Cancer, Poetry, the Fate of the Earth...
Tom Atlee
This letter is dance between personal and worldwork material. I hope
you find it rich.
THE POWER THAT SURROUNDS MY PARTNER KAREN'S CANCER
For two months I and my partner Karen have been evolving individually
and together around her cancer and its treatment. It is challenging
us in unexpected and ultimately productive ways. For those of you
interested, Karen is about to undergo her second chemotherapy
treatment, modified in an attempt to ameliorate the profoundly
unsettling impact of the steroids that accompanied her first
treatment, to which she was unexpectedly sensitive. Life has been so
unpredictable I have had little chance to do my worldwork. But Karen
and I are, hopefully, recentered, and are consciously carving out
time for my work and her own profound personal journey.
At this point I want to share a few deeply meaningful resources that
I associate with Karen's cancer.
First, her cancer released her to be more fully, happily, and
powerfully herself. Two people shaped how that manifested in our
lives.
The first person is Vanessa German, an inner-city teacher and poet
whose presence at the August Story Field Conference
<http://storyfieldconference.net> had a lasting and reverberating
impact on many of our lives. When Karen saw the videos of two of
Vannessa's performances, she was dumbstruck. Vanessa embodied the
"force of nature" that Karen wanted to be and soon became. Vanessa's
videos can be seen through
<http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/Aeron%20Miller>, and I've included
a transcript of one of her performances below. Write to me if you
wish to help spread Vanessa's unique talent.
The second person is Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is
dying from pancreatic cancer, whose remarkable last lecture has been
spinning around the Web. A deeply joyful, caring, and creative
person, Randy uses his cancer to bring insight and positive
motivation to millions, including Karen, who found in him a rare
kindred spirit whose delight in life has been in no way depressed by
his cancer. His home page, with many relevant links, is
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch>. I recommend watching the short,
juicy Wall Street Journal video about Randy (linked on his site) to
see if you want to watch his full 90 minute lecture (also linked on
his site).
Finally, I want to share a short talk I gave at the Story Field
Conference. Going to this conference -- which I'd envisioned for
over a decade -- was fraught with challenges due to Karen's cancer.
It brought one of my most difficult issues front-and-center with
tremendous intensity: To what extent do I (and we) attend to the
suffering of individuals -- especially those nearest us -- compared
to addressing the fate of the earth and future generations? Our
choices in this have profound implications. At the end of the fourth
full day of the conference, I shared my predicament with attendees,
my tears mixed with my strategic dreams and nightmares. As I
concluded my talk, a hummingbird flew into the big tent where we were
gathered, and was caught on camera. It stayed for about an hour
until everyone in the circle had said what they had to say, and then
it flew out. A video of my eight-minute talk can be found on the
same page with Vanessa's videos
<http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/Aeron%20Miller>.
THE FATE OF THE EARTH
On the night of September 26, 1983, one man, Russian Strategic Rocket
Forces lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, managed to
resist intense pressure to retaliate to what seemed like a nuclear
attack from the U.S. -- and by that act of courage and judgment saved
us and our world, quite literally, from total annihilation. It
turned out to be a thankless gift to the world. A movie about him,
at last, is due out next year. The whole situation is described
poignantly at <http://maltastar.com/pages/msfullart.asp?an=15214>.
So we learn that sometimes the fate of the earth actually does lie in
the hands of single individuals. I suspect it will, increasingly, as
technology puts more powerful tools in people's hands, for better and
worse. In the meantime, the fate of the earth and civilization more
often lies in the "hands" of cultures, institutions and systems that
shape the beliefs and behaviors of millions of people, groups, and
corporations and the development of new technologies.
I stumbled on a provocative example just yesterday in an article in
the current WIRED magazine. Right now as you read this, research is
underway -- driven by hundreds of millions of dollars of private and
public funds -- to make it easy to mass-produce fuel alcohol
(ethanol) from cellulose (e.g., from fast-growing switch grass)
<http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-10/ff_plant>.
Such "cellulosic biofuels" are considered more environmentally benign
than biofuels made from food crops like corn, sugar cane, and
coconut. A number of companies are bioengineering bacteria that make
enzymes that digest cellulose into sugar -- and yeasts that ferment
sugar into alcohol -- in the hopes that they will hit the right
combination -- hopefully with one organism -- to make a whole
industrial process profitable. Given global warming, the economics
of this are so powerful that it is extremely likely that within a few
years someone will develop a new microorganism that can efficiently
turn cellulose into ethanol.
But there's a rub -- a blind spot, if you will -- that few people are
talking about. I was reminded of a little-known close call with a
bioengineered bacteria named Klebsiella planticola back in the early
1990s <http://www.purefood.org/ge/klebsiella.cfm>. I encountered it
shortly after reading Bill Joy's life-changing warning back in 2000,
"Why the Future Doesn't Need Us"
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html>. I even included
the incident in a poem from 2000 called "Extra Ordinary Days"
<http://www.co-intelligence.org/extraordinarydays.html>.
Think for a minute: If we make a new bacteria that can turn
cellulose into ethanol ... and most terrestrial plants are held up by
cellulose ... and all our wood and paper products are made of
cellulose ... and that bioengineered bacteria gets loose into the
environment, where bacteria are well known to share genetic material
across species and to rapidly evolve -- what are the chances that a
mobile or fast-replicating bacteria will soon appear capable of
wiping out our crops, our homes, our libraries, our forests -- either
by accident or by psychotic/political intent? Such a possibility,
which may seem remote from our comparatively stable world of today,
is GIGANTIC in its implications.
So my question is (and has been), What kind of social institution(s)
would augment our collective intelligence in such a way that we
simply don't make gigantically "stupid" mistakes like that?
The idea that an effort to solve global warming could destroy much of
life on earth suggests that we need an additional measure of
collective thoughtfulness and wisdom to generate true sustainability.
Sustainability isn't just living within the requirements of nature:
Sustainability includes creating human cultures and institutions that
can catalyze WISE human cooperation with each other and nature. For
years I've promoted citizen deliberative councils
<http://www.co-intelligence.org/P-CDCs.html> to help us bring forth
collective wisdom from the midst of an otherwise oblivious citizenry.
All this was on my mind a few days ago as I began reading Madeleine
Van Hecke's new book BLIND SPOTS: WHY SMART PEOPLE DO DUMB THINGS
<http://www.overcomeblindspots.com/>. It outlines ten ways in which
otherwise intelligent people act stupidly. Although focused on ways
we can each learn to tolerate each other and improve ourselves, the
parallels to our "collective stupidity" are fascinating. I hope to
write something more about collective blind spots in the near future.
Then today I had a conversation with
marketing-strategist-turned-green-visionary Susan Mills, founder of
EASE <http://www.easeinitiative.com>, Environmental Accountability
for a Sustainable Earth. This hit-the-ground-running visionary
conference and network is designed to catalyze a sustainable economy
with a level of sophistication I've seldom seen. Her November 16-18
"EnergyEASE07 Unconference" in San Francisco is a daring mix of
familiar and innovative approaches to conferencing that could prove
revolutionary. She's named eight functions or roles involved in any
market -- creation, manufacturing, distribution, use, regulation
(this is where citizen deliberative councils fit in), finance,
arbitration, education, and philanthropy
<http://easeinitiative.com/energy2007/?page_id=20>. She is bringing
together people who play all these roles in the sustainable energy
market. Leaders from all eight sectors will discuss hot topics in
front of the audience -- and when audience members are stimulated by
those discussions, they can convene further conversations of their
own. This innovation is in addition to keynotes, workshops,
demonstrations, and more. Beyond that, participants (and others) are
encouraged to enroll in one of the most advanced online
networking/collaboration programs I've heard of, Gaiaspace. Users
profile themselves in considerable depth so that the Gaiaspace
program can connect them with ideal collaborators, at which point it
provides extensive tools for collaboration. Obviously, the more
people participate in both conference and network, the more powerful
the whole initiative will be. If you are at all involved in green
energy, I urge you to seriously consider getting involved.
There is more I want to share, but I'll share it in a few days. This
is enough for now.
Blessings on the Journey.
Coheartedly,
Tom
=================
Transcript of one of Vanessa German's performances
at the August 2007 Story Field Conference in Colorado
M-babawaay. M-babawaayo.
If my hands were anything other than hands
If my hands were anything other than hands
they would be two shooting stars
galloping light across the galaxy,
a twin fandango of diamond-studded fingerprints
hopscotching a radiant neon merengui* of light
from each folded velvet edge of midnight
into every tidy galaxy of fourteen carat suns.
My shooting star hands
would reach and leap and turn
the faces of every burning celestial pedestrian,
star-grazed and gazing, bright-eyed amazed and awestruck
as my shooting star hands whip by
in a flurry of pirouettes,
spitting sparks and spilling light like
each finger was a silver Bic flip lighter,
flicking flames of hope
into the open faces of every sista
whose tears glisten and litter the
blistering avenue, like sequins. **
You heard it.
Now, right before your very eyes,
it will happen.
If my hands were anything other than hands,
they would be a street-corner jazz quintet,
a ten fingered symphony of saxophones, trombones, clarinets, and trumpets,
wailing, rowdy loud and proud,
right out from under my fingernails,
the song would swell and sing,
it would ring from lamp posts and bring
mothers and sons come to dance
in the middle of the street
with fathers and daughters.
and perhaps
if my hands was a big bad jazz band,
there would be no vicious evil cruel death on the avenue
'cause I would send my fingers flying
a furious hurricane of eighth notes
right into the faces
of any slick-tongued, gun-toting, mamajama that would come
to steal my brother's breath.
We would be all song and dance and celebration
just the way we're meant to be...
If my hands were anything other than hands,
they would be
an entire conversation of miracles --
to cure any cancer that ever ails you...
they would be two magic wands...
they would be ten abracadabra fingers
for me to bring back every beebop biscuit-baking grandmother that we
ever lost...***
every sweet and remarkable friend
that we didn't realize
was either sweet or remarkable
until death stole them from under our breath
while we was lookin over our shoulder at the bus stop
and they was just g o n e .
And for a moment,
if my hands was anything other than hands,
[whispering] I'd bring 'em all back...
for a moment
I could look 'em in the eye
and could hold them
and we could love them
and for a moment
things would be so much good'er,
so much better than ever before...
If my hands was anything other than hands
they would be a conjure-woman's cupboard
of spells and incantations
for me to ease your body, your heartbreak,
they'd be levees
and I'd hold back all the water.
If my hands was anything other than hands,
they'd be water
and I could baptize you
and they would be wings
and, baby, you and me,
we could fly together.
If my hands were anything other than hands,
they'd be mirrors,
and I'd hold them up to your face
and you could see your MAGNIFICENCE --
undeniably, every day of the week,
and you would never try to hate yourself again,
ever again!
And if my hands was anything other than hands
they would be
two turntables and a microphone.
But mostly, baby,
if
my hands
were anything other
than hands,
my hands are
two shooting stars
galloping light
across the galaxies.
Peace!
NOTES:
* A form of music and dance from the Dominican Republic, often
associated with other Latin American dance/music forms like salsa.
It is also spelled merengue.
** After the "Bic flip lighter" metaphor, the enthusiastic audience
response threw Vanessa off her poetic flow, which caused the break in
the video, and her re-start. I wrote her about it. Had she not been
thrown, the last three lines at the asterisk above would have been a
longer passage, as follows:
flicking flames of hope into the open faces
of those twinkling pale and incandescent sista's
whose tears glisten and litter the blistering avenue
like sequins
i say now can you see it
how my shooting star hands would
wow and bow them out of their everyday orbits
turn their glowing dashboard virgin mary faces
into an illuminated orchestra of rubies and gladiolas
right before your very eyes
*** the audience laughed inappropriately at this reference to death,
not understanding anything but Vanessa's incandescent alliteration,
but she continued anyway...
--
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Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * PO Box 493 * Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org * http://www.democracyinnovations.org
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Tom Atlee's blog http://www.evolvingcollectiveintelligence.org
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