Continuing to Reach Out and Share RC
Dear Tim [Jackins],
I appreciate your focus on discharging isolation and domination. Where it all seems to come together for me is with complete self-appreciation and pride (contradicting humiliation and disconnection from others). In my Co-Counseling sessions, after I discharge restimulations a bit, self-appreciation is the direction I keep coming back to. I sense in Harvey’s [Harvey Jackins’s] early article “The Complete Appreciation of Oneself,” in The Human Situation, his excitement about it as a key direction. I’m much more able to discharge consistently on it now than I was when I first read the article. I’m very hopeful.
A CLASS FOR PEOPLE OF THE GLOBAL MAJORITY
My online fundamentals and ongoing class for People of the Global Majority has expanded to about fourteen of us now, if we all attend at the same time. At first my assistants and I thought that about eight people would be a good size, but more wanted to join, and I wanted them all. I remembered you saying that you once taught a class of thirty people, so I’ve decided to keep the class open for a while as an experiment. So far, it’s going well.
After their first class, someone said, “I didn’t know what this was about except ‘human growth,’ but this group is enormously helpful.” We have included people from constituencies underrepresented in our RC Region. One person is of Taiwanese heritage and lives in a neighborhood near mine. Another is an Armenian USer living in Moscow, Russia. (He speaks fluent Armenian and English but only a little Russian, so it’s challenging for him to participate in the Russian RC Community.) Glendale (California, USA), in our Region, has large Armenian and Iranian communities, and Monterey Park has a large Chinese community. I’m hopeful this class could eventually spin off new groups in several directions.
AN ARAB AND INDIGEOUS MEN'S SUPPORT GROUP
One of the Co-Counselors in my Arab and Indigenous men’s support group lives in eastern Morocco. He’s been using ideas from RC family work to do special time with his young nephews. (They sometimes peek at me when we’re on Zoom.) My Co-Counselor is good at playing and plays with them for hours. They choose games like riding him like a horse and laugh a lot. They seem relaxed and close to him.
MY WORKPLACE
At my [hospital] workplace, we have a new office for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Vice President, B—, an African-heritage woman, spoke to those of us who work in the kitchen and did a good job talking about “systemic racism” and “socioeconomic” (class) issues.
The president and CEO of the hospital has begun putting into practice the suggestions some of us have made about improving communication among coworkers at all levels of the hospital. Employees from different departments have held several small group meetings to discuss this. At one meeting, I suggested having not only discussion groups, in which we share ideas and thoughts, but also support-group-type meetings in which we share experiences and feelings, like the first time we experienced or heard about racism. B— was at that meeting and said twice that she loved the idea. Others mentioned “experience-sharing groups” later in the discussion. People have also mentioned addressing issues of the society outside our workplace—something I’ve brought up before but haven’t seen reflected back like I’m seeing now.
In October I will start receiving a Social Security check every month. Then I’ll start looking for a per diem position at my workplace so I can work fewer days each week and have more time for other activities. I do want to keep working, to see what we can do to move a large workplace in a progressive direction.
MY APARTMENT BUILDING
We have some new neighbors in our apartment building, and a few of them have joined our tenants’ association and are taking leadership quickly. Since our building was renovated under new owners, many of the new neighbors are middle class. We are one of the few buildings in our tenants’ union local in which the newer tenants are actively backing [supporting] their longtime working-class neighbors.
Members of our local did some research about the owners of our building and found that the same owners own many other buildings that are experiencing problems. Tenants of several buildings have been coming together and being publicly visible in large numbers. At our building, we often start our meetings with “something good in your life recently.” It is beginning to catch on [become frequently used] as a way to help us connect with each other.
One of our new neighbors has a mezuzah on her door. [A mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah.] So I e-mailed her a Chag Sameach (Happy Passover) message. She wrote back, and we’ve started a good conversation. I’ll be sending Ramadan greetings to another neighbor on Monday.
EL SALVADOR
J—, in El Salvador, continues to lead a monthly RC men’s support group. A man in his wide world men’s group is in the RC group, and I participate to make it at least three of us.
One of my friends and Co-Counselors in El Salvador has a new job looking into cases of people who disappeared during the armed conflict. That work helps families find closure and keeps the historical memory alive despite efforts to conceal it.
A GOOD DIRECTION
Tim, I enjoyed watching your guided tour of the former RC headquarters—the church building in Seattle (Washington, USA). I recognized the room where I had the first session of my first Intensive in 1978. At that time, I was a young adult thinking of being a social worker, and my counselor gave me the direction “The future is uncharted.” It was a good direction.
Love and comradeship,
Los Angeles, California, USA
(Present Time 204, July 2021)