Yesterday I posted a story about a wealthy couple who noticed something horrible, right in front of them, which they had both the will and the means to address. We all see such troubling things every day, right in front of us. Many of these situations move us, at least momentarily, make us want to step up to the plate and act. And at least some of them we do have both the will and the means to address. This may be something as simple as seeing an old woman who is trying to cross a busy street with heavy packages. Our impulse is to help her cross. Follow that impulse! Or we notice someone stopped by the side of a busy road, trying to change their own tire. The impulse is to stop, and help. Do!
In my case, I am addressing, in my home and neighborhood, all sorts of “issues” on a daily basis, figuring out which ones are for others to do, which require group action, which are mine alone — inching all of them forward. In terms of this two-house pod, I’ve decided that the borders of our properties that face the two streets (we are situated at an intersection) will be my personal responsibility, since it’s already my responsibility to serve as the person who works the edges between this pioneering place and our fair city, its antiquated codes.
Plus, this week, with podmate Katarina’s help, I’m going to prepare a slide presentation showing the seven-year evolution of the GANG Green Acres Neighborhood Garden for a talk on Friday, June 5. And, prepare my “three minute talk” for June 3 about the Trade Agreements that I would like our city council to pass a local resolution against. Next Saturday, May 30, is the “protest paddle” down the White River, where the PTB plan to build an unnecessary dam that will threaten the ancient Anderson Mounds, among other devastations. I’ve reserved a canoe. The Saturday after that is the city’s HAND department’s Blooming Neighborhood Celebration at the Farmer’s Market, where we shall sit at the Green Acres table and hand out free seedlings.
So when I say “both the will and the means” I do not mean that we have to be “rich” in order to address whatever injustice or despoilation is occurring right in front of us. Each beautiful, ensouled person brings a wealth of talents, skills, and experience to this common human table, each of us is utterly and magnificently unique, and all of us are required to show up, if we intend to move forward together in a way that not just defies extinction, but that invites the death of the old so that the new can be born.
