It was a magical moment, one in which something shifted. It came as I was guarding the Occupy Las Vegas supplies of ice, water, signs, and flyers, while a handful of others (including my partner) marched in front of the World Market Center, scene of the Project New West. Four sets of Metro Police stood guard.
In a perfect space for an introvert, I was wallowing in the solitude and silence and sunshine when all at once everything clicked into place. I’d been drawn to this movement in this moment in time like a moth to a flame, unable to stay away despite my aversion for chaos and crowds and confrontation.
Now, as I sat re-reading David Korten’s Agenda for a New Economy, from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth (why Wall Street can’t be fixed and how to replace it),
all at once my knowledge connected with my experience (Wells Fargo Home Mortgage), and ignited my compassion for those like the Latino worker (probably an undocumented immigrant) I saw painting a community owned fence outside my house earlier in the day.
I saw our current financial system as the diseased aspect of our democracy, threatening to destroy all that is positive and possible of, for, and by we the people. Yet the reality is this: we don’t need Wall Street; they need us, our labor, our debt, our investments….and yes, our playing by their rules.
As a former nurse, I know that you can’t cure a cancerous lesion with a band-aid (or a bailout): it needs to be cut out completely, or at least shrunk into remission. I see Wall Street as a cancer that needs to be removed so that a healthier financial system can be brought into being, one that serves the common good, not the greedy few.
Being there in support of this emergent movement also brings forward my work as an accredited interim minister with congregations in transition, a role through which I learned the wisdom and value of NOT focusing time, energy, and resources on the dysfunctional end of the system (that traditionally gets to hold the whole of the system hostage), but rather to encourage and coach those less ego centered, more big picture committed folks at the forward moving edge of the system.
So I choose to spend my energy with those who embody the best of human potential, not the worst of human nature (greed, arrogance, and willful ignorance). Now an inner flame has began to slowly grow into a steady glow….for suddenly I sense I am participating in a grace moment in human evolution!
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