Living Between Worldswith Grace, Dignity, and Power
Author: Gil Friend Issue: 2023-02-01
Living Between Worlds—with Grace, Dignity, and Power
by Gil Friend
I began hosting monthly Zoom calls in April 2020, in the early days of the Pandemic Era, out of an instinct that there was a resonance—both dangerous and fertile—between the COVID crisis and the climate crisis, in the challenges they posed, in the urgent and inadequacy of global response, and even in the very shape and fascination of the graphs charting their “progress.”
Why “living between worlds”? Because We live between old worlds and new—as we move from the fossil age to renewables, from linear take-make-waste economies to circular, from the post-war geo-political-economic order to a world of climate crisis and geopolitical instability—to something that we can't yet name. Between working inside the structures and norms of modern life, and challenging them from “outside;” between working to help institutions adapt, and working to re-invent or replace them. Between tinkering at the margins and committing to reinventing everything. Between fear and hope, resignation and ambition, despair and courage.
Adam Tooz dubbed it “polycrisis.” Anthonio Gramsci called it the “time of monsters.” Arundhati Roy was more hopeful: “Another world is not only possible, She is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
In these monthly calls (now co-hosted with Ken Homer) we explore the challenges of navigating the world of messes we've inherited and built—from climate and Covid to biodiversity and fascism to identity and pluralism—with grace, dignity, and power.
Because “New worlds don't just happen. We speak them into being.”
Here's the recording of our January session (without the breakouts), and the archives of our prior three years of conversations. Please consider joining us Wednesday Feb 18, from 12p-130p PST (and everything third Wednesday following), for a provocative conversation that's probably more ecological, ontological, and political (and less technological) than our OGM calls. Register for the next call, or the series, here.
Thank you for you, and for what you do!
In solidarity, Gil
Related:
- Gil Friend (author)
- 2023 (year)
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