Living from the Inside Out

Learning to live from the inside out is one of the strange outcomes of isolation brought on by efforts to prevent Covid-19’s spread. And that turns out to be a good thing.

When it became clear that the pandemic would last until this spring, I launched an online dreaming and artful play group as a means of supporting one another through this difficult period. Our first artful play was the creation of a self-box collage, being attentive to what we show on the outside and what is less obvious on the inside. Photos shared here are mostly what's on the inside.

The Fauci Effect
Have you heard of ‘the Fauci effect’? Medical schools across the country report a 30% increase in applications. Apparently, people who might have been distracted by materialism’s bogus promises have instead listened to their hearts and decided they want to help others. I hope that means that we will be able to provide better health care for everyone - regardless of location, income or ethnicity.

Georgia On My Mind
It turns out civics is a state of mind and Georgians like their renewed sense of empowerment. Since electing Biden-Harris (according to three separate ballot counts), voters are now super engaged in a special run-off election for their two federal senators.

During an Atlanta rally for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock the energy of engagement was palpable – from the virtual singing of Georgia On My Mind by Broadway performers to organizer Stacey Abrams, to Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, to Jon and Raphael, to a young Latina student who voted for the first time on November 3, and highlighted by President-elect Joe Biden.

Values Matter
This past week was a windfall for Mother Earth with Biden's nominations of New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland as Secretary of Interior, North Carolina environment secretary Michael Regan to head up the Environmental Protection Agency, and former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg for Secretary of Transportation.

Long ignored, Native Americans like Haaland have been steadfast in protecting our natural resources. Regan has already made history in North Carolina with his forward looking envionmental decisions. One of the biggest things on Buttigieg's plate will be construction of hundreds of charging stations across America to service our transition from fossil-fuel-burning vehicles to electric ones. It’s a big step toward reducing carbon emissions but it also represents a popular will to live by our values rather than immediate gratification.

Winter Solstice Magic
With the upcoming Solstice on December 21, here in North America we celebrate that which, hidden from view, is already preparing to be born anew. The bounty of summer and autumn has been harvested giving the appearance of an earth at rest. But under the ground roots are gathering energy for a burst of new life in the spring. To celebrate the solstice is to honor what’s on the inside rather than mourn what appears to be missing.

I predict 2021 will be a wondrous year of multiple ‘inside out’ transformations for you, me, and everyone with an open heart and curious mind.

Love Overcomes Fear

The human body is a bundle of energies that emanate into space. The heart sends out the energy of love and altruism and emanates 60% more energy than any other part of the body. On the other hand, the limbic brain at the base of the skull is focused on survival and generates fear and negativity.

We have watched the collective power of these two forces play out over the last four years and especially the last year. For the moment it appears that our capacity for love has overcome our tendency toward fear. May it be so!

Those with a desire to exercise the energy of the heart may find Lynne McTaggart’s The Power of Eight, Harnessing the Miraculous Energies of A Small Group to Heal Others, Your Life and the World helpful. Researching ‘the power of intention’ for over twenty years, she has documented individual and social healings achieved through small groups of people focusing their energy of intention.

The basics are:
• A group of 5-12 persons agree to meet once a week for a designated number of weeks - in person or online.
• During a session, each individual holds a specific group intention (healing a person or a situation) for ten minutes.
• It helps if individuals engage all their senses – voice, sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste – as they practice their intention of healing.
• Reflection or discussion may or may not follow the ten minutes of focused energy.

Begin taking the path toward becoming Homo Luminous

Reimagining Everything

Round and Round Life Spins

An avalanche of creativity is needed to provide food and health care for all, expand clean energy infrastructure, organize a just economy, and establish enlightened civil liberties. And guess where the most creativity is needed? It is in developing new organizing systems for our various societies. How did I arrive at this conclusion?

Silver and Gold

In the September/October 2020 issue of the Sierra Club magazine, I was taken with an article called “The End of Oil” by Antonia Juhasz, a Bertha Fellow in Investigative Journalism. It seems that there are only three men in the world trying to prop up this dying (polluting) industry: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon.

Then, while reading Andrew Yang’s, The War on Normal People, I came across an article about a book by Tony Seba called Rethinking Humanity. Intrigued, I googled the book title and came across a couple of You Tube video interviews with Tony Seba. Pieces of a vast global puzzle began to fall into place as I listened to Seba.

Kiva

Seba believes it is possible to eliminate poverty, meet basic needs, and care for the environment because of lower costs and less waste. He bases this belief on five already occurring disruptions of the current status quo that will all converge by 2030.
1. All our energy in the future will come from solar and wind with batteries.
2. Information will be globally accessible with individual control of our private data.
3. Transportation will be a battery-operated service with fleet charging stations and conversion of rail lines to electric power.
4. Food will be provided through localized production hubs using …
5. Micro-organisms in a process of precision fermentation (think of yeast used in making cheese and beer).

As Seba became aware of these sweeping disruptions, he explored patterns of change and found that the last time such vast changes happened was 10,000 years ago when women invented agriculture. Since then generations have lived in societies based on the extraction of materials from the ground and the exploitation of people to process them.

Let’s Have Tea

Social innovation is required to navigate these five disruptions mentioned above and to help humans adjust. We can move intentionally into an age of creation or be swept aside by others who do. Local experimentation is needed, making centralization a problem. If lobbies in the United States continue to slow down these new technologies, the epicenter of creativity will go somewhere else in the world.

All of these technological changes require new organizing systems that give regions and cities independence. Our efforts need to be put into protecting PEOPLE not COMPANIES.

Temple on A Hill

“We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a transformation every bit as significant as the move from foraging to cities and agriculture 10,000 years ago.” This is the opening of Tony Seba’s executive summary of Rethinking Humanity https://www.rethinkx.com/humanity-executive-summary.

A Gentle Peace

Everyone Can Do Something

Voting is the most basic form of civic responsibility.

What are you doing to ensure that every person's voice is heard? Getting people registered is step one. After that, postcarding is a great way to encourage people to exercise their right to vote. Phonecalls to infrequent voters is another. Contacting ten people you know to help them make a plan for voting is another. I have chosen postcarding. I got these postcards from postcardstovoters.org

To maintain balance, I'm practicing my energy glyphs for an online class I will be offering in the future. This one is a personal expression for HOPE.

After hope comes COURAGE.

I did this one from the prompt 'ORGANIZE TO WIN.' Although that's a deeply felt commitment, it's a complicated process. Working on it reminded me that glyphs are best for rendering emotions rather than thoughts.

In the midst of a poorly managed pandemic and climate change denials despite horrendous wildfires, anyone who visits me can tell that I choose to stand with Democrats to BUILD BACK BETTER. Whatever works best for you, DO IT! WE CAN DO THIS!

Overcoming Ageism and Sexism

In the Democratic primary, like a kid in a candy shop, I was drawn to all the bright shiny stars like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang. As I watched Kamala struggle to get momentum, I turned to Elizabeth Warren. Despite the fact that she would be 70 years old when entering the white house, I affirmed two things: my own decade of the 70s had been highly productive and she knew how to get things done. I did not give Biden and Sanders the same benefit of the doubt.

Having been subjected to the “Father Knows Best” patriarchy all my life, the two people who did not interest me were Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. What were these two ‘old fogies’ doing on the public stage? Because of age and sex, I equated them with the misfit currently abusing the office of President.

When none of my preferred candidates won enough delegates from the first primaries that skew white, older, and conservative, I was devastated. My enthusiasm shifted to “whatever it takes to remove Donald Trump.” I resigned myself to focusing on campaigns for Senate, House, Governorships, and flipping state legislatures to more open and futuristic power.

Thrilled with Democrats running really competitive campaigns, I kept making my donations and getting my postcards (Covid-19 form of canvassing) ready to go. The Sanders-Biden taskforce working to find common ground on key policies instilled a bit of enthusiasm and when Biden selected Kamala Harris as his running mate, the excitement I had at the beginning of the primary returned. Still, Joe was not receiving my donations.

What A Dead Tree Showed Me

 

 

Meanwhile, a strange phenomenon occurred in my front yard. A friend had given me the roots and branches of a ‘dead’ Sumac tree to make into a stick sculpture. The branches reminded me of an elk’s rack and the root ball could be his head. I came up with an idea for the sculpture but knew I would not get to it for several months. I tried finding a place for it behind my townhouse but none made sense or met my aesthetic needs. Moving it around to the front, I found a corner behind the Rhododendron where the branches were indeed a sculpture.

A few weeks later, as I was watering the front yard, I spotted something green behind the Rhodie. I peeked behind and saw several green shoots coming up from the roots of the dead tree. What!!! This Sumac is not dead? When I showed a neighbor, she suggested I put some soil beneath the roots but I didn’t want trees growing there so I left it alone. I contacted the former owner and she came and snipped a couple of green shoots from the roots.

Continuing to water and leave the Sumac alone, I marveled at the new life coming from an ostensibly dead tree. The roots were strong and evidently the tree just needed rest, privacy, and oxygen.

 

What Changed Me

Then came the national Democratic convention. For four nights I was glued to my computer screen watching it live stream. I have never been a Biden fan; perhaps because I didn’t find him intellectual enough for my taste. Or perhaps because he reminds me of sticking out like a sore thumb in my own fanatically non-intellectual blue-collar family. Night by night, I became aware of my sexist ageism as I learned of his reaching out to everyone, regardless of their political persuasion, a trait that we desperately need to bridge the divisions in our country.

When Bill Clinton contrasted the current president’s Blame/Bully/Belittle pattern of behavior with Biden’s BUILD BACK BETTER, I felt something inside me shift. I allowed myself to open to Joe’s other theme, fighting for the soul of the nation, a term used by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I had been hesitant to embrace it because it sounded ‘religious.’ I was more comfortable fighting for our democracy.

Over the course of the convention I came to recognize how Biden has quietly been binding Democrats together and how his courageous support for the Black Lives Matter movement continues a lifelong commitment to racial and gender equity. He is a master statesman tempered by personal family losses that have made him hugely empathetic. I realized that the excellent cancer care I now receive is very likely a result of his leading the Moonshot to find a cure for cancer.

Experience cannot be taken for granted. Like Warren, Biden knows how to get things done. At this time in our history, creating relationships may be more important than great oratory.  Like the Sumac, his roots just needed some oxygen to reveal his regenerative power to me. And that regenerative power is available to Gen X, Baby Boomers, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and anyone who is open to change.

 

 

Regal Asian Elephant

LiDoña Wagner Regal Asian Elephant inspired by the book Elephant Company.

A number of people asked to see the final version of my elephant stick sculpture, now titled Regal Asian Elephant. Since I shared earlier how I used oatmeal boxes for the feet and gold ribbon and bells for the saddle (known as a howdah), here I will focus on making the nostrils and attaching the ears.

LiDoña Wagner Regal Asian Elephant: Howdah, Tail and Feet

I punched holes in the sides of the paper mache boxes I'd made for the nostrils. To attach them to the stick I threaded twine through the holes and over the stick, adding two metal beads as I did so.

LiDoña Wagner Regal Asian Elephant: Nostrils Inside

To decorate the exterior of the nostrils, I used a strip of gold ribbon from the saddle to cover the twine knot. Tiny purple beads were strung on gold elastic thread; then the beaded strings were tied aound the stick.

LiDoña Wagner Regal Asian Elephant: Nostrils Outside.

It took some time to figure out how to attach the ears. I used bright yellow burlap ribbon to couple the two ears together, then glued dark purple decorative paper to the backs of the ears to hide the burlap ribbon. The ribbon had holes, so I threaded twine through the top of both ears and tied them together over the stick. Because the ribbon was not as wide as the ears, their ends bend outward.

LiDoña Wagner Regal Asian Elephant: Saddle and Ears

Voila! An imaginative person can fill in the body of the elephant between all of the decorations - tail to hump to feet to ears to trunk to nostrils - adorning this highly beloved African and Asian animal. Sorry, no ivory tusks because they have been stolen by despicable poachers. Please join in efforts to protect this endangered occupant of planet Earth.

Hope Over Fear

Front of black short sleeve women's comfy top.

Recently I was asked how I would compare my participation in the Civil Rights movement with what is happening today. I responded that the church was a major player in the freedom movement led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. The movement then appeared to be a small cadre attempting to awaken a sleeping giant. Today’s movement is secular and massive. It is all ages and all ethnicities getting behind the Black Lives Matter banner. It is the majority trying to educate a minority trapped in useless and dangerous ideologies who have managed to take power of our government.

Awakened to civil rights issues as a student at the University of Texas in Austin, after graduation I moved to Chicago where the real action seemed to be. Teaching at Englewood High School on Chicago’s southside, all of my students were Black. They were bright and sassy and introduced me to humor, jive and rhythmic movements such as I had not experienced in my blue-collar upbringing.

One day a couple of months into teaching, I walked into the restroom and happened to glance in the mirror. I was shocked to see a white face staring back at me. I had never really thought in terms of skin color and had never considered how my Black students saw me. This was the beginning of a decades long journey of breaking my white privilege hypnosis.

The flag at the left is accompanied by a Vets for Trump sign on my neighbor's door.

That summer I went to Africa to investigate methods used by independence movements, hoping to instill these in our own civil rights efforts in the United States. Beyond marching in Selma, my primary participation in the freedom movement was by helping to develop an integrated caring community on Chicago’s west side. My colleagues and I were unquestionably naïve do gooders, nevertheless, over time we won the trust of our Black neighbors who created a nationally recognized preschool, trained to become more employable, bought homes, sent their children to college, and developed locally owned businesses.

I am using the door of my townhouse's front storage unit to share my values.

It would take a year in Australia learning of genocide of Aboriginal Australians, three years in the Philippines and Singapore uncovering American colonialism, a year of radical insecurity while initiating community development projects in Indonesia, Egypt, Zambia, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan and two years of culture shock in India to finally break my white privilege hypnosis. Knowing what it took to wake me up, I am in awe of and grateful for the awakened young people of today who are protesting for the equal rights of Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

We can not have political yard signs, but I can take a stand on my front door.

I want to lift up the people of Portland, Oregon for their response to the new crisis imposed by our illegitimate president. MOMS dressed in white or yellow link arms and create a wall between peaceful protesters and the unconstitutional assault of illegal militia. They are now being joined by DADS with leaf blowers.

Portland is setting a creative style of defense that other citizens can follow when this atrocity occurs in their cities. Already Chicago has a MOMS group of over 3000 who are learning from Black moms who had already been making similar defense for their children. Creative Oregonians are choosing Hope over fear and Courage over cynicism.

Back of black short sleeve women's comfy top.

During the primary I designed a black short sleeve women's tee shirt for stylistically encouraging participation in democracy. Inspired by the stage play Hamilton, it has a white musically themed asymmetrical VOTE on back left shoulder and HOPE in front left pocket area. Please help my collaborator Katherine Getta keep her graphics business going during the pandemic by treating yourself or a friend to one of these attractive screen-printed tees. At her etsy site, scroll down to the tees.

$24 with first class free shipping at banyantreeclothing.etsy.com