What’s Needed (Vol. 3, No. 6)
Here are a few things I’m sharing this month:
1. Question(s) I’m living with:
- “I think that we all feel that we’re not enough to make a difference, that we need to be more, somehow — either wealthier or more educated or, somehow or other, different than the people we are. And according to this story, we are exactly what’s needed…And to just wonder about that a little, what if we were exactly what’s needed? What then? How would I live if I was exactly what’s needed to heal the world?” – Rachel Naomi Remen (On Being Podcast)
2. Quote I’m considering:
- “James Baldwin, my favorite Baldwin quote, and he has a gazillion, obviously. But my favorite Baldwin quote is, “The interior life is the real life.” The interior life is the real life. “And the intangible dreams of a person may have a tangible effect on the world.” It’s basically saying, what one can imagine, internally, what one can think about when nobody knows, when nobody’s around — one’s secrets — could shift human life. What an amazing thing to think about.” – Jason Reynolds (On Being Podcast)
3. Poem I’m pondering:
The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac (Part 3) by Mary Oliver
I know, you never intended to be in this world.
But you’re in it all the same.
So why not get started immediately.
I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to weep over.
And to write music or poems about.
Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.
You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.
Or not.
I am speaking from the fortunate platform
of many years,
none of which, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a prod?
Do you need a little darkness to get you going?
Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,
and remind you of Keats,
so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,
he had a lifetime.
4. Something inspiring – this exchange between Krista Tippett and adrienne maree brown
brown: I mean, this is, to me, the most exciting thing right now, is like, we are aware, if we wake up, we are in a place where we can create so much history and so much change. Everything is falling apart, but also, new things are possible. And Octavia said that “[t]here’s nothing new / under the sun, / but there are new suns.” We are in a time of new suns. We’re in a time of new suns. We have no idea what we could be, but everything that we have been is falling apart. So it’s time to change. And we can be mindful about that. That’s exciting.
Tippett: It’s buckle your seatbelt exciting, right? [laughs]
brown: Yes. It’s like, we are the action heroes. I always say that for organizers, but I’m like, really, to be a human, once you wake up and recognize, oh, I can shape everything. I don’t have to be a victim of someone else’s vision for my subjugation, I actually get to be a powerhouse in the story of my own life and my people’s lives — oh! That’s a different invitation. I would much rather live in that scenario. And so I do.
5. The blog’s still on hold as I write my Rewild School book. So, taking a cue from adrienne maree brown’s “time of new suns”, I’ll leave you with:
If you’re reading this newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues here, view lists of poems, questions, quotes and songs I’ve shared before here, and subscribe here.
Thanks so much. And, have a great day! – shawn
