Our society teaches us to seek out “experts”— to fix our cars, heal our bodies, manage our relationships, resolve our conflicts. You’d think we can’t do much for ourselves. We’ve created a “nation of clients.”
Remember the commercial that shows a big-bellied man sitting at the lunch counter with massive indigestion? The message of the ad is not: “People! Pay attention to your body! Don’t eat foods and quantities that give you indigestion! “ Instead, the message is: “Eat that chili! Drink that coffee! Feel bad! Take a hearty dose of our wonderful antacid!”
So how about this: Let’s be more aware of the fact that we really can solve many of the problems that we pay others for. Let’s reclaim the power, authority and legitimacy over ourselves and our communities.
How about we take aspects of our health care into our own hands? How about creating a life plan that includes exercise, whole food, and stress management? If something minor goes awry, find out about “home remedies” (like rubbing a black walnut, a proven fungicide, on ringworm) from our elders.
How about we start to grow some of our own food? It’s healthier and fresher and saves the planet by reducing pollution caused by shipping. Plus, gardening helps reduce stress.
And how about we reclaim some responsibility for public safety and for managing our own conflicts and certain crimes. Talk with your neighbors. If you have a problem with someone, first talk directly to them about it. If that doesn’t work, try a community-based approach: seek the advice of an elder, or use mediation or Community Conferencing (www.communityconferencing.org), free services that give people safe, effective ways to resolve things for themselves.
We’re shaped by the institutions that govern us. But institutions can create dependency, and we often forget or never learn how to do things for ourselves. Institutions don’t know what’s best for us. We do.
People in less-industrialized countries have been found to be happier than we are, for two reasons: They place more value on relationships, and they rely on their own communities for answers to their problems.
So how about this: Fix a bike at the bike co-op, ride it to your community garden, talk to some neighbors, water some plants, have fun, reduce your stress, share a homegrown meal, and if you need it…get some free help for just about anything you need.
Fabulous. I’d love to work with you to manifest this vision more widely.
Right on, Lauren! So simple yet profoundly inspiring. Thanks for this dose of sanity.
Lauren — I completely agree. Most of us are clients and too many are recepients of services that maintain a dependent state of mind and finances. It’s al about opportunity — creating it and taking advantage of it. There is a great song by Sweet Honey and the Rock: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” — I think it’s a great theme song for Baltimore. Thanks for your ideas.
Hathaway
Ms. Abramson hints here at the connectivity that should naturally flow between an individual’s empowerment and the community setting.
I suggest here that our city needs and deserves a new model of city park—a “unity park”, shall we call it—where these noble notions and simple resolutions for action can be inspired, vetted and acted upon.
I am speaking of a community place much of size as a Union Square—a place where three generations can transform from solidarity thinking to unity with others who aspire to simple civic actions.
A place to get wet, walk a dog, learn how to install a rain barrell, play a game of chess or checkers, pick up some fresh produce, meet a friend, play a pick up game, post a lost and found notice, meet a friend for a homemade picnic—and generate those little plans with sizable payoffs to serve their community or capture the day for One Good Deed!
Because our city has a majority of its houses connected, with limited front and back space, it makes sense that public spaces exist throughout our redevelopment projects, so folks can walk safely from doorstep, within ten minutes, to a new “unity park”, as generally characterized and advocated for here.
If one visits the dog park in Canton, one will quickly discover the residual value of exercising the dogs is found in the socialization of the dog masters. They talk, they compare dogs, they talk some more, they show off the dogs, and they get acquainted.
No telling how many good little schemes of personal empowerment flow from The Dog Medium.
Chris T. Delaporte
The Park Advocate
What a wonderful vision, I read it twice just so I could allow myself to see it all. We truly are the experts we seek, we were the first to be aware that we needed someone, something to assist us on our way. Where/how do we start I would love to be a part of the experience. Thanks for clearing the way.
Peace
Zola
It’s wonderful to see you twice reference elders as sources of wisdom and guidance in our communities.
I love your Community Conferencing – it’s awesome to see the shift in people when they come together with a shared problem to hear and be heard. So many of our partisan problems in the public sphere would benefit from people having the forum and opportunity to build relationships across our ideological divides.
It would be wonderful to see victory gardens in our school yards – teaching children about nature, and providing healthy meals to share with the community. We can bring our neighborhoods together in healthy feasts!