They Need Us, and We Need Them
I love talking to people about RC and have confidence in myself when doing it, but I have never done it with a group of people who pushed themselves to be so bold and open with what we know. I am much braver now, with the Sustaining All Life team burned in my mind.
I had the honor of teaching a daily RC fundamentals class with Alima Adams.1 I love teaching fundamentals, and I loved teaching it at COP21. We were able to spend an hour and a half with a small group of people every day and teach them in depth about the discharge process. One man had been doing climate work for years and had ridden his bike to Paris from Vietnam. He first said he was going to quit doing climate work after the conference, but at the end of our class he changed his mind.
I was also a recruiter for and greeter at two of our three forums. People would wander by and see the energy coming from our area and be interested in what was happening. Many said that what we were doing was different from what any other group in the building was doing.
Many people wanted to tell us all about their organization and their mission. But Diane Shisk reminded us to keep people talking about themselves and personal things. And it was easy to get them talking about themselves, and why they were there and why they cared and how they were feeling.
Many of us had the experience of listening to people for just a few minutes and their crying with us. People were open because they cared and were on the front lines. For example, we met a group of young people whose island home was going to be underwater in fifteen years.
Reaching activists is important. They are the people who will keep this movement alive and moving with integrity. They need what we know, and we need them.
We were thinking about what people needed from us to feel hopeful again, to open their minds, to listen to other people, and to share where they were coming from personally. We were like a colony of bees. We would get nutrition from each other in the mornings and at night and then be disciplined in our pollination efforts during the day.
What we know as RCers about discharge and distress patterns and racism and more is without a doubt the key piece of information humanity needs in order to turn the climate situation around. We humans are stuck in survival patterns that were passed on to us from ancient ancestors; we can’t tell2 that there are enough resources on this planet for everyone.
I got a picture of the connection, the discipline, the bravery, and the kind of team that will be necessary as we build our “army” for the revolution. And it is clear from being at this event that that is coming soon.
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion listfor leaders of wide world change
(Present Time 183, April 2016)
1 Alima Adams is an RC leader in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.
2 “Tell” means see, perceive.