A few weeks ago I ventured out into a snowstorm to attend a demonstration concerning the Keystone XL Pipeline. The State Department had just issued its environmental report which said the pipeline would have a negligible effect on climate change, and now the ball’s in President Obama’s court to decide whether to approve the pipeline’s construction.
Contrary to the State Department’s report downplaying the environmental consequences, the pipeline has been described by some environmentalists as the “line in the sand” in terms of our energy policy because the greenhouse gasses that would result from refining and burning the tar sands oil “would tip the scales toward dire climate change”. Climate scientist James Hanson has gone as far as saying if the pipeline moves forward and the tar sands extraction continues, the “game’s over” in our efforts to avoid runaway global warming.
Those of us who braved the cold and the snow that day to express our concern about the pipeline huddled next to the Federal Building in Center City Philadelphia listening to a handful of speakers talk about the implications of the pipeline and about the pledge that thousands of people across the country are signing, committing themselves to civil disobedience should the pipeline be approved. The organizers then said they would lead us in a training in which we would role play getting arrested. Some of them would play the role of police and the rest of us would come forward in groups, simulating a blockade of the Federal Building doors, and be “arrested.”
At that point I left, though not because I was uncomfortable with the idea of role playing being arrested. I’ve actually been arrested on three occasions for civil disobedience, the last time in front of the doors of this same Federal Building when the U.S. invaded Iraq, and I served a week in maximum-security federal prison as a result.
The reason I left wasn’t because I was uncomfortable with the role play, nor because I felt I didn’t need the practice. I left because of a deeper discomfort I was feeling that I wasn’t able to name at the time, but which in the weeks since I’ve been able to bring into focus.
Losing Touch with Reality
The way I see it, the environmental devastation that humans are inflicting on the planet boils down to a pretty simple cause: we’ve lost touch with Reality. We’re living in an illusion, a dream, that has persuaded us that we exist as distinct entities separate from the Earth we are depleting and poisoning, separate from the generations to come that will be born into a toxic environment, separate from the pristine forests that would be destroyed to extract the tar sands oil, separate from all the other creatures on this planet that suffer from our “progress” and separate from the Life that brought all of us forth.
Our illusion of separateness is the real thing we have to address, which is why some of the protests I have engaged in in the past and for which I’ve been arrested are no longer adequate for me. It isn’t that I see them as “wrong.” It’s that I now see them as too conventional.
Let me explain. Oftentimes our protests act out the very same story of separateness we need to move beyond, a story of us vs. them, peace activists vs. hawks, environmentalists vs. oil company CEOs. We play out the same story; we just perceive different “enemies.”
I sense that what the Earth needs from me now is something much more radical and much more difficult than being arrested. I sense that what the Earth needs from me — and from all of us — is to move beyond the concept of separateness altogether, a concept that exists only in our minds.
The real training we need, we who want to help heal the world, has less to do with role playing being arrested and more to do with going within ourselves and finding there the “other” whom we would disdain, and loving him.
I experienced an interesting phenomenon during the years George W. Bush was president when I was in adamant disagreement with many of the actions the administration was taking, from the invasion of Iraq to the “War on Terror” to “No Child Left Behind” to an energy policy that continued our dependence on fossil fuels.
The interesting phenomenon was that on several occasions during those years, President Bush came to me in my dreams. In those dreams I invariably told him how much I disagreed with his decisions, and yet my interactions with him were always respectful. Many times I was able to see his own vulnerability and deep need, and I felt a warm regard for him. Even though I was disagreeing with him, I never vilified him. I didn’t see him as evil or as an enemy. I saw him as mistaken, but his humanity and basic goodness were never in question.
Those dreams were important teachings for me, and they attest to the work our generation has been given to do at this point of planetary opportunity. Those of us who wish to help heal an Earth so deeply wounded by the human story of separateness can only do so by transcending that same story within ourselves, otherwise we are simply lending that story further energy and momentum.
When it comes to the Keystone pipeline, then, I must realize that not only am I one with the forests that would be clear cut, and the land and water that would be contaminated, and the crude oil that never asked to be extracted and burned, but just as importantly I am one with the CEO of TransCanada and all those who are pushing for the pipeline’s construction.
The Question: What Are We Demonstrating?
I understand Love to be the Reality of Oneness that is at the heart of all Being. Nothing exists outside of it, and nothing is or can be rejected by it. So when in our quest to protect the Earth we participate in demonstrations, the question for me becomes: What are we demonstrating? Are we demonstrating division and anger, or are we demonstrating the truth of Love? Because if it’s the former, even though we may achieve a short-term goal we have not contributed to the deeper healing the world needs — that we need.
The demonstrations I want to be part of now are much more radical than any I have ever witnessed or taken part in because they would demonstrate the Reality of Oneness, the Reality of Love which dissolves the illusion that holds the world captive. They would be demonstrations that would hold forth the light of our mutual divinity, of the sanctity of the Earth and all her beings. And if our demonstrations must challenge harmful actions, they would do so not out of anger or hatred but out of a deep desire for the wellbeing of the one who would carry them out, the one who is so asleep in the dream that he truly knows not what he does.
I find symbolic meaning in the name of this proposed pipeline, because a keystone is the center stone at the top of an archway that joins the opposing sides. A keystone unites, and I can’t help but wonder if the real keystone we are being asked to demonstrate at this point in our history is the keystone of Love, the one and only Reality.
If we can direct our creative capacity toward demonstrations of Love — for one another, for the Earth, for all that Is — we will begin to dissolve the illusion of separateness that is decimating the planet, opening the way for a great transformation, a metamorphosis on Earth that from our current vantage point seems utterly impossible.
Dear Patricia,
Thanks for sharing your reaction to the Keystone action a few weeks ago. I agree with much of what you write here, especially the reality that we are all one and not at all separate from the CEO or government official. My only disagreement is with what feels like an assumption on your part that our action came out of a place of anger or hatred. Part of the reason I have been so fulfilled working with Earth Quaker Action Team is that I feel we come from exactly the place of Love you describe. Our last big action (in Pittsburgh in October) included lots of worship and singing, and many activists from different groups commented on the different feeling they had about our approach. We believe that we can be grounded in this Truth of our Oneness and still act powerfully to say no to practices that are destructive, that in fact we need to do both simultaneously. I can’t claim that we do this perfectly all the time, but I feel we try really hard to speak with Love when we speak to people from PNC Bank about their investment in mountaintop removal coal mining.
Moving into the Keystone work is an interesting challenge because we are now working in coalition with other groups who don’t necessarily have the same spiritual perspective, but it feels like a worthwhile risk to take. I think one problem with the action you attended is that because it happened last minute, people got different messages about what they were being invited to. I don’t know if that’s part of what affected you, surprise that it would include cd training. Perhaps you had assumptions about what that meant? In hindsight I think I could have done a better job of explaining why we were doing what we were doing. In any case, we are now expecting hundreds of people for a cd action on March 10. Most of them are not EQAT regulars (which was also true the day in the snow). If you do not feel called to participate, I hope you will feel comfortable praying for us that our collective action testify to the Love your write of.
Dear Eileen,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, and deep thanks for the important work you are doing locally and nationally in bringing attention to the Keystone situation. I fully support the work you are doing, and at the recent demonstration in Philly I didn’t have a sense that any of it was arising out of anger or hatred. In fact, one of the things I have longed admired about Quakers is the assertion that the divine light abides in us all. That is exactly the message I think is so needed at this time.
My reflections in this post stem out of a larger context than that one gathering, and probably are related to the challenges you are referring to when larger groups come together who may not all share the same spiritual perspective. The times when I have engaged in c.d. with faith groups have been deeply meaningful. In fact, I often use the word “sacramental” to describe them. I may write more about those experiences in another blog post, because there is so much that happens when people confront the “powers that be” with the power of love. Other times, when hatred and anger have been present, I have felt how the transformative potential of the action is diluted.
Because so many people are coming together now to oppose the Keystone pipeline, it may present an extraordinary opportunity for us all to consider how the story of separateness abides in each of us and for each of us to move our own minds and hearts toward healing.
You can count on me holding you all in the Light, regardless of whether or not I participate directly on March 10th, and I will continue to pray that this pivotal moment in our history be a moment of collective awakening.
In gratitude,
Patricia
Thanks, Patricia! And thanks for coming out in the snow to begin with:)
BTW, when I was in jail in 2004 my cellmate was a Quaker, Janeal Ravndal, who wrote an account of our experience that was published by Pendle Hill — A Very Good Week Behind Bars. http://www.quakerbooks.org/a_very_good_week_behind_bars.php I couldn’t have asked for a better companion!
I remember when Janeal was writing that! Small world.
Amen and amen.
I had a similar reaction to an anti-fracking rally I attended in Philly–not that I didn’t believe in opposing the issue, but that we were embodying a kind of opposition that was ultimately not creative, not recognizing our oneness. I felt each side simultaneously supporting each other’s worst stereotypes of one another a kind of strange collaborative moment in which we reinforced what we thought of one another so we wouldn’t have to engage.
I do recognize there are consequences if I do not show up and oppose (creatively) forces of devastation, division and illusion, so I do hope to “show up,” but perhaps in a way different than I have before…
God’s Peace.
Rob, thanks for sharing your experience. I would love to be part of a conversation about creative ways of “showing up”, and if you have any further thoughts I hope you’ll pass them along.
There was a recent article I read about the power of humor in demonstrations and ways to creatively seek change. When I am rested, I have the energy to be humorous and love is easier. May we all get more rest and perhaps dream.
Katherine, I would enjoy reading that article if you come across it again. I think we often forget how powerful humor is in so many aspects of life, especially humor that isn’t about ridicule, but about putting a different spin on our human dramas. It can help jar us loose from the stories that so often hold us captive.
Dear Patricia,
Thanks for your characteristically stirring reflections about Keystone and about protests that embody the Reality of Love. I’m glad to claim some kindred spirit in response to your reference to dreams involving President Bush. Many years ago President Nixon fired 2 or 3 of the top liberal leaders in what became known as “The Saturday Night Massacre.” As it happened, I was due
to preach at FUMCOG on one of my several returns to the staff there. By the time the news broadcasts were winding down, it got clear to me that the sermon I’d been writing wasn’t going to work. So I went back into my dream journal and found a dream in which I was in a garden of some sort, when I looked up and recognized as a fellow gardener President Nixon himself.
I heard myself say “God bless you, Mr. President” (that HAD to be my unconscious!), and then heard him say, “And God bless you.” A “Garden Named Reality?”
Blessings and more good dreams!
Jerry
Jerry, I loved hearing about your dream. It’s remarkable, isn’t it, how we sometimes seem to be more awake to reality when we’re asleep and dreaming! “Garden Named Reality” — indeed!
Thank you for chiming in. As always, I cherish your open-hearted, wise reflections.
Blessings to you,
Patricia