Howard Gardner Interviews Jeffrey Sachs

fractalbridge — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:14:04 +0000

Recently I had a double take when I learned that Howard Gardner, the famous author of a book that transformed education titled “Multiple Intelligences,” was the interviewer of a man named Jeffrey Sachs.
“Who is the Sachs character?” I wondered. I decided to find out by going to their interview at the 92nd Street Y.

Jeffrey Sachs is an economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia’s School of Public Health. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and the founder and co-President of the Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the United Nations Millennium Project Millennium Development Goals, eight internationally sanctioned objectives to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, and disease by the year 2015.

This interview blew me away. Some of the highlights were as follows:

“We tend to remember the leaders who kill many people, but not those who imagine the possibility of peace.”

“People don’t tend to think about economics until they are older. It’s related to the question of what works in the world and what doesn’t?”

“My life changed when a Bolivian asked me in 1985 to come to his country and see what it (and runaway inflation) was really like in practice. I went. My life purpose in academia has taken a different path ever since.”

“It turns out that the basic principles of economics apply even at 12,000 feet above sea level!”

“I saw how my practical knowledge could actually be applied, which was somethin that emotionally expanded me and my life purpose.”

“I helped get the unpayable debt of Bolivia cancelled, which resulted in many other Southamerican debt cancellations. It was only because I was tenured at Harvard that I was not scared to talk about such ideas.”

“I happened to go to Poland on April 4, 1989 and was able to participate with and see a revolution happen before my very eyes that related to the dissolving of the Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall.”

“In the midst of our great power, the US is one of the most insular countries in the world.”

“Remember what Margaret Meade famously said: ‘Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.’”

“Transition Economics has now become a field with thousands of followers and disciples and agents.”

“I try to define problems in such a way that they can be solvable.”

“I fell in love with Keynes who dealt with the politics of economics.”

“With most of our real world problems, specialists are not able to help us as much. We need interdisciplinary approaches.”

“I’m still black and blue from the work I attempted to do with Russia just after the USSR dissolved. The Americans simply did not want to make much of a difference there, when they could have done so much. From October 1991 until December 1993 I felt like I was in a Russian hurricane. While I was focused on helping Russia and Poland get on their feet, Cheney and Wolfowitz were focused on securing American dominance in the world.”

“I raised 1 billion dollars for Poland’s currency. I tried to do the same for Russia and hit road block after road block, thanks to people like Cheney.”

“I was told that because 1992 was an election year that my good ideas would not be put into action. I did not believe this could happen at the time. It did.”

“My wife is a physician and so helps me with using the powers of ‘differential diagnoses’ of problems.”

“I went to Zambia early on, saw the realities of malaria, and was in shock that no one was there helping.”

“I worked with the global fund for AIDS, helping Kofi Annon from the United Nations.”

“One of the paradoxes of modern times is that we have so many committed communities of people but that they for the most part of very little access to the policy-makers.”

“I now go around the world having tantrums in public places so it is heard. I had a tantrum the other day at the UN.”

“At the Earth Institute we have 800 scientists and everything on the earth is game!”

“One of my projects right now is small order farmers who can make more food. Obama seems to be excited about it.”

“I worked with Bono on cancelling debt in the developing world and Bono went on to write a book about how poverty can be ended.”

“FDR and JFK were heros of mine because they posed problems in a way that they could be solved. I believe Obama will eventually do that to the same level of skill.”

“Climate change is the absolutely most essential issue right now and so all other goals are linked back to this goal.”

“Quite simply Wall Street needs to say sorry and we need to tax them.”

“We need a better vocabulary of values and ethics.”

Thank you for a very interesting evening, Jeffrey Sachs and Howard Gardner!

A Rainy Evening in the Basement of the NY Main Library with Daryl Pinkney

fractalbridge — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:27:19 +0000

NY Review of Books Panel at Main Library

On Thursday, November 5th I attended a wonderful event at the NY Public Library on the corner of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, near Bryant Park. Two floors down into the basement of this famed library was a gathering from NY Time Review of Books representatives Daryl Pinkney, Ester Allen, Michael Cunningham and Greel Markus.

The theme of the evening on this 10th Anniversary of the NY Review of Books included acknowledging the NY Review of Books Classics publication company created by Edwin Frank.

This esteemed panel was interviewed in a well lit room in front of a crowd of about 50 people, their four chairs in a semi-circle, the atmosphere imbued with the flavor of “discussing-great-literature-in-the-basement-of-an old-library-on a-drizzly-November-evening.”

One of the authors had written books with titles like Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces and about people such as Bob Dylan, Bill Clinton, David Lynch and the French Situationalists. I wondered what connected all of these themes.

Part of the topic for the night was publishing houses that focus on classics. One of the members of the panel mentioned that they grew up under the spell of the luminous Penguin Classics with their beautiful covers and sense of authority. Even amongst the most successful of authors there came with Penguin a fantasy that “maybe I will have a book in the Penguin series but I will probably have to be dead first!”

One of the first questions the moderator asked was inherently interesting: “What books did you enjoy so much that you could not put them down?”

Another member of the panel spoke of her deep love associated with publishing houses that bring together such a diversity of different classics: “For me it’s as if I am invited to a party of authors who don’t know each other and I get to introduce them to each other.”

Still another member of the panel spoke of his love of the care that is put into choosing extraordinary art for the covers of the books in the series: “For me it’s almost as if the art on the cover of the books tell me something about the books that the books don’t even know about themselves.”

Care is put into bringing a unique variety and diversity to the collection. For example, on the list of authors of NY Review is the book Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf and other selections you might not necessarily expect; in fact the list is considered so “hyper-decontextualized” that even Harpo Marx is on the list!

The NY Book Review at some point had a special list of “worst sellers” because they noticed that some of those books were often considered some of the most loved and appreciated of the books to their reader base; they often received requests for the worst sellers from readers who felt this would ensure that they would like them!”

Some of the quotes I appreciated from the evening were:

“What I find interesting is what is out of print.”

“Books mess wonderfully with your sense of time.”

“My favorite are the underground, off-beat, romantic books.”

“We all owe a debt to literary critic Edmund Wilson.”

“Read the Anatomy of Melancholy.” (mentioned 3 times)

“I tend to have confidence that if a book is on that list (NY Review of Classics) that it will be transformative for me.”

“Part of the excitement is wondering which book or books in the series will have that deep impact on your life.”

“We all have books that we feel we should read or should have read but for some reason we did not. But then there are books that fall in that interesting category of books that you ’shouldn’t have read’ but you did, such as Heinlin’s Stranger in a Strange Land!

“We used to have a fun kind of book club in which we had a game where we competed to see who could humiliate themselves the most. The way to win the game was to name a book that almost everyone else in the room has read but you have not, which is a variation of naming a book that no one else in the room has read and you admit that you gave in and read it!”

“My favorite genre is 20th century Russian writers whose work was suppressed under Communist/Soviet rule, and whose work is just now being acknowledged and appreciated.”

“The nice thing about real books as opposed to the electronic/Kindle versions is that you definitely have ‘heft in your hands.’ In the same way, there is something about actually holding a pen or pencil that ingnites something special in some writers.”

But the best quotes of the night were from critic Daryl Pinkney (see photo above):

“Some come to NY to become a Jewish intellectual; I came to NY to become a Mad Black Queen.”

“No, I have not read that book. But I’ve pretended to read it many times.”

“Never say never when it comes to books.”

One of my Teachers College Essays: The Battle of Algiers

fractalbridge — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:23:14 +0000

Some friends have asked me what I’m working on at Columbia Teachers College. In my Conflict Resolution course (part of the Social Organizational Psychology department) with Peter Coleman (see below) I wrote this essay about the topic of conflict in the film The Battle of Algiers…

Rhythmic Cries: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Battle of Algiers

In the film The Battle of Algiers, an understandably frightened member of the French military during the Algerian war of independence in the late 1950s memorably refers to the “unintelligible and frightening rhythmic cries” uttered by the cascading crowd of demonstrating and revolting Algerians. One wonders: unintelligible and frightening for whom? Not, presumably, for the revolting Algerians, for whom the sounds were probably associated with catharsis, liberation and social justice. Thus, as I will argue and explore here, one might say that almost any conflict is at least as much a tension between opposing or contrasting perspectives as it is between opposing realities.

The Battle of Algiers is ideally suited for deep reflection and analysis of topics related to power, conflict, conflict resolution and related topics. The film has “stood the test of time,” proving to be relevant to some of the deepest and most problematic conflicts inflaming our world today. The United States Pentagon held showings of the film in the early days of current Iraq War. Insurgency movements use it as part of their training. Topics that it addresses—such as terrorism, torture and the nature of conflict—are deeply relevant to today’s geo-political realities.

One of the many perspectives from which The Battle of Algiers proves ideal for analyzing conflict is social-cultural. The film, especially as viewed through the eyes of experts on cross-cultural issues, sends a message to those interested in conflict and peace: learn how to be cultural integrators who sew a quilt of peaceful co-existence, or risk being swept up in a vicious cycle of cultural prejudice, distrust, conflict, aggression, war.

In Conflict Formulation: Going Beyond Culture-bound Views of Conflict, G.E. Faure claims that a society’s “underlying meaning is provided by culture” and that “culture is not just one variable in the methodology of conflict studies, but rather the law of variation of the methodology of conflict studies…Conflict as a concept is laden with cultural bias…. It is perceived, defined and dealt with differently (in each culture) and thus culturally rooted.” Faure explains how different cultures capture the notion of conflict and conflict resolution differently depending on their cultural context, offering the fascinating example of the New Guinean Cargo Cult of the 1950s and how fixed their cultural explanation was of the hidden meanings that explained their plight as a colonized and oppressed people.

The degree to which the Algerians and French were entrenched in their explanations of their conflict is similar. The Algerians had a relationship to their 130 years of colonization that was unique to their cultural perspective. They had many generations of “intellectual capture” of aspects of their French colonizers. The film does a remarkable job of showing the many misunderstandings and misinterpretations that both sides had regarding each other. In the same sense that the New Guinean Cargo Cult leader could not be convinced of the Australian “truth” even when presented with “evidence” on his trip to Sydney, the culture of the Algerians served as a filter through which they experienced the French colonial policies and vice-versa. The most striking example of the filter through which the French dealt with the Algerians occurs when the French military leader describes the nature of Algerian resistance using crude geometric drawings forming a long, tree-like structure. He uses the analogy of a “tapeworm” to describe the organizational structure of the Algerian resistance, which reinforces his assertion that the tapeworm’s “head must be cut off.” This way of framing the Algerian organization contributes to the acceptance of the French military perspective that they must interrogate and torture the Algerian members of this “tapeworm.” The French military leader says that they must “know” the opposing structure to be able to eliminate it: “To know them is to eliminate them.” This statement is profoundly dehumanizing, for the Algerian independence fighters become, in the mind of the French military, more like pieces of a worm than human beings.

Another way in which cultural misunderstandings and misinterpretations hijack conflict resolution is through what Kimmel calls “Fundamental Attribution Error,” in which perceived negative behaviors are attributed to personality. These negative attributes inevitably lead to negative emotions (in the victimized people) and to increased perceived negative behaviors, which in turn lead to further negative attributes, resulting in a vicious cycle. In The Battle of Algiers the French media clumsily label the Algerians as illiterate, brick-laying, draft dodgers in need of “serious reform.” Like many oppressive colonial powers, most French military officials looked through the prism of their own culture and callously degraded the Algerians. According to Kimmel, it is just this sort of negative attribution that served as a filter through which the Algerians began to exhibit behaviors that reinforced the French interpretation of the negative attributes that were applied to them, and thus the vicious circle continued. In one of the more extraordinary scenes in the film, an Algerian intellectual responds to the questions of reporters in such a way that he calls into question the labeling by the media of Algerian bombings by three women as an act of “cowardice.” He challenges the reporter’s use of this term by asking how it compares to the French military’s use of napalm to kill innocent civilians in Vietnam. The fact that this film includes Vietnam in its narrative speaks even more deeply to its relevance to U.S. policies toward other cultures.

M. J. Gelfand, L. H. Nishii and J. L. Raver explain yet another way in which cultural differences play a central role in conceptualizing conflict. Their conceptual model is called “Cultural Tightness-Looseness.” This model addresses cultural bias from the notion that what we often attribute to a value system inside the mind of a person is actually more accurately understood according to the external factors that the authors call tightness (strength of social norms and sanctioning) or looseness (weakness of social norms and sanctioning). The Battle of Algiers can be seen as providing an exploration of this phenomenon. In some of the most poignant scenes of the film, we witness the effect of the Algerians’ cultural call for all citizens to give up alcohol, drugs, prostitution and other behaviors that are deemed in their culture to be ethically and morally reprehensible. In this sense the film shows the “cultural tightness” of the society, the manifestation of which is that those who lie outside the moral norm are taunted and chased through the streets by their own people. The larger purpose of this moral crackdown was to keep the resistance, appropriately, tight—meaning well organized and streamlined. According to the perspective of those who promoted this view within Algerian society, only by upholding a high standard of morality could the Algerian resistance weed out those who were not truly committed to its cause. This dynamic, if the French had been attentive enough to understand it, might have contributed to resolving conflict more effectively: declaring a shared goal (for example, improving ethical and moral behavior of all persons) could have served as a potential bridge and thus provided negotiating points between the French and Algerians.

Finally, J.P. Lederach’s Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures provides another model for conceptualizing conflict. Lederach suggests that there is a “dialectic and paradoxical component” in conflict transformation. He suggests that there is even “some positive potential to conflict” in the sense that “the energy of seemingly irreconcilable ideas are enhanced if they are held together.” In this model, “peace and conflict can go hand in hand, setting the context for each other.”

It was through Lederach’s discussion of this paradoxical conflict dialectic that I was able to draw the most inspiration and insight from The Battle of Algiers. Lederach’s writings enhanced my understanding of the scene in which Algerian prisoners cry out to Allah, as well as the scene showing the wild-eyed inspiration that the adults felt when the boy took the microphone from the French propaganda officer and assured the Algerians that they were doing the “right thing” in revolting. In both of these scenes I sensed short-term conflict within a transformative container. Most of all, however, Lederach helped me to understand—in greater depth—the scene in which the Algerians made noises that the Frenchman called “unintelligible and frightening rhythmic cries” as they spontaneously (and rhythmically!) broke through the French military barriers. In this scene the Algerians seemed to embody the raw transformative power described Lederach’s dialectic—a kind of paradox of conflict transformation. In those moments conflict was not necessarily a bad thing. It was not necessarily something to be avoided. Rather, conflict was part of the deeper “conflict/peace” dialectic that Lederach describes, conflict and peace magnetically interconnected with the energy of the other in the name of a deeper transformation of society and thus history. From this perspective, the “unintelligible and frightening rhythmic cries” may have been unintelligible to most of the French occupiers; to many of the Algerians, however, they were the intelligible rhythmic cries of transformative change and liberation.

My New World: Teachers College, Columbia University

fractalbridge — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:40:20 +0000

I’ve recently added a new world to my New York City life–I was officially accepted this April into the Doctorate of Education program in Interdisciplinary Studies at Teachers College or Columbia University on 120th Street near Harlem in New York City! The departements I’ll be working with are Psychology in Education, Social-Organizational Psychology, Philosophy of Education, Curriculum and Teaching, and other departments related to transformative education and emotional learning!

Here are the professors who will be on my graduate studies committee team:

1) Megan Laverty from the Philosophy of Education Department (http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=ml2524)

2) Peter Coleman from the department of Social-Organizational Psychology (http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=pc84)

Peter is also the head of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution!

http://www.tc.edu/icccr/

3) Deanna Kuhn from the department of Psychology and Education (http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=dk100)

4) Lynn Bejoian from the department of Curriculum and Teaching (http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=lmb16)

5) Richard Keller from Psychology in Education.

They represent the dream team for my Interdisciplinary Studied Doctorate of Education Program in my goal of bridging transformative education and emotional learning to the education system!

I visited Teacher’s College for events in these departments and already I have 4-6 new great contacts (professors, fellow graduate students, socratic seminar attendees, etc) from my two evenings there. It’s becoming clear that this will be an entire world unto itself for me in New York.

But then it got even better! When I looked up information about Megan Laverty, I noticed that she has been involved with an ongoing Socratic methods/Salon group at Columbia led by a man named Ron Gross. You can read about his at this site: http://www.socratesway.com/ and here is a photo of him dressed at Socrates!

Ron also has a “Conversation Cafe” (http://www.conversationcafe.org/Newsletters/Newsletter_08_Jan/Ron%20column.htm) at Columbia which has a similar purpose of stimulating conversation and “great talk” as a means of improving oneself, creating community and making the world a better place.

Ron has said he will be lead one of my next Salons so keep updated on when he will host!

ObamArete: Politics as Transformation

fractalbridge — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:17:59 +0000

As you can read from my last post, I went to Washington DC on Inauguration Day, attended the Western States Inaugural Ball, saw Biden and Obama live, and met Nanci Pelosi. The day was a once in a lifetime event with more emotion that you could believe. One might say that on that day History, Politics and Psychology all merged together.

I’ve always loved the subjects of History/Politics and Psychology and particularly the overlap–or bridge–between them. My dad (the son of a diplomat) loved History/Politics and when I spent time with him we watched Morley Saefer and Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes every Sunday night. You might say my mom is a stereotypical Berkeley mom, really into the transformative arts, transformative courses, and books like “Women Who Run With the Wolves.”

Over the years I’ve taught History, Government, Psychology, Diversity Studies, Peer Counseling and Communications. In schools I attended and also in schools in which I taught, these subjects have for the most part been approached separately.

What I did not expect–but which somehow does not surprise me–is that many of the ideas of the Obama Administration sound incredibly similar to a lot of the Psycho-Spiritual-Emotional Intelligence ideas I’ve been exposed to in San Francisco Bay Area transformative course, particularly the ideas from my favorite transformational course called “The Arete Experience!”

And, since I enjoy making word bridges, I found myself last week amusedly coining the term “The Era of ObamArete” to represent that bridge.

I playfully coin the term ObamArete as a word to represent an interesting phonomenon occuring between the public world and the private world. In an increasingly interdependent and integrated world, political awareness and personal awareness are becoming increasingly connected. The truths one discovers at the center of their essence seem to echo and reflect the truths that prove themselves to be true in the world of politics and the public.

Here are some examples:

1) In a transformational course like Arete, one learns that by engaging authentically with others and being with what is present with your relationship, by speaking honestly and truthfully about what is so for you, that you may not always “win” but you will share your ideas, become more who you are and thus make a difference for the world and .
Barack Obama frequently shared that his political motivations were “to share his visions truthfully, and that if he lost the presidency that it would be worth it because he will have still made a difference.”

2) At the core of most transformational work is the awareness of habits and human’s tendency to take things for granted and lose appreciation.
In his book Audacity of Hope Obama writes: “(we all have)…blind spots, recurring habits of thought that may be genetic or may be environmental…one of mine has proven to be chronic restlessness; an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things are going, those blessings right in front of me.”

3) An effective transformational course looks to the transformative power of community.
Obama: “…we can ground our politics in the notion of a common good (related to ‘Commons’, or ‘Community’).”

4) Transformative courses help us check our ego and to get present to our deepest commitments.
Obama: “(Politicians) need to avoid the pitfalls of (and pursuit of) fame [ego], the hunger to please, and the fear of loss, and thereby retain that kernel of truth, that singular voice within each of us that reminds us of our deepest commitments…”

5) One of the main lessons from good transformative courses is that when we give in to stories of blame and resentments about how things happened TO US, rather than “feeling into the moment of our experience,” we invalidate and sabotage our relationship with others and ourselves.
Obama: “I am convinced that when whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose…we get caught in “either/or” thinking, such as the notioin that we can have only big government or not government; the assumption that we must either tolerate forty-six million without health insurance or embrace “socialized medicine.”

6) Some forms of transformation help people understand and become present to the notion that we are part of a deeply complex system that is constantly taking new shape, coaching us to have flexibility in the moment.
Obama: “…across America, a constant cross-pollination is occuring, a not entirely orderly but generally peaceful collision among people and cultures. Identities are scrambling, and then cohering in new ways. Beliefs keep slipping through the noose of predictability. Facile expectations and simple explanations are being contantly upended.”

7) Some transformation work is related to the process of expanding our frame of reference.
Obama: “Tensions arise (in life) not because we have steered a wrong course, but simply because we live in a complex and contradictory world.”

Notions of “authenticity” are instrumental in the process of true transformation. Obama addresses authenticity indirectly in the next passage.
Obama: “I often wonder what makes it so difficult for politicians to talk about values in ways that don’t appear calculated or phony. Partly, I think, it’s because those of us in public life have become so scripted, and the gestures that candidates use to signify their values have become so standardized…that it becomes harder and harder for the public to distinguish between honest sentiment and political stagecraft.” He later goes on to link this notion with his “audacity to hope.”

9) On the topics of authenticity we writes more.
Obama: “…we long for that most elusive quality in our leaders–the quality of authenticity, of being who you say you are, of possessing a truthfulness that goes beyond words.”

10) In a year-long course I took through Arete co-founder Guy Sengstock called the Transformative Coaching and Leadership Training, perhaps the overarching principle we learned was “seeing another person’s world.”
Obama: “…at the heart of my moral code, and how I understand the Golden Rule–not simply a call to sympathy or charity, but as something more demanding, a call to stand in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes…I find myself returning again and again to my mother’s simple principle–’How would that make you feel?’-as a guidepost for my politics.”

11) Many effective transformative course essentially boil down to creating a safe context in which to challenge one’s beliefs about oneself, others and life, gradually bumping up against challenges and assumptions until solutions are formed.
Obama suggests that the entire legal system and Constitution has the possibility to transform society!
Obama: The (Constitution) also offers us the possibility of a genuine marketplace of ideas, one in which the “jarring of parties” works on behalf of “deliberation and circumspection”; a marketplace in which, through debate and competition, we can expand our perspective, change our minds, and eventually arrive not merely at agreements but at sound and fair agreements.”

12) Many transformative processes include being with both the beauty AND the ugliness of life, and embracing both in while triving for a larger and deeper goal.
Obama: “I love America too much, am too invested in what this country has become, too committed to its institutions, its beauty, and even its ugliness, to focus entirely on the circumstances of its birth.”

13) In an effective transformation course, there is a sense of having been “cleansed” by the experience of being with people. It’s pretty reassuring that Obama on many occasions found that expressing his political visions in a crowd felt cleansing!
Obama: “…as I look out over the crowd, I somehow feel encouraged. In their bearing I see hard work. In the way they handle their children I see hope. My time with them is like a dip in a cool stream. I feel cleansed afterward, glad for the work I have chosen.”

14) Another of the main principles of transformational courses I’ve experiences is that, due to an early wounding (usually from not been seen, felt or understood), we organize our worlds so as to avoid that feeling ever again. Obama is able to skillfully describe that way in which, due to so much disappointment, politicians and citizens construct ways to avoid feeling a sense of hope or optimism about the future, for fear that they will be hurt once again!
Obama: “…the sorts of feelings that most people haven’t experienced since high school, when the girl (or boy) you’d been pinning over dismissed you with a joke in front of her friends, or you missed a pair of free throws with the big game on the line-the kinds of feelings that most adults wisely organize their lives to avoid.”

The link between Obama and transformative thinking and being goes on and on.

My point? It feels like we finally have a president who embodies some of the principles of transformative thinking that I find so deeply present in much of the transformative courses and culture of the San Francisco Bay Area!

Finally, here is a link to an article about the transformative potential of Obama:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96694999

History Up Close: My Experience in DC on Inauguration Day

fractalbridge — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:12:39 +0000

Now that almost two weeks have passed I think I can piece together one of the most extraordinary 24 hours of my life. A day when I saw History up close. Inauguration Day.

After not sleeping well the night before and not feeling so well on Inauguration morning, I slept in. When I woke I found myself rushing to Penn Station and being lucky to find an available ticket to Washington DC on the Acella fast train. Of course I was sad to have missed the actual Inauguration ceremony but it would have taken too much out of me to arrive in the early icy morning to be part of that event. So I arrived in the aftermath of the ceremony and DC was all abuzz like I’ve never experienced a city before.

The best way to describe what happened to me was being caught in a swirling, spiralling wave of grace, hope and possibility. I started talking with people, telling them about my transformational community in the San Francisco Bay Area, my Salon community in New York City, and the Green School in inner city Brooklyn where I teach. I felt so much love and possibility from people that I get choked up just thinking about it.

Then suddenly a few people who took a liking to me started to mumble something…turns out they were discussing offering me a ticket to one of the “official” balls! Next thing I knew I was on my way to the Midwestern Ball! Turns out 6 of the balls were all nearby and connected to the same entrance and security points, so I walked right past the Western States Ball. Eventually I made my way back to the entrance and asked if I could enter since I’m originally from California (Berkeley/San Francisco). They were pretty strict about not allowing that, but I just kept smiling, talking to people and being open to the possibility. Out of that spece of possibility I was unexpectedly offered a VIP press pass ticket and I was sitting in seats overlooking the entire ball!

I’ve met some extraordinary people over the years including Al Gore, Thomas Friedman, Walter Cronkinte, Gloria Steinem, Ariana Huffington, David McCullough, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and Dr. Wayne Dyer.
But this night was so unbelievably historical and it meant so much to me to meet Speaker of the House Nanci Pelosi that night!

Because she felt safe in the VIP section and was obviously in a great mood, she was really open to talking. She asked me all about the Green School and I shared with her about the amazing transformational community I’m conneted to in California (which of course is where she is from, thus the Western States Ball!). She was so friendly that I felt comfortable asking to take photo with her.

Later in the evening the Biden’s showed up to dance, and then the moment everyone had been waiting for…Barack and Michelle came out at about midnight, said some inspiring words, and then danced for about 5 minutes. There were so many photos and videos going off that it was blinding…luckily I was in the raised VIP stands and was able to get about 4 minutes of unobstructed, close up footage. Obama is magical even when giving a speech about the economy, so imagine what it was like to see him interract in the context of a ball, music and dancing? Truly a very spiritual nature and enlightened leader, one that comes along once every hundred years or so.

As if that was not enough, after the ball was complete I happened to walk by the Burning Man Ball, was invited in since it was so late, joined them for the next 4 hours, and was invited to stay over with at the friend of a friend of folks there. The next day was spent remembering all the incredible moments and feeling blessed to have seen History “up close” on Inauguration Day.

Salon #9: The “Acknowledging Family” Salon

fractalbridge — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:08:08 +0000

Our longest break without a Salon, due in part to the holidays, was 4 weeks. We finally met again this past Sunday, January 18th. Salon #9 was called the “Acknowledging Family” Salon.” For two weeks prior we put together photo albums, recalled stories and organized other shares about our family, many of whom we spent time with over the holidays.

We had two first time visitors this time: Kristin and Itai.

We had so much to catch up on that only three of us had time to do full presentations about our family. We’ve decided that we will have to have a Part 2 and Part 3 on the topic of Acknowledging Family

This was our largest Salon at 11 people. As usual, the Salon was undescribably wonderful and at one point we all held hands in silence in a way that actually felt like we were a family.

Next time we will be joined by speakerphone by Guy Sengstock, co-founder of the Arete Experience.

We also kept our traditional of taking several photos:

What are my Community Salons?

fractalbridge — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:24:30 +0000

Many people have asked me about my Community Salons. First I’d say that they aren’t “mine” in the sense that they “belong” to the entire community of friends who attend them. I suppose they are mine in the sense that I started organizing them about two years ago and did several in the SF Bay Area and now several of them here in New York.

Many associate Salons with the 18th century French gathering designed to “please and educate”. While there some similarieties between the two, the Salons I’ve put on do not fit the somewhat elitist descriptions one reads about in reference to the French Salons. They are community gatherings in the true sense of community, including people of all income groups, all ethnicities and all backgrounds. That said, at this point they tend to be made up of people I already know and the good friends of people I already know.

The idea of my Salons are to have a social gathering that approximates something between a dinner party and a structured class or workshop session. In most dinner parties the conversation takes it’s own course, often with the result of a group of 10 split into two or three separate conversation with no structure other than the whim of the individuals. Certain personalities tend to dominate the conversation. Such gatherings are the norm, are usually pleasant enough, but usually the group does not go that deep. Most courses or workshops have a very particular structure to them. Usually the leader or leaders have a certain curriculum they intend or hope to follow. They plan certain stages of the experience and intend a certain result. If it is a good workshop everyone goes deep but it tends to not be as spontaneous as a social gathering.

I like to think that a Salon is the best of both.

The most important goal is to experience love and the essence of community.

We start with a potluck with the idea that food and music are some of the most basic ways that community is created and enjoyed. After about an hour I formally begin the Salon by thanking everyone for showing up and give some context for a Salon (which might be similar to the contents of this post). I explain that in a Salon we strive to stay conncted as an entire group, allowing the conversation to ebb and flow but keeping a certain rigor in our listening so that the conversation follows a kind of “group flow” that is unique to that group. I ask that as the Salon progresses that people strive to bring themselves more and more to the moment, to what they are experiencing right now. I challenge participants to catch themselves if they get really heady, conceptual, or stuck in the past or the future. I remind them that a good sign that you are in the world of concepts is if the energy drops in the room or if people start to lose interest and drift.

I usually begin Salons with introductions. I ask people to share their name and what “home” is for them (this gives lots of flexibility with how to answer, as opposed to “where are you from?” They might share about where they grew up, where they now live, or both. I usually then ask that people briefly share what their “thing” is. I like this question because it allows people to share about what they do for a living, what their main hobby is, what truly lights them up, or even all three. I ask that people be brief in this stage since there are usually 10 people to hear from.

Next I ask a question that relates to the theme of the evening. For example, in the Thankfulness Salon just before Thanksgiving I asked the question “What are you thankful for?” In another salon near the Solstice I asked what stood out for them in the past season and what they wish to create or manifest for the next season. Recently the theme of our Salon was “Who are we as a Commmunity?” since I noticed that most of us were returning to every Salon and many kinds of relationships were forming in our community.

At some point in the middle of the evening I either have the group sing Kirtan (usually East Indian devotional, “call-response” singing) or have a member of our community sing, such as the spectacular Aileen Morgan. At a recent Salon she designed a song that was designed to have a “call-response” structure to it since that unifies the group.

Toward the end of the group I really stress being in the moment together as a community, often with awe inspiring results as the group slows down and feels each other deeply. I also like to bring a completion to each Salon with a process I learned in California called “I’d Like to Get Closer to You.” Basically each person has the option to choose one person (or even the entire group) and share a thought or feeling they had about them that, upon speaking it, brings them closer to the person or group. Usually these take the form of an acknowledgement, but sometimes it is necessary to share a “withold” with the person in order to get the result of feeling closer to them.

Lately we’ve been dancing at the end of them, too.

As you can imagine, each time we have a Salon the community gets closer and we often can’t wait for the next one. They have been met with so much success that one of our main issues as a community is how we will be able to fit in my living room if everyone shows up and/or if anyone brings extra guests. So far we are taking it one Salon at a time.

To give you a sense for these Salons, I’ve included a video of one Salon from June 4th and a few photos we took at the end of our other Salons:

June 4th–SKIP AHEAD TO 5:45 TO WATCH AILEEN AND DIANA SING AT SALON #2:

To give you a sense for the conversation part of this Salon, right after this song I asked the group “Where do you need to give yourself a ‘little more room to grow?’” since that was the most engaging question within Aileen’s lyrics.

We started a tradition of taking photographs of everyone together at the end of the Salons. Here are some of them:

May 11: Salon #1, East Village Housewarming Gathering

Elizabeth Kadetsky, Todd Bresnick, me and Penny Fellbrich

June 4th: NY Salon #2, A Little More Room to Grow (see video above)

NY Salon #2: Todd, Ella Luckett, me, Aileen Morgan and Julia Calonge

September 21st: Salon #3, Fall Solstice/My Birthday Party

October 23: Trip to Sleepy Hollow (not a Salon)

Todd, Julia, Ernest Smith, Laura Schiffeli and me

October 26th: Salon #4, Krishna Das Kirtan with Ernest, Ai, Aileen (sang some), Julia, Ella and Laura Schifferli

October 31: Memorable Halloween Party and Parade (not a Salon)

Halloween Party Before 6th Avenue Parade

November 9th: Salon #5, New President-Elect!

Ernest, Erika, David, Ai, Adrianna, Julia, me and Todd

Novermber 24th: Salon #6, Thanksfulness Salon

December 8th: Salon #7, Who Are We as a Community?

Sabrina top first, Julie top third, Laura top 6th, Ai bottom 2nd

December 21st: Salon #8, Solsti-Salon Holiday Party

Julia, Hillary Bacheldor, David, Adriana, Ernest, me and Dina posing while contemplating the Solstice

January 18th: Salon #9, Acknowledging Family Part I

February 15th: Salon #10, Acknowledging Family Part II/Valentines Brunch

March 7th: Salon #11, Acknowledging Family Part III/Saturday Brunch

March 28th: Salon #12, Increasing Luck (St. Pat’s) in Life, Saturday Brunch

April 25″ Salon #13, Hopping into Spring (Easter/Passover)

A Night with Elie Weisel

fractalbridge — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:00:57 +0000

Tonight I finally see and hear a great hero of mine named Elie Weisel.

He is a Holocaust survivor and wrote a famous book called Night.

My family celebrated some Jewish holidays and I have vivid memories of Chanukah with very happy people. I studied History in college and then earned a teaching credential and Master’s Degree in Education. I taught History for 5 years and the Holocaust was an important part of the curriculum. I had the wonderful opportunity to also teach Diversity Studies, Psychology and a course called Living and Dying to high school seniors.

One summer right after college I spent a summer as a camp counselor at a mostly Jewish camp in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I loved my campers a lot and one night I read them appropriate passages from Weisel’s Night. They were so engaged by the book that they often did not want me to stop reading. Perhaps the most moving part of the experience was the conversations that evolved after reading together where we often talked about the meaning of life and our own experiences of life.

Now, after all these years, I will go to the 92nd Street YMCA in Manhattan and see Elie Weisel in person.

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I’m back from his incredible talk and I took notes on his quotes. Some of them stand alone and others were part of a larger narrative.

Elie Weisel:

Times change but the questions remain the same.

I just wrote a book titled “A Mad Desire to Dance” which is strange because I’ve never danced.

I quest for meaning. Great patience is required.

When reading try to find a secret place in the story within the novel. At that point what is unsaid is more important than what is said.

Letting suffering speak is the language of truth.

Racism has received it’s final blow in the election of a black man to president of U.S.

We are all rugged individualists with an Aristotelian impulse toward community. Obama has tapped into this strain of our character.

I’m not sure History has a sense of justice but it has a sense of humor.

In the recent tragedies in India the Jews were singled out and tortured…anti-semitism is alive and well.

Hitler and Mussolini made language their captors.

Governments don’t lie, they engage in “mis-information.”

What is memory? What are it’s limits? What is it’s weakness? What role does imagination play in memory? Do they contribute to each other or take away?

All disciplines owe so much to memory.

It’s easy to fall in love with someone who can tell stories or who can listen to stories.

How can we truly heal without knowing the true nature of the shadows and the dark places?

How is it that we can, in the same world, have such cruel people and also such kind hearted people, too?

My answer to the question of how to be happy? Fall in love again, even if you fear it, just fall in love again, and again, and again. A character in one of my books falls in love in a bakery!

Ahh, what will we do for the children who are so scared, so afraid…we will continue to talk to them to tell them stories, to teach them…we will tell them to wait patiently for the world’s fervor, for it’s fire, for it’s deep love, it’s music, it’s melody, and it’s occasional silence…

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I had the honor of shaking his hand that night.

Atticus Finch in the Flesh: Sam Waterston

fractalbridge — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:13:09 +0000

For about 5 years I was raised on one of those spiritual, “alternative communities” in the Napa Valley of Northern California. While it had it’s flaws, it was mostly a great experience. For example, I did not experience lies, misrepresentation or betrayal until my family left “the land” and joined society. I had an intrinsic trust that life was fair. As you can imagine, I had a rude awakening to the realities of life when I entered society and the public school system at the age of about 12 years old.

Yet somehow through it all I still clinged to a sense of idealism that life was fair.

There was a time in my life when I wanted my dad to be Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird.

There was even a time when I wanted to become Atticus as an adult. Right after college and for most of my 20’s I was particularly idealistic (this is more balanced with some realism now). Contemplating Finch’s character, who fought against injustice in the world, brought tears to my eyes. The actor who played him–Gregory Peck,–also played a character in the film A Gentleman’s Agreement who fought against anti-Semitism.

It’s probably not surprising that I also loved characters like Jimmy Stewart’s Mr. Smith in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Even back in 1992 before the Green and Systems Theory movements were in the mainstream I loved those idealistic independent films such as Mindwalk which was loosely based on Fritjof Karpa’s groundbreaking book The Turning Point. In this film I particularly loved the politician character played so well by Sam Waterston. Here is a clip:

So imagine my excitement when I heard that Sam Waterston would be interviewed by the dean of Fordham Law School at an event called “Atticus Finch in the Flesh: A Conversation with Law and Order’s Sam Waterston!”

I attended this event on November 19th and it was all it shaped up to be, with Sam Waterston demonstrating that he is not only an extremely talented actor, but incredibly intelligent and knowledgable about topics such as the law and ethics.

The dean asked great questions related to how Sam thinks our society has been affected by shows such as Law and Order, and that it means to have a system that is “fair.” One of Waterston’s comments filled me with a sense of hope for humanity…he said that he thinks one of the reasons people love shows such as Law and Order is because people deeply care about the notion of fairness.

What does fairness mean to you?