Email #4: Be A Learner

We are not the first people to ever face political and social circumstances like these. If we feel like we're living under an occupation, it's helpful to remember that many people have had that experience before us.

April 18, 2017

 

 

[Finding Steady Ground logo]

 

[Finding Steady Ground logo]People submitted numerous examples on how they are using Finding Steady Ground.
Here’s a sample:

“Last weekend was an intentional retreat time for me during which I ‘fasted’ from all media input — no films, radio, TV, magazines.  Initially, I noticed a marked increase in my anxiety level.  When I leaned into that anxiety I found an entrenched hyper-vigilance, a need to be fed information in order to maintain what I realized was an illusory sense of control.  When I was able to let that need go, my anxiety decreased markedly and energy was freed up for creative projects.”
– Deborah, Questa NM

Read more testimonials on how implementing these behaviors helps.
Have your own story?  Share with us how these behaviors have been helpful to you.

 

Dear Friend,

How has your journey with implementing these behaviors been going for you? We hope that you’ve found time and space to foster a little more steadiness. Keep connecting with others when you can’t feel the earth beneath you.

This week we’re looking at another behavior that you can use to find your center and stay in motion.

 

#4: I will read, listen to, or share a story about how others have resisted injustice.

 

Why is this important?

It’s easy to feel abused and angry, upset that we’ve been dealt an unfair hand. Yet those feelings are not likely to promote creative and effective action.
We are not the first people to ever face political and social circumstances like these. If we feel like we’re living under an occupation, it’s helpful to remember that many people have had that experience before us. People from have put all their energy toward resistance and change — and we can both honor them and learn from them by listening to their stories.
The value of the past is that it offers us lessons from other people who have faced similar — and even more challenging — circumstances that we can use today.
This is a far cry from listening to another story of oppression — it’s about becoming students in the art of resistance. We do better when they have stories to guide us. We’re especially interested in stories of how people change the circumstances in which they find themselves.

So what to do?

Three things we’ve found useful when looking for stories:
  • Think locally and globally. US culture has a tendency to look inwards for all its resources. But the globe is big and this is a great time to learn from other movements outside the United States. At the same time, we often look nationally and there are lots of local campaigns and marginalized stories of people waging struggle to be lifted up.
  • Every situation is different.  We can’t blindly apply a course of action from a different person, place or time to our own experience.  But we can expand our sense of possibility, and gather a larger menu of options that might spark our own thinking.
  • Find stories about resisting that include strategy and emotions. It’s too easy to find stories of oppression. Our goal is to learn how people struggle for change for the better. But too often “struggle” can mix the emotional journey, too. We’re looking for stories that can inform what we might do and how others weathered the emotional turbulence that comes along with social change.

Make some space this week to explore a story about how others have resisted injustice. There are many places to find stories: elders, books, movies, and more. Soak up their humanity, goodness, tenacity, and creativity.  Fill your cup of possibility.

We’ve compiled a list of resources that we recommend for what they have to offer us In these times.

Try incorporating #4 into your life and please let us know how it goes!

You’re not in this alone.  Keep sharing!   Keep loving!

Yours,

– Daniel Hunter and Pamela Haines

 

Resources to read, watch and study

Online Course

We Were Made for This Moment

In this time of tumult, fear, and hatred, the world needs the gifts that you were born to share. In this course you will learn about different social change roles and what makes them effective. Over four sessions you will then have guidance to discern what role you are meant to play. Finding Steady Ground readers get 25% off registration!. Finding Steady Ground readers get 25% off registration!

Movies

Bringing Down a Dictator

The story of how people-power in Serbia overthrew a dictator

A Force More Powerful

6-segments of different social movements around the globe: Chile overthrowing a dictator, India kicking out the British, US sit-in movement, Denmark resisting Nazis, Polish workers fighting for independent unions and South Africans fighting apartheid

Websites

350.org Storytelling Labs

The global organisation 350.org tells stories of its work and reflects on lessons learned. Great for movement activists

Global Nonviolent Action Database

1000+ stories of campaigns around the world. A great research tool

Books

Bridging the Class Divide and Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing

Stories of building groups and relationships across difference, especially timely for this moment

Building a Movement to End The New Jim Crow, an Organizing Guide

A handbook on building campaigns, useful for all movements and issues

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963

A very big book with great detail on stories of the civil rights movement

A People’s History of the United States

US American history from the point of view of people whose stories are omitted from textbooks

Strategy and Soul

A thrilling case study of a single campaign, highly recommended.

This is an Uprising

A broad view on movement-building

 If you have other stories resources that have helped you, please let us know!

 

ps:
En Español! Finding Steady Ground in Spanish (Buscando terreno firme): es.findingsteadyground.com.  Por favor comparta con otras personas!
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