I certainly get tired of running into these long gaps of time. It has been so many days since I have had the opportunity to write a new message on this blog. For me this is another reason why I am inviting people to post messages themselves. There are too many days that go by with no new information or inspiration!
Almost two weeks ago now I woke up to realize that I had a "perfect" opportunity to go back to Toronto and be present for some very important gatherings. SO I collected my frequent flyer points, and Gabor and I flew back to Toronto and Barrie last Friday and returned to Atlanta yesterday.
I won't drag on about the grueling details of aborted flights, having my wheelchair trashed twice by the airlines, bitter cold and white-out driving conditions, and very very very late nights. Suffice it to say that the experience was both worthwhile and nerve-stretching grueling for both Gabor and I.
We stayed at Aki Feseheye's place, and were warmly welcomed and supported. In addition, Katie and others helped Gabor get a well deserved break. I fit in as many friends as possible and held a circle meeting at my father's residence. It was so good to see him and them again. I took a quick visit to my cat's, and on seeing how much they love their new home and Ally their new mom, I gave them to Ally. It's a match made in Heaven. But I will always miss them.
The first thing that was accomplished was that I attended the Camphill Communities of Ontario board meeting, said goodbye to my God Daughter Annie Green as she moves back to a new life sharing community in Colorado, and took another step toward moving into Sophia Creek. I felt that My beloved Camphill friends needed my physical presence so that plans for my residence in the community would not once again go on the back burner. The severe doldrums of a Canadian winter can make you feel like very little is possible. It was good for us to rekindle the vision of my full membership in this wonderful gathering.
On a completely related mission I gathered my circle and we strategized about having my transfer payment agency see their way clear to pay Gabor and to support me in my move to Barrie. This required a meeting with a committee on that board. I think we made some progress, and we will have a better sense of that in about a month. It was good to have the full support of my circle. It was also good to realize that my taking a stand to do my life and work in a way that allows me to freely reach out to the world is important not just for me but for everyone else who uses personal assistance.
I also got to reconnect with my Toronto Wisdom Community, and realize how much I am appreciated and missed. I slipped in a meeting with my doctor and got myself on a new medication which seems to finally be lessening my bronchial symptoms. Last but not least, I got to reconnect with Ray Warren and the Ancilla Foundation. I realized that our efforts to create an economic support to building inclusion are finally beginning to take hold.
We had to come back to Atlanta rather quickly because Gabor is registered in the Landmark Advanced Course this weekend. It warms my heart to realize that he takes to this form of empowerment pretty much the same as I do. In a way I was sorry to leave Toronto so quickly, but at the same time, our work in Georgia is really just beginning.
On the flight back, my wheelchair was dropped by the baggage handlers and the damage was substantial. This is actually being typed by Lara Howell as I am lying in bed.
So once again, huge barriers to keeping up with the work have emerged. This leaves me a little discouraged and certainly very tired. But at the same time, I know that we will get through this and even while it is happening, the work will continue.
In the very near future, hopefully by mid-February, David, Lara, Gabor and I will be hard at work on an Inclusion, School-based project that will engage a wide variety of kids, teenagers, and faculty members. My hope is that in my next blog message I will be able to give you details of this potentially far-reaching initiative. It will make all the obstacles seem trivial relative to its huge potential.
In the meantime, it is time for a well deserved good-night's rest.
Judith
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Things that Go “Clunk”
Yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.
Today I began to breathe normally for the first time in six weeks.
Monday I woke up to: “I ought to go back to Toronto for the Allocations Committee Meeting” of the agency that my personal assistance is attached to.
Today all the important pieces – reasonable flights, places to stay, insurance on and availability of the Dodge, etc. came together and Gabor and I will be in Camphill and Toronto from Friday night to Wednesday afternoon, meeting with my circle, and firming up arrangements to create a home base at Camphill Sophia Creek.
For three months the World Peace through Inclusion Tour has worked hard to (re)establish connection and energy so that inclusion work can flourish in this area with such rich potential.
Today, at dinner with the diversity team of the Savannah Country Day School, and based on previous connections with AWOL, Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, the Southern Collective for Inclusive Citizenship, and the First Presbyterian Church of Savannah, a multi-year project was drafted.
It’s like a slipping clutch engaged.
Judith
Today I began to breathe normally for the first time in six weeks.
Monday I woke up to: “I ought to go back to Toronto for the Allocations Committee Meeting” of the agency that my personal assistance is attached to.
Today all the important pieces – reasonable flights, places to stay, insurance on and availability of the Dodge, etc. came together and Gabor and I will be in Camphill and Toronto from Friday night to Wednesday afternoon, meeting with my circle, and firming up arrangements to create a home base at Camphill Sophia Creek.
For three months the World Peace through Inclusion Tour has worked hard to (re)establish connection and energy so that inclusion work can flourish in this area with such rich potential.
Today, at dinner with the diversity team of the Savannah Country Day School, and based on previous connections with AWOL, Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, the Southern Collective for Inclusive Citizenship, and the First Presbyterian Church of Savannah, a multi-year project was drafted.
It’s like a slipping clutch engaged.
Judith
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Describing Inclusion
Inclusion
My getting better continues at a slow, uneven pace. Yesterday Gabor, David and I participated in a Citizen Advocacy luncheon – I didn’t eat anything. The talk and discussion went very well. We got our best video yet. Tomorrow I will be doing an open mike night at the Sentient Bean, along with a group named AWOL – a group aimed at using e-technology to get kids job skills, cash and positive entry to the economic aspects of their world.
In between I have been in bed mainly, still coughing but less, figuring out strategies to deal with chronic acid reflux and eating baby sized meals. It looks like we beat this one too.
As I have had lots of time to reflect, both consciously and in dream-like states. I have evolved a strategy for communicating the peace growing power of inclusion. I intend to share this strategy in the blog.
Tonight I want to share a 3 stage description of inclusion I have been working with. In later blogs, in the near future, I will share some stories that wrap around this.
Of course the concept “inclusion” is not related only to people who are labeled disabled. When women were first demanding and implementing their rights and abilities to participate in political and economic life, the social results were inclusion. When people from non-English or French speaking parts of the world move into Toronto, find their way in cultural, spiritual and economic ways in the city, and broadly influence the opportunities of that city, that is also inclusion.
In the past twenty years and more a great deal has been written and said about inclusion. I have sat on two consulting committees about this subject and have been amazed at how much can be said, written and researched. I am not one to favour making things more complex. Complex talk is one strategy that excludes many people who have disability labels. I have been working on ways to talk about how peace shows up at different stages of inclusion. I want to begin sharing more of this work here.
Let me know how the following writing strikes you.
It can be said that one person includes another. An example would be when a women invites a new friend who lives in a nursing home to regularly attend church with her. It can also be said that an organization includes individuals, as when a school makes all its classrooms welcoming to children who learn in non-academic ways. It can also be said that one group includes another, as when an “all white” baseball league and an “all black” baseball league become just a baseball league.
When people first talk about inclusion they usually mean something like: “You are welcome to be in my space but I will make no changes in my world because you showed up. You must act as if you are just like me, or leave.” When women first worked where men did, and when people in wheelchairs first went to university they often struggled to find a restroom they could use at work.
As inclusion progresses, the “including” person or group gets to the point where they recognize that changes in structure and policy would assist the “included” person or group to participate more effectively. This is the stage of “reasonable accommodation”. Ramps are built, ESL classes emerge and targeted housing subsidies are funded. The included are still mainly expected to fit in, keep up, and stop at “their level”.
The most creative and effective stage of inclusion is reached when everyone realizes that we are not all the same and that we don’t have to be. It is the stage when there is no longer anything to be “included into”. All sides recognize that their unique differences are real and are also opportunities for each other’s growth and enjoyment. Each is ready to explore what can be let go of and what can be enhanced so that a new world that works for all can be created. As an example, where classrooms have been inclusive at this level methods of teaching have been evolved, students have taken on more intimate and respectful roles and relationships among themselves and with their teachers, and the daily activities and interests have shifted across entire school boards.
It would be nice to think this progression came easily. In reality it is hard won in most cases, with many virtual and actual battles fought to keep the dialogue going.
Although I am primarily a champion of the most creative level of inclusion, greater peace can show up at all levels. I will write about this in subsequent entries.
Judith
My getting better continues at a slow, uneven pace. Yesterday Gabor, David and I participated in a Citizen Advocacy luncheon – I didn’t eat anything. The talk and discussion went very well. We got our best video yet. Tomorrow I will be doing an open mike night at the Sentient Bean, along with a group named AWOL – a group aimed at using e-technology to get kids job skills, cash and positive entry to the economic aspects of their world.
In between I have been in bed mainly, still coughing but less, figuring out strategies to deal with chronic acid reflux and eating baby sized meals. It looks like we beat this one too.
As I have had lots of time to reflect, both consciously and in dream-like states. I have evolved a strategy for communicating the peace growing power of inclusion. I intend to share this strategy in the blog.
Tonight I want to share a 3 stage description of inclusion I have been working with. In later blogs, in the near future, I will share some stories that wrap around this.
Of course the concept “inclusion” is not related only to people who are labeled disabled. When women were first demanding and implementing their rights and abilities to participate in political and economic life, the social results were inclusion. When people from non-English or French speaking parts of the world move into Toronto, find their way in cultural, spiritual and economic ways in the city, and broadly influence the opportunities of that city, that is also inclusion.
In the past twenty years and more a great deal has been written and said about inclusion. I have sat on two consulting committees about this subject and have been amazed at how much can be said, written and researched. I am not one to favour making things more complex. Complex talk is one strategy that excludes many people who have disability labels. I have been working on ways to talk about how peace shows up at different stages of inclusion. I want to begin sharing more of this work here.
Let me know how the following writing strikes you.
It can be said that one person includes another. An example would be when a women invites a new friend who lives in a nursing home to regularly attend church with her. It can also be said that an organization includes individuals, as when a school makes all its classrooms welcoming to children who learn in non-academic ways. It can also be said that one group includes another, as when an “all white” baseball league and an “all black” baseball league become just a baseball league.
When people first talk about inclusion they usually mean something like: “You are welcome to be in my space but I will make no changes in my world because you showed up. You must act as if you are just like me, or leave.” When women first worked where men did, and when people in wheelchairs first went to university they often struggled to find a restroom they could use at work.
As inclusion progresses, the “including” person or group gets to the point where they recognize that changes in structure and policy would assist the “included” person or group to participate more effectively. This is the stage of “reasonable accommodation”. Ramps are built, ESL classes emerge and targeted housing subsidies are funded. The included are still mainly expected to fit in, keep up, and stop at “their level”.
The most creative and effective stage of inclusion is reached when everyone realizes that we are not all the same and that we don’t have to be. It is the stage when there is no longer anything to be “included into”. All sides recognize that their unique differences are real and are also opportunities for each other’s growth and enjoyment. Each is ready to explore what can be let go of and what can be enhanced so that a new world that works for all can be created. As an example, where classrooms have been inclusive at this level methods of teaching have been evolved, students have taken on more intimate and respectful roles and relationships among themselves and with their teachers, and the daily activities and interests have shifted across entire school boards.
It would be nice to think this progression came easily. In reality it is hard won in most cases, with many virtual and actual battles fought to keep the dialogue going.
Although I am primarily a champion of the most creative level of inclusion, greater peace can show up at all levels. I will write about this in subsequent entries.
Judith
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Bronchitis, not Larangitis
Gabor doesn't appreciate the difference, a difference which is life threatening for me. However, Gabor especially, and also David and Lara, have been present and fabulous - shaking, slapping, pushing, massaging (officially called assisted coughing) - whatever it takes to get the guck up so I can keep on breathing. Today has been a little better, and I have been up a few hours, breathing, eating, getting my hair washed and catching up on e-mail.
As Gabor wrote it has also been an intimate time of sharing and recreating our commitment to inclusion, the tour and to life itself. After a valiant and successful struggle to get one mucous clot up I told him I'd give him three more years!
It's clear this respite at the other end of the Rabbit Hole is time limited. The work and we need a base, a home, a strategy and resources. But I could not have planned for or imagined a more valuable research retreat than the past few months have been.
As always there is more to say but time and breath (for the puff/sip Morse Code) are limited.
Love; Judith
As Gabor wrote it has also been an intimate time of sharing and recreating our commitment to inclusion, the tour and to life itself. After a valiant and successful struggle to get one mucous clot up I told him I'd give him three more years!
It's clear this respite at the other end of the Rabbit Hole is time limited. The work and we need a base, a home, a strategy and resources. But I could not have planned for or imagined a more valuable research retreat than the past few months have been.
As always there is more to say but time and breath (for the puff/sip Morse Code) are limited.
Love; Judith
The Power of Stories
This is the story of WPIT. This is my first blog. This is Gabor. The character in the background. The Personal Assistant. The muscle. In the story. We have been cooped up in the trailer for the last few days, on account of Judith being in bed with a severe case of laryngitis. Antibiotics, rest and lots of assisted coughing. So I was called on to write a blog this morning. I can’t hide any more. I’m a bit shy, stepping out of the shadows, still blinking from the spotlight. But don’t let that fool you. I just need to get used to it a bit.
Judith thinks she is getting better today. We have been engaged in a conversation about health and vitality over the last few days, naturally. We have been telling stories about peace and inclusion. In contrast, the story of our Tour has been one of the Maverick setting out to conquer that Monolithic Codex of Disability. A valuable heroic and romantic tale, only serving to reinforce the discourse of individual. The true power of the Tour lies in living and spreading inclusion in community. We are creating the possibility of shifting the story today. Our health and vitality restored to new powerful heights through the story that you and I and we all create. I invite you all to share your stories about Peace and Inclusion, and I will continue to bring some of our stories from my perspective from now on. Love and Light.
Gabor
Judith thinks she is getting better today. We have been engaged in a conversation about health and vitality over the last few days, naturally. We have been telling stories about peace and inclusion. In contrast, the story of our Tour has been one of the Maverick setting out to conquer that Monolithic Codex of Disability. A valuable heroic and romantic tale, only serving to reinforce the discourse of individual. The true power of the Tour lies in living and spreading inclusion in community. We are creating the possibility of shifting the story today. Our health and vitality restored to new powerful heights through the story that you and I and we all create. I invite you all to share your stories about Peace and Inclusion, and I will continue to bring some of our stories from my perspective from now on. Love and Light.
Gabor
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Near the Point of Having a Plan
We are very close to having a plan!
This may sound strange considering that about 35% of our allotted time to be out of Ontario has passed. Just the same I feel that this is hard won real progress.
Before I left on this Tour I was deeply frustrated by what seemed to me to be a general failure on my part to get traction with the idea that there is no such thing as a disabled person. Other concepts that I have been instrumental in rooting in practice are more accepted, such as support circles. The idea has generally caught on that planning supports for the fuller participation of a vulnerable person ought to be centered on that person and their gifts. However the understanding of both “gifts” and “participation” is not sufficiently grounded in the related concepts of capacity and citizenship, and so the widely adopted use of person centred planning generally fails to allow labeled people to escape the disability paradigm.
And so my deep mission remains unfulfilled. Unusual people still get categorized as disabled, still are streamed into a segregated world where they have the role of “being helped” or worse, and still are vulnerable to being murdered to get rid of the “burden” on family, the economy and society.
In addition I have an intuitive grasp on a possibility that inclusion can lead to transformation in social and economic relationships. But making that possibility present and engaging to others continues to elude me.
The deepest reason for the Tour was to get me close enough to people on their home territory that I could have person-to-person dialogue about inclusion and what opens up for people who struggle to build it – in particular about how inclusion leads people to become more peaceful.
On Tuesday Gabor and I had lunch with a woman who has not met me before. She has over 30 years experience as a citizen advocate. She has had close relationship with two people who are considered to be disabled, one of whom became a friend and one of whom she considers challenging to know and relate to. As I talked about inclusion and how people report great personal benefits from it, in particular that they become more peaceful, her face lit up in recognition. She understood when I pointed out that this knowledge is understood on a personal, private level, but is not recognized or acknowledged on a public, policy or political level. I got my point across!
One on one strategies of engagement are a time honoured organizing practice invented I believe by Saul Alinsky and his colleagues. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I am experiencing some effectiveness. But the effectiveness is short lived if it is not followed up with founding a team or organization committed to building the insights and enthusiasm into strategies that will ground the energy into everyday practice.
While I was on the Year End Cruise I was confronted with how I have not yet fully stood behind my own mission. In other words, for all good reasons, I have been collecting the bricks and wood, the tools and the site, but I have not truly begun to build the house.
Beyond this I also have not yet fully taken up the leadership which can create a space for inclusion and peace to thrive and be fully adopted in the world. Instead I have been getting ready.
I think I am ready.
Several elements of a plan of action are emerging and over the next week or so, along with Gabor and others, I will flesh them out into a detailed project. This plan will include further research, reframing inclusion and personal assistance, and organizational building. I am imagining that I will be able to come home – wherever home turns out to be – with a new and effective capacity to bring the space of full citizenship for everyone to the world.
Judith
This may sound strange considering that about 35% of our allotted time to be out of Ontario has passed. Just the same I feel that this is hard won real progress.
Before I left on this Tour I was deeply frustrated by what seemed to me to be a general failure on my part to get traction with the idea that there is no such thing as a disabled person. Other concepts that I have been instrumental in rooting in practice are more accepted, such as support circles. The idea has generally caught on that planning supports for the fuller participation of a vulnerable person ought to be centered on that person and their gifts. However the understanding of both “gifts” and “participation” is not sufficiently grounded in the related concepts of capacity and citizenship, and so the widely adopted use of person centred planning generally fails to allow labeled people to escape the disability paradigm.
And so my deep mission remains unfulfilled. Unusual people still get categorized as disabled, still are streamed into a segregated world where they have the role of “being helped” or worse, and still are vulnerable to being murdered to get rid of the “burden” on family, the economy and society.
In addition I have an intuitive grasp on a possibility that inclusion can lead to transformation in social and economic relationships. But making that possibility present and engaging to others continues to elude me.
The deepest reason for the Tour was to get me close enough to people on their home territory that I could have person-to-person dialogue about inclusion and what opens up for people who struggle to build it – in particular about how inclusion leads people to become more peaceful.
On Tuesday Gabor and I had lunch with a woman who has not met me before. She has over 30 years experience as a citizen advocate. She has had close relationship with two people who are considered to be disabled, one of whom became a friend and one of whom she considers challenging to know and relate to. As I talked about inclusion and how people report great personal benefits from it, in particular that they become more peaceful, her face lit up in recognition. She understood when I pointed out that this knowledge is understood on a personal, private level, but is not recognized or acknowledged on a public, policy or political level. I got my point across!
One on one strategies of engagement are a time honoured organizing practice invented I believe by Saul Alinsky and his colleagues. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I am experiencing some effectiveness. But the effectiveness is short lived if it is not followed up with founding a team or organization committed to building the insights and enthusiasm into strategies that will ground the energy into everyday practice.
While I was on the Year End Cruise I was confronted with how I have not yet fully stood behind my own mission. In other words, for all good reasons, I have been collecting the bricks and wood, the tools and the site, but I have not truly begun to build the house.
Beyond this I also have not yet fully taken up the leadership which can create a space for inclusion and peace to thrive and be fully adopted in the world. Instead I have been getting ready.
I think I am ready.
Several elements of a plan of action are emerging and over the next week or so, along with Gabor and others, I will flesh them out into a detailed project. This plan will include further research, reframing inclusion and personal assistance, and organizational building. I am imagining that I will be able to come home – wherever home turns out to be – with a new and effective capacity to bring the space of full citizenship for everyone to the world.
Judith
Monday, January 5, 2009
A Prosperous New Year for All!
(Written Jan. 1)
Happy New Year!
As hoped, being on the cruise and in the course “Simple Pleasures” has opened a space for me to learn about better ways for me to fulfill on the World Peace through Inclusion Tour and to spread the message. But first, the details of the cruise.
We are on the Adventure of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship. We sailed out of San Juan, Puerto Rico for a day and a half and on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008 docked in Aruba. I went shopping and found a discount mall where I bought a swim suit, sports bra and some panties.
Next day, in Curacao, Aaron and a Landmark friend Brad Grandbouche, took me swimming in the ocean. It was perfect!
Later I had my make-up done for the New Year’s Eve party and I have to admit I was pretty stunning. The Landmark Education group (about 350) had its own big band party in the Imperial Lounge, and after midnight Aaron and I danced and strolled along the Royal Promenade before retiring early this morning.
Today ii a sea day and tomorrow we will have a day in the port of Philipsburg, St. Maarten.
In between I have been at work developing my strategies for the tour which in Landmark language I call “my impossible promise”. This phrase is a jargony term used by graduates of the Wisdom Unlimited course who have also completed or are interested in a higher level course called Power and Contribution.
I took this course about 3 ½ years ago and realized in it that nothing could make me happier or more fulfilled than focusing my life on creating inclusion. This means to me creating a stable group of people who work successfully at having diversity become welcome and invited into our communities and societies. Diversity is a powerful source of economic and social opportunity. Every opportunity can only exist if there is a difference that makes it possible for people to form relationship and mutual action. Inclusion can be a benefit no matter what diversity is at stake, but I have the most interest and personal experiences with the diversities that get labeled “disabilities”
The phrase “Impossible Promise” refers to a mission to transform something far beyond our own personal lives. The “impossible” part is the reality that some missions require a transformation in society to make the outcome possible. In the present world understanding that certain characteristics are “disabilities” and that these characteristics must be viewed as “impairments” and be reduced, eliminated or accommodated as much as possible full inclusion is not possible because the opportunity creating capacity of these differences is not appreciated for their community, relationship and economy creating potential.
A part of my mission to create inclusion is that in the late ‘80’s I began to notice that people became more peaceful when they took on becoming inclusive. I decided that people need to know that this road to peace is available to them particularly since other pathways to peace seem closed to most societies.
Nevertheless after my Power and Contribution course I mostly avoided having anything very constructive to do with my Impossible Promise of World Peace through Inclusion. After all I don’t want to be a world leader – it’s too much trouble and potentially dangerous!
I worked on and off at getting someone to measure the peace making nature of inclusion. The idea behind this was that since lots of people pay closer attention to results that are publically measured and reported like projects designed around the Millennium Goals then if the peace building capacity of inclusion were measured it would eventually enter into public consciousness.
Two lengthy efforts at building such a measurement project failed and I was pretty much ready to give up on the whole idea when I also became aware in the summer of 2007 of how much I hated working for a government funded agency as a support circle builder. By October 2007 I “retired” and took off to Savannah in January 2008 to write an autobiography.
The ensuing months did not lead to a book but they did lead to an understanding that I could redesign my life so that I could reach people in their homes and intimate places where they would listen to me and engage me in conversations about how inclusion had touched their lives and how inclusion could lead to peace.
And so I dived down the rabbit hole.
I have been deeply engaged in many, many conversations since Aaron and I joined the cruise. I have come to understand that the nature of the other side of the rabbit hole is that it is a closed, complete world in itself and that typically no one enters or leaves it. For most people there is no reason to shift “worlds”, and there are strong, if invisible, structures in place that make shifting worlds difficult and possibly dangerous.
“Disability” and “inclusion” are like two mutually exclusive worlds. Inclusion itself is about bridging from one world to others. My disorientation is a natural consequence of entering, in a fully participatory way, into a completely unfamiliar world. My loss of funding for personal assistance is a natural consequence of leaving the world of concepts and structures to which it is firmly attached.
I have also realized that personal assistance itself is currently attached to the world of disability and that it can be redefined as a bridge that creates a way for people to move with support from one world of participation to another.
Along the way the Tour has been given a magnificent gift of $10,000. I have learned so much about how important inclusion is to others and how valuable people consider my work.
I am looking forward to a prosperous and effective 2009 indeed!
Judith
Happy New Year!
As hoped, being on the cruise and in the course “Simple Pleasures” has opened a space for me to learn about better ways for me to fulfill on the World Peace through Inclusion Tour and to spread the message. But first, the details of the cruise.
We are on the Adventure of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship. We sailed out of San Juan, Puerto Rico for a day and a half and on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008 docked in Aruba. I went shopping and found a discount mall where I bought a swim suit, sports bra and some panties.
Next day, in Curacao, Aaron and a Landmark friend Brad Grandbouche, took me swimming in the ocean. It was perfect!
Later I had my make-up done for the New Year’s Eve party and I have to admit I was pretty stunning. The Landmark Education group (about 350) had its own big band party in the Imperial Lounge, and after midnight Aaron and I danced and strolled along the Royal Promenade before retiring early this morning.
Today ii a sea day and tomorrow we will have a day in the port of Philipsburg, St. Maarten.
In between I have been at work developing my strategies for the tour which in Landmark language I call “my impossible promise”. This phrase is a jargony term used by graduates of the Wisdom Unlimited course who have also completed or are interested in a higher level course called Power and Contribution.
I took this course about 3 ½ years ago and realized in it that nothing could make me happier or more fulfilled than focusing my life on creating inclusion. This means to me creating a stable group of people who work successfully at having diversity become welcome and invited into our communities and societies. Diversity is a powerful source of economic and social opportunity. Every opportunity can only exist if there is a difference that makes it possible for people to form relationship and mutual action. Inclusion can be a benefit no matter what diversity is at stake, but I have the most interest and personal experiences with the diversities that get labeled “disabilities”
The phrase “Impossible Promise” refers to a mission to transform something far beyond our own personal lives. The “impossible” part is the reality that some missions require a transformation in society to make the outcome possible. In the present world understanding that certain characteristics are “disabilities” and that these characteristics must be viewed as “impairments” and be reduced, eliminated or accommodated as much as possible full inclusion is not possible because the opportunity creating capacity of these differences is not appreciated for their community, relationship and economy creating potential.
A part of my mission to create inclusion is that in the late ‘80’s I began to notice that people became more peaceful when they took on becoming inclusive. I decided that people need to know that this road to peace is available to them particularly since other pathways to peace seem closed to most societies.
Nevertheless after my Power and Contribution course I mostly avoided having anything very constructive to do with my Impossible Promise of World Peace through Inclusion. After all I don’t want to be a world leader – it’s too much trouble and potentially dangerous!
I worked on and off at getting someone to measure the peace making nature of inclusion. The idea behind this was that since lots of people pay closer attention to results that are publically measured and reported like projects designed around the Millennium Goals then if the peace building capacity of inclusion were measured it would eventually enter into public consciousness.
Two lengthy efforts at building such a measurement project failed and I was pretty much ready to give up on the whole idea when I also became aware in the summer of 2007 of how much I hated working for a government funded agency as a support circle builder. By October 2007 I “retired” and took off to Savannah in January 2008 to write an autobiography.
The ensuing months did not lead to a book but they did lead to an understanding that I could redesign my life so that I could reach people in their homes and intimate places where they would listen to me and engage me in conversations about how inclusion had touched their lives and how inclusion could lead to peace.
And so I dived down the rabbit hole.
I have been deeply engaged in many, many conversations since Aaron and I joined the cruise. I have come to understand that the nature of the other side of the rabbit hole is that it is a closed, complete world in itself and that typically no one enters or leaves it. For most people there is no reason to shift “worlds”, and there are strong, if invisible, structures in place that make shifting worlds difficult and possibly dangerous.
“Disability” and “inclusion” are like two mutually exclusive worlds. Inclusion itself is about bridging from one world to others. My disorientation is a natural consequence of entering, in a fully participatory way, into a completely unfamiliar world. My loss of funding for personal assistance is a natural consequence of leaving the world of concepts and structures to which it is firmly attached.
I have also realized that personal assistance itself is currently attached to the world of disability and that it can be redefined as a bridge that creates a way for people to move with support from one world of participation to another.
Along the way the Tour has been given a magnificent gift of $10,000. I have learned so much about how important inclusion is to others and how valuable people consider my work.
I am looking forward to a prosperous and effective 2009 indeed!
Judith
Friday, January 2, 2009
Last Entry of 2008
I am in San Juan, Puerto Rico, writing in a hotel room, what I expect will be my last blog entry of 2008. Gabor is somewhere in the Keys and I am with Aaron Richmond who has been my Year End Cruise personal assistant for four years now.
Many people have been generous in giving money for the World Peace through Inclusion Tour since October. I want to be quick to write that the cruise was paid for before I left on the Tour. Your fund raised dollars are not supporting my participation in a Landmark Education course on a Caribbean cruise.
Personal assistance has become very much of a subtext of the Tour. I define personal assistance as a relationship between two individuals where one is willingly and intentionally using their bodily, emotional and mindful capacities to support another to fulfill their intentions. In general personal assistants provide support in the areas of mobility, bodily well being, communication and a very difficult to define area I might call guidance. In the area of guidance the assistant takes part in structuring the environment so that the supported individual can best use their own abilities and be best received by others. I have written an article about personal assistance which is available for free at www.ancilla.tv.
Their have been several challenges to my personal assistance since mid-October when Gabor, Erin and I formally launched this Tour. Not the least has been the breakdown in the financing that pays Gabor’s and other’s wages. It is nothing short of miraculous that Gabor has stepped into supporting me facing the uncertainty of when and where the money will emerge to pay him. His capacity to sustain willingness is even more enormous than his physical strength, upon which I also rely continuously!
This other side of the rabbit hole is marked by how much more obvious is my own responsibility to sustain the relationship through which I receive the support that sustains me and creates my capacity to accomplish my intentions. More than ever I must take an active interest in ensuring that Gabor, and now Aaron, and others who come and go, understand and have enough agreement with my intentions and strategies in order not to feel either confused, abused or abandoned and that their needs and concerns are heard and addressed.
My current fatigue on the matter is not that there is a problem either with Aaron or Gabor, but that the last week of finishing up Christmas related activities and getting ready to come to Fort Lauderdale, meet up with Gabor, and fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico to pick up the Year End Cruise have been complicated by the sudden illness of another assistant who had come from Canada to relieve Gabor. Between her inability to work and her own need for our support we have been using all the capacity we have. This of course is not the problem – the worry is that we are so close to breakdown in my support relationships that it has become difficult to decide what to do, what not to do and which problem to solve next. If I cannot reliably set the context, direction and provide the resources to sustain the structure of my support, my personal assistants lose a considerable part of the stability they need to support me well. The dynamic dance breaks down.
As it happens we made Fort Lauderdale and Puerto Rico and no further hitches were encountered. May the course “Simple Pleasures” and the cruise itself bring me some insight on ensuring that the stresses of the last few months are firmly behind us.
Judith
Many people have been generous in giving money for the World Peace through Inclusion Tour since October. I want to be quick to write that the cruise was paid for before I left on the Tour. Your fund raised dollars are not supporting my participation in a Landmark Education course on a Caribbean cruise.
Personal assistance has become very much of a subtext of the Tour. I define personal assistance as a relationship between two individuals where one is willingly and intentionally using their bodily, emotional and mindful capacities to support another to fulfill their intentions. In general personal assistants provide support in the areas of mobility, bodily well being, communication and a very difficult to define area I might call guidance. In the area of guidance the assistant takes part in structuring the environment so that the supported individual can best use their own abilities and be best received by others. I have written an article about personal assistance which is available for free at www.ancilla.tv.
Their have been several challenges to my personal assistance since mid-October when Gabor, Erin and I formally launched this Tour. Not the least has been the breakdown in the financing that pays Gabor’s and other’s wages. It is nothing short of miraculous that Gabor has stepped into supporting me facing the uncertainty of when and where the money will emerge to pay him. His capacity to sustain willingness is even more enormous than his physical strength, upon which I also rely continuously!
This other side of the rabbit hole is marked by how much more obvious is my own responsibility to sustain the relationship through which I receive the support that sustains me and creates my capacity to accomplish my intentions. More than ever I must take an active interest in ensuring that Gabor, and now Aaron, and others who come and go, understand and have enough agreement with my intentions and strategies in order not to feel either confused, abused or abandoned and that their needs and concerns are heard and addressed.
My current fatigue on the matter is not that there is a problem either with Aaron or Gabor, but that the last week of finishing up Christmas related activities and getting ready to come to Fort Lauderdale, meet up with Gabor, and fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico to pick up the Year End Cruise have been complicated by the sudden illness of another assistant who had come from Canada to relieve Gabor. Between her inability to work and her own need for our support we have been using all the capacity we have. This of course is not the problem – the worry is that we are so close to breakdown in my support relationships that it has become difficult to decide what to do, what not to do and which problem to solve next. If I cannot reliably set the context, direction and provide the resources to sustain the structure of my support, my personal assistants lose a considerable part of the stability they need to support me well. The dynamic dance breaks down.
As it happens we made Fort Lauderdale and Puerto Rico and no further hitches were encountered. May the course “Simple Pleasures” and the cruise itself bring me some insight on ensuring that the stresses of the last few months are firmly behind us.
Judith
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