*[Enwl-eng] I’ll be your mirror
ENWLine
I’m in a band here in Belgium that will never be famous. But we have a great time and that has always been enough. There’s a song I’ve been wanting us to cover for a long time. It’s called "I’ll be your mirror", it’s by The Velvet Underground featuring Nico, and it goes like this:
"I’ll be your mirror, reflect who you are, in case you don’t know." [1]
I thought of it again the other day as I was calling people who, like you, take action for different causes as part of this community we call WeMove Europe. During the calls it transpired that many of you are curious to know who else is out there. So let me take a minute to be your mirror and reflect back some of the joy of this community.
One of the first people I called was Ursula, who lives near Hannover in Germany. She told me that she likes this community because it unites the wishes of people all across Europe to make things better. She loves that we focus on sustainability but also on challenging economic interests and nationalism. She wants to feel part of something bigger than herself and her local community and that’s what this is for her. At the end of the call she said something amazing: "Do me a favour. When you call the next person, tell them Ursula said 'hi'. And then keep doing that. Create a group of people that are aware that they’re not alone." That’s exactly what I’m doing.
Inge in Belgium just loved that Ursula said "hi". She said "I support WeMove because there are tough times coming in the next decade and we need to take action. In case it’s not clear, I mean on climate change!"
Fredo in the Netherlands told me that he had been running his own publishing company but got squeezed out by bigger players. He now runs a citizens' initiative in his native Deventer, where they build affordable housing and ask the question "how do people want to live in this community in 2030?" It made me think we had a lot in common. Because that is what our WeMove Europe community is doing, asking 'How do we want to live in Europe’. He said he would like to see WeMove Europe doing a lot more to organise people and facilitate democracy. There are not enough actual conversations happening and it just leads to more division.
Then there was Vicki in the UK, right on the Welsh-English border. Vicki taught me so much in such a short time. She is involved in Extinction Rebellion and runs meetings based on the ideas of "Active Hope" and "Work that reconnects" from Joanna Macy. [2] She said that Brexit made her want to support organisations fighting for change on the European level more. It really helped to hear that and left me wondering if there are others out there in the UK that feel the same. Even if the UK has officially left the EU, she is still European and we have no intention of leaving our UK community.
Here’s the thing: There is so much going on across Europe that the mainstream media never talks about. Europe is the home to a massive movement of people who are recreating the world in the way they want to see it. They know that the different world we seek is already out there. From the affordable housing project Fredo’s got going in the Netherlands to the "Active Hope" sessions Vicki is organising in the UK. This said, they’re not just looking in at their local community and being the change they want to see. They are taking action to help challenge and change Europe and the world as well as the systems that underlie them.
We often see Europe as something negative, or just reduce it to being about obscure decisions made in Brussels. But Europe is so much more than Brussels. And it is literally full of people changing things for the better. It makes me think of this lyric:
"When you think the night has seen your mind. That inside you’re twisted and unkind. Let me stand to show that you are blind. Please put down your hands, cause I see you."
I see you, Europe. You are not twisted or unkind. But you are blind, because you have no real mirror. There is so much energy out there in peoples' actions to make things better. The last lines of that song go like this:
"I find it hard to believe you don't know the beauty you are. But if you don’t, let me be your eyes, a hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid."
The beauty in Europe is in people like you, your will to speak out, your actions and your stories which are not told enough. We will keep making those calls, learning more and mirroring back the stories. Would you like a call?
Laura Sullivan
Executive Director
WeMove Europe
References:
[1]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXETLPCogao
[2]
https://www.joannamacy.net/
WeMove Europe is an independent and values-based organisation that seeks to build people power to transform Europe in the name of our community, future generations and the planet.
WeMove Europe is funded by donations from our community across Europe. Can you chip in with a few euros a month and help make sure we can move fast to win the campaigns that matter to all of us? Donate
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