The right question

As I have been preparing for the start of my new position with CommonBond Communities, as an Employment Services Coach I am feeling a question forming. It is a question shaped by my recent graduate work as well as my commitment to advance justice and equality. It is also formed by the mission of my Church, First Universalist of Minneapolis. The question has been sitting with me for many months – too many months in fact to recall when it first took shape. The question is shaped by increasing awareness of injustice in our economy and globalized market, which values property, wealth, profit and shareholders over humanity. The wording of this question could easily be classified as shaming. I struggle with how to pose this openly. But this is a new starting point in my work life so it seems appropriate to post it now. I would invite anyone who is interested in exploring this question to perhaps explore the question quietly alone or explore it with others with whom they trust.

How do the products, economic advantages or wealth building activities in your life exploit others? Can you identify how others are exploited?
Is it possible to identify specific groups who may be targeted for exploitation for increasing gains in profit?

“Inventing Sin,” I am thankful for this poem today!

Reading from First Universalist Sunday, Nov 13th. The poem “Inventing Sin” by the Kentucky poet George Ella Lyon was the basis for the message by Rev. Justin Schroeder.

God signs to us;
we cannot read
She shouts – we take cover
She shrugs and trains leave the tracks
Our schedules! we moan
Our loved ones

God is fed up
All the oceans she gave us
All the fields
All the acres of steep seedful forests
And we did what?
Invented the Great Chain
of Being and
the chain saw
Invented sin

God sees us now
gorging ourselves &
starving our neighbors
starving ourselves &
storing our grain
& She says I’ve had it
you cast your trash
upon the waters—it’s rolling in

You stuck your fine fine finger
into the mystery of life
to find death
& you did.

You learned how to end
the world in nothing flat

Now you come crying
to your mommy
Send us a miracle
Prove that you exist

Look at your hand, I say
Listen to your sacred heart
Do you have to haul the tide in,
sweeten the berries on the vine?

I set you down a miracle among miracles.
You want more.
It’s your turn
You show me.

poem “Inventing Sin” by the Kentucky poet George Ella Lyon.

WOW! What a great turn out and wonderful

WOW! What a great turn out and wonderful group of people! Mapping A Life; Make Your Spirit Map was a HUGE success! http://ow.ly/i/jLp6

Rumi—The Treasure’s Nearness

Image: Georges Rouault, “Christ in the Suburbs”

A man searching for spiritual treasure
could not find it, so he was praying.

A voice inside said, “You were given
the intuition to shoot an arrow,
and then dig where it landed,

but you shot with all your archery skill!
You were told to draw the bow
with only a fraction of your ability.”

What you are looking for
is nearer than the big vein
on your neck! Let the arrow drop.

Don’t exhaust yourself like the philosophers,
who strain to shoot the high arcs
of their thought-arrows.

The more skill you use, the farther you’ll be
from what your deepest love wants.

—Jala al-Din Rumi
(VI, 2347-2351)

Exclusivity/Separation

I’ve heard it said that there’s a window that opens from one mind to another, but if there’s no wall, there’s no need for fitting a window, or the latch.
—Jalal Al-din Rumi

MAPS

A map is a kind of representation—not just a concept, but many concepts together… Many worlds are possible. It all depends on representation.
—David Bohm, On Dialogue

EGO 2

Try to forget yourself and rely on your true voice, your voiceless voice, your nonverbal voice.
—Shunrya Suzuki, Zen Mind

EGO

The word ego, a you may know, comes from the Latin for “I.” Sanskrit too has a precise term for the self-will: ahamkara, from aham, “I,” and kara, “maker.” Ahamkara is the force that continuously creates our sense of I-ness and its close companions, “me,” “my,” and “mine.”
—Eknarth Easwaran, meditaiton

Wall Street Loses Its Immunity – NYTimes.com

Why, then, does Wall Street expect anyone to take its whining seriously? A (That) money manager claiming that finance is the only thing America does well also complained that New York’s two Democratic senators aren’t on his side, declaring that “They need to understand who their constituency is.” Actually, they surely know very well who their constituency is — and even in New York, 16 out of 17 workers are employed by nonfinancial industries.But he wasn’t really talking about voters, of course. He was talking about the one thing Wall Street still has plenty of thanks to those bailouts, despite its total loss of credibility: money.

Money talks in American politics, and what the financial industry’s money has been saying lately is that it will punish any politician who dares to criticize that industry’s behavior, no matter how gently — as evidenced by the way Wall Street money has now abandoned President Obama in favor of Mitt Romney. And this explains the industry’s shock over recent events.

You see, until a few weeks ago it seemed as if Wall Street had effectively bribed and bullied our political system into forgetting about that whole drawing lavish paychecks while destroying the world economy thing. Then, all of a sudden, some people insisted on bringing the subject up again.

And their outrage has found resonance with millions of Americans. No wonder Wall Street is whining.

via Wall Street Loses Its Immunity – NYTimes.com.

#TokiWright at #TakeActionMN & #OccupyMN

#TokiWright at #TakeActionMN & #OccupyMN rally today at Peavey Plaza!! Excellent experience and energy http://ow.ly/i/jcNE

Protesters Against Wall Street – NYTimes.com

At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people.

via Protesters Against Wall Street – NYTimes.com.

As the Occupy Wall Street protests spread from Lower Manhattan to Washington and other cities, the chattering classes keep complaining that the marchers lack a clear message and specific policy prescriptions. The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people.

It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself. It is also the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Street ways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge.