Curtis Ogden’s Post

Thank you, Stephanie Hanes!

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to carrion — put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men. Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth? Go with your love to the fields. Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap. Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts. As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.” - Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”

What if more of us were “doing the better and our best, and connecting that to and trusting the rest”?

This is a great tool to return to for #networks that are struggling to determine who "members" are. This can be a confusing and sometimes not entirely helpful question. In working with a couple of place-based networks recently, we have brought "the ladder of engagement" into conversations so that there can be more nuanced and broad-minded consideration of who these different networks are intended to be for (who benefits? who do they ultimately serve?). If you are only focused on official "members" you may be missing the larger picture of influence and "ripple effects" out on the periphery of your network. The most engaged participants (top of the ladder) are generally going to be a smaller group of people, when compared to those who touch or are touched by the network less frequently and intensively. And this is not necessarily a bad thing! Remember that in this vastly interconnected world, things move through connections that we most often cannot "see" or sense. The ladder of engagement might give us a better and broader view (though certainly not complete!) of how ripples of change happen so we can be strategic for those different levels of interest and interaction. It all adds up!

The question in the second line … worth holding onto. “#Transformation isn’t merely a change of morals, group affiliation, or belief system—although it might lead to that—but a change at the very heart of the way we receive and pass on each moment. Do we use the moment to strengthen our own ego position, or do we use the moment to enter into a much broader seeing and connecting?” - Richard Rohr Photo: “Blueberry Bog”, North Leverett, Massachusetts

Another "movement" to celebrate here in #Massachusetts ... "Pollinator gardens have grown from a plea to protect wildlife into a blossoming movement. Homeowners and municipalities in western Massachusetts are 'killing their lawns' and replacing the grass with trees, bushes and wildflowers that bees, butterflies and bugs rely on. These gardens grow into #ecosystems, supporting native species who continue to lose habitat in the face of climate change, development and invasive species. “'[It’s about] getting people to redefine #aesthetics,' Adams said. 'People look at a vast green lawn and say, ‘oh, that’s beautiful,’ when in fact it’s a biological wasteland. Some people look at a meadow and say it’s so wild and not tamed and not America, but to us it’s just beautiful.'” ... "The movement has expanded to beyond neighborhood backyards to include a program run by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation called Going Wild. Now in its fourth year, the program encourages residents about enhancing and preserving #pollinator habitats. "Additionally, proposed legislation on Beacon Hill calls for a special commission to study statewide opportunities for enhancing and expanding pollinator habitat in both developed and natural areas such as farm field borders, forest borders, residential areas, parks, urban areas, industrial areas, energy transmission corridors, energy generating facilities and transportation corridors. More here - https://lnkd.in/eBFh9KXB

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen … and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.” – Henry David Thoreau Working collaboratively on complex situations can certainly be ... complex. And we have learned over the years that there are a few core things to focus on that can support networked change efforts for long-term success. I fed a bunch of learnings in ChatGPT from one particular network that I have supported for over a dozen years, which has created many positive regional, national and international ripples. Then I played with what it gave back to me in terms of essentials. The linked post is the result. https://lnkd.in/eiavctAG

Our family became involved with the Stream of Holly Cross Children’s Home in Uganda a couple of years ago. KYELU TADEO and other staff of the Children’s Home care for orphans ranging in age from 5-18 years. Most children have lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Others have lost family due to political unrest and violence in the country. Additionally, high levels of poverty have resulted in malnutrition and early death from preventable diseases like cholera, malaria, TB, and typhoid among others. Stream of Holly Cross Children’s Home was founded in April 2013 in Jinga Mafubira. It created a refuge for children from all across Uganda. Kyelu shared his proposal with our family and to date we have helped to raise around $5000. He hopes to purchase land as opposed to renting, which he is currently doing, and is quite expensive. The mission of the Children’s Home is to provide education, health care, and community to children who have lost their families. This would help to reduce the number of street children and child-related crime in the area, lower HIV/AIDS cases through education and prevention, improve access to education, and help children acquire technical skills regardless of their academic inclination, in order to support themselves in the future. Funds from this project will go to supporting the Home’s purchase of land to grow crops like maize, cabbage, potatoes, bananas, avocados, citrus, raising poultry, and becoming self reliant. In addition they hope to build a larger facility equipped with a library, separate dormitories, computers, a small medical clinic and volunteer wing, among other amenities. Thank you for considering a contribution! https://lnkd.in/eqWtQmAg

Being “against” can get us so far and seems a dead end if we never discover the land of “for” … This from Sarah Bessey’s. Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith - “Imagining and contending for what you hope for in this world is one of the hardest and kindest paths I’ve discovered out here. In the midst of all this, don’t forget to imagine something better. Don’t forget to dream of what could be #possible. And don’t forget to live into those hopes with faithfulness. Move in that direction, especially when all you know is ‘not this.’ “If it helps, sometimes I’ve thought of this as the rhythm of turning away and then turning toward, almost like a beautiful dance…. We turn away from those things we’re against and toward the hopeful future we imagine. In a purposeful movement, we turn away from the practices or beliefs or habits that consume us, threaten us, reduce us, and distract us. And then we turn toward what brings flourishing, goodness, and truth to us. Turn away, yes, and turn toward…. “What we turn toward should reorient us to the world in a posture of #love, #joy, and #service. It can be a simple rhythm to begin with. Turning away from spaces in social media that have become toxic for you and turning toward inviting a lonely neighbor over for tea. Turning away from voices that bring shame and guilt to you or others and turning toward voices that preach freedom and wholeness and love. Or turning away from shrinking back and shutting up to keep the peace; turning toward owning your voice, your body, your experiences with boldness. Turning away from gossip and petty nitpicking; turning toward language of blessing….” https://lnkd.in/epRzNqeh

Return-on-investment (ROI) is not a term that I love, especially given how militantly utilitarian and narrowly it is STILL often considered and applied. Of course, investment can take many different forms - financial, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual. In #networks, for participants (let’s actually call them “co-creators”) this often takes the form of investments of time, money, knowledge, creativity, and other energetic expenditures. Why would co-creators in networks take the time and risk to make such an investment? What is the expected return? Presumably, when we are talking about networks for #socialchange, which is where I spend most of my time, the principle driver is the desire to make a real and meaningful difference for people, places and purposes they care about and that they sense will be more positively impacted through network activity. Co-creators are also “kept in the network game” if participation enhances their own capabilities, grows and/or deepens their connections, gives them increased opportunities to be generative, and perhaps even find a sense of #belonging! I am looking forward to the day when a broader sense of "ROI" is truly valued and honored by more people in so-called "economic" activities. And with colleagues, we are re-exploring how (and dusting off) a different "platform" (another one of those words that I have come to be very wary of) that might create avenues for robust and diverse exchanges that bring value to many more individuals and real communities and ecosystems. https://lnkd.in/eMhaAqz