Dear India Loves,
It has been way too long. I’m sorry that I suck at keeping in touch. I have been thinking about writing this for months... What am I up to? Writing, teaching, going to art events. The past year has brought me a lot of clarity regarding my life path as I’ve graduated and begun to move out into the larger world. I live in New York part time because I am too poor to live there full time. I’m currently working as a poetry and dance teacher at an Arabic summer camp. I just went to Beirut for three weeks in January. It was heart-wrenching. I toured some of the sites of the destroyed bridges and homes from the July 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Right now, I’m looking at one of the photos from Joe’s birthday party at Buddha Garden. We are holding up trays of pastries from the French bakery. (How absurd is it that Auroville had a French bakery? My friend Fallon lived in an apartment filled with snakes and giant spiders.) I am curious to hear how you each feel about the India trip, now, almost 3 years later. I miss many things, mostly the heat, the rain and the time spent meditating every morning.
What does sustainability look like to you now? I’m finding in harder to believe in a global shift as something that will happen suddenly and irrevocably. Change happens slowly and patterns are hard to see. It is always easier to identify the start of something when you are looking backwards into the past instead of into the future. I know that you (plural!) have been drawn into adventures, from Africa to San Francisco to Arizona and more. I love every minute of talking to each of you. I think of you so much more often than I have time to call. So, send updates!
Social justice for me can mean anything from picketing for Gaza (in Philadelphia and Beirut) to interrogating the meaning of words and political speech. After finishing my MA here, I plan to go on to a PhD so that Joe and I can keep on commiserating about the state of academia... This bizarreness that has engulfed our economy and our country. What are your perspectives? Anyway, I'm here in Beirut where things are different... but also strangely similar.
Much love,
Laurel
Laurel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts and ideas.
Your are soo much smarter than I am! hahaha
I agree social change is participatory and grass roots in nature.
People become involved because they need to be, otherwise they are tied up in everyday affairs making capital gains to benefit themselves.
In my part I am trying to do so much to make a difference. I am trying create two organizations simultaneously. One in Peru and one in the United States. My company, being the one in the United States, is transitioning into a leader for socially and environmentally responsible business. Our project In Peru is the key to the success of me molding into that type of organization, but I still have quite a distance to climb.
In Peru we are working on creating an women's cooperative located in Iquitos Peru. Through the demand of our goods here I can provide jobs in Peru. By taking it a step further the jobs that I can provide will also include a space for a daycare and women's workshops that tailor to mental and physical abuse. Through art and workshops specific to arising problems we will have a successful coop resulting in custom hand painted clothes and accessories that will be bought and sold by Scrub Nuts, my company based out of the United States. This is only the beginning of our projects and our description only touches the surface of our deepest philosophies, which are about social and domestic justice as well as environmentally and socially responsible business. Hopefully one day we will be a successful model that other businesses can become influenced by.
Everything starts with an idea but social change is nothing without participation. Turning your own business or practice into a vehicle for social change is an art form and an effective means for seeing real results in the world. Thats my encouragement.
Everything starts with the vibe (the idea and energy that you become as you establish yourself within the universe) Then comes the structure, which supports the vibe. That is where the doing and the change occurs.