Well we could interpret it in

went to Northwestern university

grown to call a dramedy. But I

varying ways. We could say that

for a year, and then I went to

always felt that the word that I

it was a product of a very high

New York, and studied acting for

would use in relation to the

level of narcissism, that he

a year with a great teacher called

feelings I’ve had about Howard

wanted to control how he was

Stella Adler. Then I played piano

Hughes is that I’ve always been

viewed. You could compare it to

in a bar for a little while, playing

“amused by Hughes,”the

a number of movie actors.Greta

what Joni Mitchell once called

unusual things that he could

Garbo comes to mind, who was

“vodka and tonic music.” Then I

demand and get away with. You

always very mysterious; people

got lucky and I started to get

know I never met him, but I

always wanted to see more of

work as an actor to my surprise,

sometimes feel that I met

her because you couldn’t see her

and then I came out here. This all

everyone that ever met him.

at all. I think that the ability to

happened very quickly, and it

What was so interesting to me is

do that has sort of evaporated

was a very apparent difference in

that people did not speak ill of

now with the technology that we

what you’ve referred to as the

him, they didn’t speak badly of

are graced with and sometimes I

puritanism of the Baptist church

him, everybody kind of liked

say saddled with. There’s not the

in Virginia, which was not

him, but they found him

level of privacy that used to be.

similar to a town, Hollywood,

impossible to accommodate and

whose industry is in the

deal with. They had respect for

GH: How have you been able to

merchandising of sexiness. With

him, and I would say that his

cultivate a personal life or an

the rise of feminism in the late

loneliness was a quite evident,

inner life having been in the

50s and early 60s it became clear

and the idea that his being the

public eye for most of your life?

to me that America would not

recipient of enormous

forever (in regard to the subject

inheritance, wealth, one can see

WB: Well, I guess I have a level

of sex) continue to be the

as being not only a big asset but

of caution that sometimes I

laughing stock of France and

also a burden.

would have to define as a

other countries. That freedoms

sensible paranoia, but I find that

were inevitable.

in the last years I’ve let go of that

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The conflict and the

have a sexual loving relationship

kids’ schools tells me that I was

consequences of these changes I

with would not be in the eyes of

not wrong. I’m not being

found to be both comical and

God my wife. I would not be

disapproving of divorce, I’m

sad at times. Having these two

married to that person because I

simply saying that it was

young people come to

had a sexual relationship with

something that I didn’t want to

Hollywood at the same time, she

her.

go through the pain of, nor did

being a religious Baptist and he

the people that I had loving

being a religious Methodist, and

GH: What was that point?

relationships with. We agreed on

the restrictions and the guilt on

the subject.

one hand; Then on the other

WB: Well, I could make it funny,

hand a very eccentric,

but I won’t. It was a moment of

GH: As to what Rules Don’t

unpredictable billionaire who

what I, in retrospect, view as

Apply might say to this moment?

did not feel that he had these

great clarity. I’ve had interesting

What I felt was that this film was

restrictions, whom they worked

and sometimes amusing

not mocking one side or the

for and to some extent had to

conversations with others in

other of a cultural divide but

accommodate in order to

describing that moment.

proposing a third way, and it has

m a i n t a i n t h e i r w o r k

one of the most romantic,

relationship. In the whole

GH: I think it’s a fairly common

hopeful endings I’ve seen in

conflagration of events that was

moment for people with a

recent years. It’s okay for people

entertaining.

religious background. The

from different backgrounds to

question is whether or not you

choose a different set of rules

GH: I think it really is. I think

develop a healthy integrated life

than the ones they came up with

you may be the only director

beyond that. I think a lot of

because love trumps these. I’m

who has used Onward Christian

people stay stuck or they live

wondering if that speaks to you,

Soldiers in two different films—

with misplaced guilt for a long

if you feel any different about

in Reds, clearly a joke at the

time. I’m interested in what

now that we’re after the election

extent of puritanism. And in

helps people integrate a sense of

and so much seems to be

Rules Don't Apply, it's a way of

ethics and the common good

uncertain.

conveying the sometimes

with the knowledge that it’s

monotonous experience of

okay to have a few loving

WB: I’m much more comfortable

church. Presumably there was a

relationships in the course of a

not trying to sum up what I feel

point where your personal

life.

the contemporary relevance of

beliefs that you had participated

the movie is at this point. I have

in and found solace in the

WB: What I would say is that it

a fear of being reductive. I really

Baptist experience gave way to a

produced something in me in

like what you said about it, and I

different set of rules: a point

viewing the society around me

agree with you, but I don’t want

where you changed your mind?

that it was not that I was afraid

to say what I think something

I wonder if you’d be willing to

of marriage, having waited quite

means. I want the thing that I

talk about that, and whether you

a long time to get married, it was

did to say it and for people to

think Rules Don’t Apply has

that I was afraid of divorce. As I

derive what they feel from it.

particular relevance for today?

saw the huge increase in divorce

And if you started me on the

and the acceptance of divorce, it

election we would be on the

WB: The answer to the first part

was something that I simply

phone into the next century!

of your question, yes, there was

didn’t want to go through. I

a moment when I accepted that

think that the number of

the first person that I would

divorced parents that I see in my

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

55

, Wiki Commons

Image Credit: Mark Dixon

New Book:

PROGRESS:

TEN REASONS TO

LOOK FORWARD TO THE

FUTURE

Johan Norberg

Reviewed by Steve Tomkins

The introduction to Johan Norberg’s ceaselessly

year rise out of extreme poverty. Equality is

optimistic Progress is entitled “The good old days

increasing: In the year 1900 one country in the

are now.” The epilogue is more pessimistically

world allowed women to vote. In 2016 the only

titled, “So why are you still not convinced?” I think

state where women had no role in the political

Norberg is right on both points. The world we live

process was the Vatican. Even in areas where we

in has indeed been getting better and better in

tend to feel the world is not progressing favorably,

countless ways, which we vastly underestimate and

such as with violence, the statistics challenge, and

ought to appreciate more. But I am not entirely

offer hope. In the most “civilized” parts of Europe

convinced by the thesis of this book, and I hope to

in the 15th century, the annual homicide rate was 30

explain why.

per 100,000; now across Europe it is one per 100,000

(but five in the U.S.), and the trend continues

Norberg gathers together an array of evidence

downwards.

pointing to the conclusion that across the world

every area of life has long been improving, and we

If these facts, and many others collected by

have every reason to expect more of the same.

Norberg, are true and representative, why do we

People are better fed: In 1945 half of the world was

often feel that the world is in a mess and under

under nourished. Today that figure is reduced to

threat? Why do 71% of British people believe life is

11%. People live longer: Life expectancy worldwide

getting worse? We are living in a golden age. Why

was thirty years-old in the 18th century. Now it is

is this reality seemingly hidden from us?

seventy. Poverty is reducing: 50 million people a

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

56

Norberg’s answer, and I’m sure he’s right, is news. We

because wealth creation improves the world for

don’t click on the story that, once again, the annual

everybody. They got better because people ignored

global air safety record has slightly improved this year.

such economic arguments and fought for what they

Nor are we attracted to the headline that tells us the

believed in.

child mortality decreased by 0.005% again in

Botswana. We click for news about the air crash and

Similarly in Norberg’s chapter on equality he

the devastating famine. Norberg suggests other factors

celebrates the way societies have become more equal

too: Bad news has a greater emotional impact than

in terms of race, sex, and sexuality, but there is nothing

good and stays with us longer; nostalgia dulls our

on economic equality. Perhaps that is because this one

memories of past hardships; we are biologically

does not seem to be getting better: the gap between the

hardwired to take dangers and worries seriously. He

rich and poor in most developed countries widened in

might have added another: historical ignorance. Most

the decades before the 2008 crash and has worsened

of us have very little idea how violent, short, painful,

since, with serious consequences. This one is not a

unfair and unfree our ancestors’ lives were.

cause for optimism but for a fight.

All this makes Progress a welcome survey of

The real test case for Progress is climate

the historical landscape we live in today

change. A catastrophe is unfolding: 2016

and the many long paths leading up to the

was already the hottest year on record by

peak of wellbeing on which we now stand.

October; 2015 and 2014 also beat all

We should look around more. This is a book

previous records; and the U.S. is reported to

that can help us interrogate our fears a bit

be scrapping NASA’s climate research.

more rigorously and equip our hopes.

Norberg’s response to this is shockingly

evasive. He claims that the result of

So why am I not convinced? Why can I not

increased carbon emissions is “hotly

go all the way with Norberg? His

debated.” It is not debated among scientists,

explanation of why things have been

even if it is denied by right-wing

getting better is twofold. First, the 18th

extremists. Norberg says, “the worst-case

century enlightenment replaced superstition with

scenario is unlikely” and that climate change may be

inquiry and authoritarianism with liberalism. Second

“minor and beneficial.” Though Pacific islands are in

and more importantly, the free market has created

peril and dengue fever has swept Bangladesh,

wealth, and greater wealth not only directly improves

Norberg offers the consolation that “almost twice as

our lives in many ways but gives us incentives to

many Americans died from excess cold as from excess

improve it in all these other ways too. Wealth feeds the

heat from 1979 to 2006.”At this point Norberg’s theory

world and improves its health but also, for example,

seems to be morally and intellectually broken. If your

gives us the incentive to live peaceful lives and to look

belief that things “just get better” allows you to

after our environment. The lesson is that so long as we

airbrush the greatest crisis of our age from your

let market forces take their natural course, wealth will

worldview, something has gone wrong with your

increase and life will naturally get better.

theory. The ideology that market forces will solve

everything is disproved by climate change, just as it

The truth is more complex. Making the world better

was by the slave trade, and to cling to it in the face of

can be extremely hard work against the natural course

such a crisis is complacent and negligent.

of things and against market forces. Norberg touches

on the abolition of the slave trade in Europe, an area I

There comes a point when optimism is not enough. At

know something about, and gives the impression that

that point you need hope. The two may look similar

abolition was the natural outcome of the

but are seriously different. Optimism believes things

enlightenment. Although enlightenment thinkers were

are better than they seem and will turn out well. Hope

involved, the campaign that fought slavery was

knows that however bad things are turning out it is

largely driven by religion rather than the

still worth fighting. Optimistically celebrating the

enlightenment, and they fought every step of the way

great days we live in is good and right, but carrying on

against market forces. Things got better not just

the fight that got us here is even more important.

because things tend to get better, and certainly not

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

57

Classic Book:

PROMETHEA

by Alan Moore, J. H.

Williams III, Mick Gray,

Charles Vess;

WildStorm, 2001

Reflections by

Jasmin Pittman Morrell

When I first saw an image of

necessary element for use

As the mother of two young

Alan Moore’s science fiction

alongside the quest for

girls, I’m often inundated with

heroine, Promethea, it was as if

transformation and wisdom.

the care and management of my

she’d already been submerged

Regardless, keeping company

family’s every-day life. I play a

somewhere in the pools of my

with children and dreamers

fairly stereotypical gender role

subconscious, just waiting to

sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

as a wife and mother; in the

surface and greet me like an old

private sphere, I work by caring

friend. It was an eerily resonant

Promethea was originally

for my family. In the public

experience. I had not read many

published in five volumes

sphere, my expression of care is

graphic novels, but this panel I

between 1999-2005. The story

the work I do out in the world.

stumbled across featured a

follows college student Sophie

And like so many other

muscular, dreadlocked woman

Bangs’ relationship with an idea-

contemporary women, we find it

hovering slightly above the

form called Promethea. Sophie

difficult to value, balance, and

ground, wielding a glowing,

traces the evolution of

care for the various aspects of

blue caduceus. She was part-

Promethea, a recurring character

our own wise, tender, and strong

goddess, part-terrestrial, both

she finds strewn throughout

selves. I needed a

divine and human. Her enemies

history in literature and pop

simultaneously fantastical and

cowered before her, though in

culture. When Sophie discovers

grounding image, an archetypal

that moment she was not

that she is the latest, and most

bridge between the space of

threatening them with physical

powerful, incarnation of

matter and spirit. Put another

violence. Utterly confident, her

Promethea, she becomes an

way, I needed to see qualities

words undergirded her obvious

indelibly unstoppable being: the

typically associated with the

power.

living embodiment of the

feminine as infinitely robust. I

creative force of imagination.

needed a renovation of the sci-fi

“I am the holy splendor of the

action hero as a female-bodied

imagination. I cannot be

This was the dream I

figure whose primary strength is

destroyed.”

rediscovered while nestled on

rooted in her use of language. I

the couch under a fleece blanket,

needed Promethea, reminder of

I was smitten, my response to

sipping hot honeyed-tea in an

the ability of words to create and

her immediate and visceral.

attempt to vanquish the cold that

destroy. More than just a reading

Typically relegated to the

had slowed me down long

experience, she has become

domain of children and

enough to allow for this dip into

something of my own personal

dreamers, I’d overlooked the

fantasy, into play.

Muse, an affirmation of my own

imagination as an active, sacred

creative life.

thing of splendor and power, a

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58

As Sophie explores her role as

can be brought to tears by the

Photorealism, painting, and line-

Promethea, we are guided

symbolic image of Jesus on a

drawing all serve the narrative

through an exploration of magic

cross, despite how my typical

in a way that supports what this

and mysticism, the tarot and

response to that image has been

sweeping chronicle aspires to

Kabbalah. True to Moore’s style,

inoculated by its proliferation, I

be: profound, beautiful, and a

the narrative is far-reaching and

know I’ve had some kind of

bit cacophonous. If the artwork

somewhat non-linear, a tale that

awakening. While Barbara,

were a juxtaposition of poetry, it

takes us from ancient Egypt, to

Promethea, and Boo-Boo gaze

would be like rolling Allen

futuristic New York, and a realm

up at a crucified Jesus, Boo-Boo

Ginsberg, Emily Dickinson,

called the Immateria. Fictional

remarks, “But even down here,

Beyoncé, and Billy Collins onto

and historical public figures

at the lowest Auschwitz end of

one riotous canvas.

make surprise appearances; so

what humans are, and what

many, in fact, that keeping up

humans do, our highest point is

And the poets would all agree:

with them all is like trying to

still with us. There's light.

It’s imperative that we pay the

track the characters in a 19th

Always remember that. There’s

tool of language the respect it

century Russian novel. Angels

light at the bottom.” A reminder

deserves. Promethea, who

and demons take expected and

of the divine in us, where I least

eventually becomes the

unexpected forms; if you saw

expected to encounter it. A

harbinger of the Apocalypse,

the character “Boo-Boo”

reminder that even on my worst

almost comically (pun not

Ramirez, a foul-mouthed

day, when I’m in the proverbial

completely intended), if not

guardian angel coming, you are

pits, I’m not alone. A reminder

prophetically, has something to

a wiser and more astute reader

that even on my country’s worst

say to us. If we do not weave

than I. A journey climbing the

day, when darkness threatens to

stories of connection to our

Tree of Life delineates the full

overwhelm, the light of

neighbors, our land, our world,

array of human experience.

goodness is not lost, and hope

and ourselves perhaps we will

Sophie-Promethea and her

may sprout in unexpected

bring about a kind of ending.

friend Barbara, pass through a

places.

The kind of ending that urges us

literal “ocean of emotion,” die,

to begin again, to open to

and are reborn again on the

Promethea’s artistic style, helmed

imagination’s incredible gifts

pathway of the Tree of Life. At

by J. H. Williams III, is also

and bounty.

the bottom of the Tree, when I

experimental and varied.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

59

Olly Olly In Come Free

It is 1971; a suburban summer where

after supper seems to stretch to everlasting.

My brothers and I are unleashed

and running toward what we do not know,

what we have not yet learned to pray.

We are a neighborhood gang

of boys and girls just starting

to sense the difference. We hold a little

too tight

in pickup football, hide and seek

kisses with fingers crossed in hopes

the street lights don’t come on too soon.

The games have begun, sure enough. They come

tripping over the edge of innocence,

like Avon masks the smell of my first puff

on a rolled leaf cigarette,

like mascara coats my lashes though mom says

I look like two holes burned in a white sheet.

This is when presence needs no practice.

This is the headiness of dusk light,

a shadowed shrub, and a neighbor boy

who waits breathless beside me,

but doesn’t kiss me, yet.

What happens next must be a dream, not of the almost kiss,

or the boy, but of a voice cloaked in darkness

calling out to us. Do you remember it like I do?

This is a memory of a dream I didn’t know I had,

an echo carried through the wilderness of my childhood

in a voice I am just learning to believe;

Olly olly in come free, all who are out, come in.

You, with blue jeans stained and torn from kneeling,

head crowned with bits of goldenrod and sage,

bring your brother, your lover, each piece of heaviness,

and come.

The game is of your own design; there are no penalties

or just rewards. Lights are lit on these familiar streets,

and all is well. Leave your hiding place,

come home.

Olly olly in come free, all who are out, come in.

–Lesley-Anne Evans

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ISSUE TWO

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PRIVATE

ENER

GY

Helado Negro

discussed by Tyler McCabe

NO EASY TRANSMISSION

Here we are in a new year with so much work to do.

this transmission.”) Private Energy describes our paradox,

Lately, I wake up before the sun rises, wash my face,

the ground rules. The selfhood of each person contains

shimmy into clothes, and press some food into a pan,

something unknowable, yet a person’s unknowable self is

thinking dark and hopeful thoughts, pleading with my

always right there before you, like a word you can’t

gods, and then I find myself once again turning on Helado

translate. It has an energy all its own, which you can’t

Negro’s recently released fifth LP, Private Energy, to focus

name; you can only encircle it with other words and

my mind. I think it is more expressive and possibly

hopefully thus crown it.

corrective of these times than I could possibly be.

Helado Negro sings like an old school crooner, his voice

Which isn’t to say that this album is political commentary,

honeyed and warbling. With this album he leaves behind

nor that Helado Negro’s career belongs only to this

some of the glitchier sounds and schizoid compositions of

moment. Roberto Carlos Lange has made music under

former works, opting instead for guitar and synth lines in

multiple names over many years, and the Helado Negro

bold and somnolent waves. A few tracks—for instance,

moniker simply describes his most ambitious persona, a

“We Don’t Have Time for That”—get up to a pace that’s so

voice that spans languages, landscapes, and private

enjoyable, so funky, I dare you not to hit replay. All

interiors. The name “Helado Negro,” which translates to

around, Helado Negro has adhered more tightly to pop

“black ice cream,” captures several angles of his work—

song structures, making these songs his most accessible

music that is strange, sweet, spooky, racially inflected, and

yet. It’s all well-matched to an album equally in love with

whimsical. Lange pumps up this persona like a tent and

its own unique self and deeply desirous of connecting to

invites you inside for the show. At the same time, he uses

listeners. Private Energy achieves those dual intentions—

“Helado Negro” to hide and convey hiddenness. But

staying in and going out of itself—by cultivating personal

expansiveness and mystery have always gone hand-in-

and collective pride. I would add that it’s not just pride,

hand. In one song he describes his intent, “Looking for

but pride at a time when it can feel dangerous to display

universal supply,” and realizes: “Physical dimensions

pride, or at the very least exists as a subversive act. This

don’t hold me back anymore.”

pride is Helado Negro’s magic ingredient. His music

makes self-love not only a prerequisite for connection, but

I should note that non-Spanish-speakers like myself may

the connective tissue itself. On “Young, Latin and Proud,”

perceive a greater sense of mystery in this music than

he sings, “You grow older knowing that you’ll always be

others, as most of the songs are in Spanish. (Those in the

this one thing / and you’ll have this / to be you / and the

same boat as me might welcome this small experience of

people / who’ll be waiting here for you / always will be

being an outsider, since we’re so often afforded linguistic

one with you / and you’ll be one with me.” You can hear

dominance. Or think of it as the perfect workday

the grammar beginning to break down here as “you” and

soundtrack, since the words won’t interrupt your train of

“me” begin slowly, wonderfully to collapse in a

thought.) Anyway, this note is relevant: Helado Negro is

celebration of Latin identity.

on a music label dominated by English-limited artists,

performs regularly for large crowds of English-limited

I am, like many of Helado Negro’s fans, not Latin. But in

fans, and is reviewed most often in English. Gaps in

the heat of music, identity politics start to sweat. I am

understanding are inherent in his work and performances,

watching the parade of this music, sometimes on the

and he makes the most of them. The lingual divide

sidelines, sometimes amid the crowd, and believing that

between the art and the context it’s often placed in

this celebration of private selves will unite us. That’s the

expresses and enhances the themes central to Private

work ahead, work inside for outside.

Energy: isolation and connection, the work of staking out a

“self” and somehow still crossing over to others.

I went to an Helado Negro concert in Seattle once. On

stage he had a dancer dressed from head to toe in a pile of

This is where his art has something timely to say, at least

silver tinsel, which is also the photograph on Private

to me, right now, because this is when I’m listening. (Pre-

Energy’s album cover. The dancer was completely

dawn, pouring coffee, stirring eggs.) How can any of us

encased: faceless, textural, bright, and hidden. The tinsel

cross over to the other? How can we restore a state of

figure shuddered, letting light wash down their body in

listening? (The egg yolks break as Helado Negro sings, “I

slow waves. I felt whatever it is that radiates from us

feel invincible without your wisdom / but I feel invisible

uncontrollably. I received a secret I am only beginning to

without your wit. / There's no easy way for me to make

translate.

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

61

VII.

A moral lesson this might teach

Were I ordained and called to

preach;

For men are prone to go it blind

Along the calf-paths of the mind,

And work away from sun to sun,

To do what other men have done.

They follow in the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and

back,

And still their devious course

pursue,

To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred

groove,

Along which all their lives they

move.

But how the wise old wood gods

laugh,

Who saw the first primeval calf.

Ah, many things this tale might

teach—

But I am not ordained to preach.

–The Calf Path, Sam Foss

1895

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

62

MELVIN BRAY

LESLEY-ANNE EVANS

MICHAEL CITRINI

STEVE DAUGHERTY

CATHLEEN FALSANI

GARETH HIGGINS

MICHELLE LEBARON

MONA HAYDAR

TERESA PASQUALE MATEUS

TYLER McCABE

MALLORY MCDUFF

JASMIN PITTMAN MORRELL

RUTHANNE NIEHAUS

MIKE RIDDELL

STEVE TOMKINS

PETERSON TOSCANO

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

63

HOPE IN THE DARK

THE MOVIES & MEANING FESTIVAL

PRESENTED BY THE PORCH

APRIL 27-30, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

STORYTELLING • HEALING • ART • JUSTICE

ALICE WALKER

MALIDOMA SOMÉ

MONA HAYDAR

GARETH HIGGINS

WWW.MOVIESANDMEANING.COM

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

64

The Porch is a project of Ireland Retreat, Inc.

and nurtured into being by a community of

people who want to tell a better story, and

make a better world. We invite you to join

the conversation at theporchmagazine.com

THE PORCH !

ISSUE TWO

65

Table of Contents

part of what activist Van Jones