Starhawk's Blog, page 4

The Truth About Lisa Fithian

Friday, October 14.  I come back from two days on the ranch, where some rodent had chewed up the internet cables, and learned that Fox News had done a hit piece on Occupy Wall Street and targeted my dear friend Lisa Fithian.

What do you do when a friend is slimed by Fox News?  If you respond, do you simply feed the venom?  But if you don't respond, do their lies stand, unchallenged?  Or is it a badge of honor to be called out by Fox, however nasty it feels?

I'm not sure what the most strategic course of action is.  But I can't stand by in silence when a good friend is smeared.  So I want to put on record some of what I know about Lisa Fithian.

I first met Lisa in Seattle, in the run-up to the 1999 blockade of the World Trade Organization.  I saw her across a sea of young, dread-locked activists in the warehouse we used as a convergence center.  Lisa was facilitating the meeting, smiling, cheering, moving like a dancer, infusing the group with her energy and positive vision.  "Wow," I thought, "I could do that!"  My own style of facilitation was much more low-key, neutral, dull.  But in a crowd that size, I saw instantly that her style was much more effective.  That was the first thing Lisa taught me—but not the last.

A few days later, we met in jail.  In some of the interminable shuffling and transferring of groups, we ended up together for a short time, and had a moment to meet and talk.  I liked her instantly—she was smart and funny.  I had showed up a few days early to help with trainings, but Lisa was one of the core organizers for the blockade, and I was struck with the depth of her insights into the strategy. But we ended up in separate cell blocks, and that was the end of our conversations for the moment.

We met up again in Washington, DC, at the April blockade of the IMF/World Bank.  Later that year, I and Hilary McQuie decided to form a training collective.  Hillary had also been a core organizer in Seattle, and she suggested we ask Lisa to join.  We created Root Activist Network of Trainers, or RANT, which later became Alliance of Community Trainers, or ACT.  http://www.trainersalliance.org/.

The following spring, Lisa and I trained groups together in Quebec City for the protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.  We ran together through streets choked with tear gas, helping to maneuver a Pagan cluster of up to ninety people and an unwieldy giant water puppet through streets that resembled a war zone, offering our energy, our impromptu rituals and spiral dances.  At the end of a long, exhausted day, Lisa was still eager to go out and see what was happening.  I realized that I'd finally met someone who had far more energy and stamina than me!

Lisa and I have now worked together, trained together, and run in the streets together for over a decade.  I continue to learn from her.  For one thing, she is far more courageous than I am by nature, willing to push the edges.  In New York City in early 2002, we helped to organize a march against the World Economic Forum which met in New York after 911.  All the usual union groups and progressive groups were scared to organize in the climate of fear after the attacks, but some of the local anarchists managed to pull together a legal, permitted march.  But on the day, the police controlled the space, 'kettling' people by fencing us off block by block and holding groups for long periods of time.  A planned rally was abandoned.  Dispirited, our Pagan Cluster retired to the Food Court at Grand Central.  A group of the local organizers found us there and asked us to come upstairs and help them create a spiral dance.  We trooped up, and began spiraling and singing:

"We will never, never lose our way,

To the well of liberty.

And the power of her living flame,

It will rise, it will rise again."

I was drumming and leading the spiral, Lisa at my side.  After a turn or two, I was ready to stop.

"Keep spiraling," she hissed.

"I'm on probation," I reminded her.

"Just keep spiraling," she insisted.

So we did.  I looked up at one point and realized we had invoked a perfect circle of riot cops.  We had hundreds of activists in the spiral, and commuters hanging off the balconies, watching.  Finally, one of the security guards had had enough.  He waded in, throwing his hands up in frustration.  We took that as our cue, raised our arms and turned the chant into a long, solid tone, a cone of power.  In the stillness as it died away, a woman began to sing "Amazing Grace."  Hundreds of voices took up the melody, and it echoed back from the starry vault above our heads.  "I needed that," one of the police murmured as we ended.

So many stories!  For more than ten years, I've been in situations with Lisa ranging from the absurb to the terrifying, from the inspiring to the devastating.  In the last few years, my focus has shifted somewhat, to other kinds of teaching and writing.  But Lisa has kept on teaching, training and organizing.  She has helped janitors to bargain for better pay, and students to organize their college campuses.  She's mentored anti-nuclear activists at Los Alamos and made alliances with indigenous groups defending their lands from contamination. She's worked with all kinds of people from all walks of life.  In the last years, she and others have worked tirelessly to help ordinary people organize campaigns against the corrupt banks and greedy financial institutions.  While no one person can claim credit for Occupy Wall Street, Lisa has certainly made a huge contribution.  The thousands of young activists that she's trained and inspired bring a level of skill and understanding to the movement that surely have helped it grow and spread.

Lisa trains people to confront abusive power with nonviolence.  She believes in the power of ordinary people to organize, take action, and change the systems that oppress them, and works tirelessly to support such efforts wherever she finds them.

Her work hasn't brought her a big car, a fancy house or even a pension and a retirement plan.  It has brought her the satisfaction of knowing she's made a difference, that she's put her life at the service of justice, and because of her work, there's a bit more of it around.

She's no saint.  She can be pig-headed stubborn, and we've had our arguments over the years.  But I want her by my side, when it all comes down.

Here's what I've learned from her:

Think about the whole.  Anticipate needs, and how to fill them.  Be strategic.  Push the edges in the cause of justice.  Take space boldly, and hold your ground.  Take action not just from anger at injustice, but out of love for all you cherish.  Never waver in your faith that we, the ordinary people of the world, can shape our fate and take our future into our own hands.  Just keep spiraling!

In the end, no lies or smears can stand against the power of love brought into action.  Lisa lives her love, every day, and so we love her back, and that love stands as a shield of protection and a beacon of truth.

I'm so proud to be her friend.

Lisa's website is http://organizingforpower.wordpress.com/

ACT's website is http://trainersalliance.org/

Short Consensus Summary

One of the great needs I see in the Occupy movement is for better meeting facilitation and consensus training.  I'm posting this short handout here–there's a longer one available at my main website.

Understanding Consensus:

All over the country, people are flocking to the streets to join occupations demanding a just system for the 99%.  It's an inspiring vision: thousands of people participating in direct democracy, making decisions, having their voices heard.  And it's a potential nightmare—thousands of ordinary Americans being subjected to really bad, ponderous consensus meetings, fleeing in frustration and anguish and ready to accept any tyranny over the prospect of more long meetings!

Consensus process can be wonderful—or terrible.  At it's best, it can be empowering, creative and efficient.  But for that to happen, people need to understand and agree upon the process.  Facilitators need training and skill.  And the group as a whole needs to invest some trust in the facilitation team.  If no one in the group has experience with consensus, get training.  If you can't find training, at least form a facilitators working group to find ways to practice and refine the process and to think about meetings beforehand.  Or just vote.

Why Consensus?

Consensus is a creative thinking process: When we vote, we decide between two alternatives.   With consensus, we take an issue, hear the range of enthusiasm, ideas and concerns about it, and synthesize a proposal that best serves everybody's vision.

Consensus values every voice: The care we take in a consensus process to hear everyone's opinions and weave them into a whole is a living demonstration that each one of us is important.  It's a counter to systems that tell us some people count while others don't.  In consensus, everyone matters.  But for consensus to work, we must also be flexible, willing to let go.  Consensus means you get your say—it doesn't mean you get your way!

Consensus creates a sense of unity: When we all participate in shaping a course of action, we all feel a sense of commitment and responsibility.  Unity is not unanimity—within consensus there is room for disagreement, for objections, reservations, for people to stand aside and not participate.

Talking vs. Talking about Talking

People are eager to talk to one another—about politics, about plans of action, about what we learn each day in the occupation.  That's talking—with real content.  But people get really bored and frustrated when we're talking about talking—deciding which agenda items should come first, or whether or not to break down into small groups, or how long to take for lunch.  Consensus works best when the group invests some trust in the facilitators to make judgment calls that smooth the process and allow the group to get to the talking.  It bogs down when we are talking about talking.

Hand Signals:

Groups often use hand signals to simplify discussion.  The most common is finger-wiggling or 'twinkling', which originated from American Sign Language for applause, and signifies approval.  It allows a group to signify support quickly.

Thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways show approval, disapproval or neutrality.

Triangle fingers—process suggestion.  Waving index fingers—direct response.  These two are so often abused that I suggest retiring them, especially in less experienced groups.  People with process suggestions might come up and quietly whisper them to the co-facilitator rather than interrupting the flow of discussion.

Roles:

Facilitators: The facilitators guide the process, keep people on track, and decide how to facilitate each item.  They balance the need to hear every voice with the need to keep moving forward.  Facilitation of big meetings is a skill and training and practice are needed.  Facilitators need the support of the group to do their job.  Big meetings are best served by having cofacilitators. Facilitators remain neutral and do not take a position on the issues.

Stack taker: Keeps track of who wants to speak, and takes names or gives people numbers.

Notetakers and Scribes: Note takers keep the minutes of the meeting, being especially careful to record any decisions made.  Scribes may write up crucial information large so everyone can see it.

Timekeeper: The timekeeper keeps track of time and of how long we are taking for each agenda item, and alerts the group when it runs over time.

Dragons: Guard the boundaries of the meeting and run interference with those who might distract or interrupt:  drunks wandering in, police, etc.

Straw Polls and Temperature Readings:

Full consensus takes time and energy. Save it for important issues.  For simple decisions and process questions, use straw polls—quick, non-binding votes, or temperature readings—are we in favor of this, neutral or disapproving.  Democracy is not served by trying to get a large group to do a full consensus process on every detail of a meeting—for people who have limited time and energy will leave and be denied their opportunity to weigh in on important issues.

Running the Meeting:

Set an agenda and choose facilitators beforehand:

For big meetings and general assemblies, collect agenda items beforehand so the facilitators have time to think about a logical order for the agenda, and how to approach each item.  There can always be room on the agenda for new items, but setting a full agenda in a huge group will take lots of time that could otherwise be used for actually talking about the items.  Some things commonly on agendas for general assemblies:  Welcome, reports from working groups and committees, action reports, next action planning, etc.

Welcome people.

Present the agenda, ask for any additional items, and ask for approval with a simple straw poll or temperature reading:  'twinkles' or thumbs up or down.  If a lot of additional items come up, ask people to bring them up to the co-facilitator to set an order.  DO NOT let the whole group discuss the order or the times—ask their permission for the facilitators to do this service so the group can discuss issues.

Review how the process works:

When many people are new to consensus, it's worth spending some time to review how the process works and to clarify any misconceptions.

Issues:

Present the issue:  Someone, NOT the facilitators, tell the group what's under discussion. What information do we all need to know?

Discuss the issue:

Facilitators call for enthusiasm (sometimes with 'twinkles'), support, additional ideas, concerns, reservations, strong feelings, moral objections.  Out of discussion a proposal emerges.

Decide the issue:

Someone makes a proposal that synthesizes the sense of the group that arises from the discussion.  A proposal is an action statement:  We will do ______.

The facilitator asks for a show of support, then for new concerns, or friendly amendments.  The proposal can be tweaked and refined to accept additions ( or reject them) and to meet concerns.

Call for consensus:

Restate the proposal in its final form.

Ask for a show of support.

Ask for any unheard concerns, reservations or objections which can be stated for the record.

Ask for any stand asides—meaning "I won't participate but I won't block."

Ask for any blocks.  Blocking consensus does not mean "I disagree", it means "This proposal is so counter to our founding principles that I cannot let the group go forward."  When discussion is done well, objections this strong will come up much earlier and blocking is rarely an issue.  Some groups may use a modified form of consensus—meaning that a 90% vote (or another number the group chooses) can override a block.

Celebrate!

Restate the proposal, record it, and decide who will implement it, and who will communicate the decision to others who need to know.

Announcements:

People always want to make announcements, and they often can go on and on and become a huge energy sink.  Big sheets of paper where people can write up details can help with this.

Soap Box:

People love to make statements and speeches.  When time allows, setting a time at the end of the agenda for people to do this can help keep other discussions on track.

Evaluate and close the meeting:

Take a few moments at the end to evaluate how the meeting went.

Don't confuse the tool with the result:

Any process we use is a tool to help us achieve the goals of empowerment, creativity and unity.  If the tool isn't working, whether it's a hand signal, the 'people's mike', or consensus itself, whether it was invented at Occupy Wall Street or has been used for thirty years in the movement, do something different.

More Resources:

Experienced facilitators have many other tools in their toolbox.  A free download of a more extended discussion of facilitation is on Starhawk's website at http://www.starhawk.org/.  See also the many resources at:

http://organizingforpower.wordpress.com/

My Day–The Short List

So here's a short list of what I did today, just so you'll understand why I'm not writing at great length tonight.  I got up early to make an 8:30 AM Pagan Cluster meeting down at McPherson Square.  I did a nonviolence training at 9:30 AM for two hours.  Then we ran off to the rally for the tar sands pipeline near Freedom Plaza.  We had an intense discussion about gender issues during the rally as we couldn't hear the speakers well enough to understand anything they were actually saying, but the whole thing had great energy.  At the end, we started a drum circle and turned it into a spiral dance.  Then we got caught up in the anti-war march and went almost to the Martin Luther King memorial before Linda and I had to break off to walk at a fast pace back to McPherson to do a consensus training.  That ended as the march came through heading to the IMF/World Bank building, and I couldn't resist joining that!  By the end, my energy was flagging so we caught a cab back.  Just as I arrived, the Occupy DC group asked me to facilitate their 6 pm General Assembly.  I did.  It was a challenging meeting, but we got through it.  By the end, I was tired.  The Pagan Cluster was meeting over by the big tree, We fell down on the grass and duck doo doo and lay in a puppy pile and had hysterics for a while.  Then we went over to Freedom Plaza, where Jason and Riyanna were facilitating the General Assembly.  That looked like the meeting from hell when I arrived, bogged down on trying to get consensus to break down into small groups.  I sat in on the meeting to give them some support.  When we finally got consensus, and finally ended the meeting, we drummed and sang "We're going to make a revolution" to the tune of "What shall we do with the drunken sailor."  My friend Lisa is in town for just a day—I caught one glimpse of her on the march and had a few moments at the end of the day to catch up, drinking a beer at the hotel where I'm sleeping tonight.

All of this to explain why I'm not blogging at great length tonight.  In a way, it's quite amazing—all sorts of people from all over the country just discovering consensus process, eager to meet and plan and share ideas and experience the heady thrill of direct democracy in the streets.  Is it my greatest dream come true—or my worst nightmare, trying to facilitate meetings with people who are unfamiliar with the process and yet have very strong opinions on how you should be running the meeting.  And there's the People's Mike—a technique we've often used on the streets for short announcements, having groups of people repeat a speaker's words.  But here they use it for entire meetings and complex arguments!  And of course, it makes everything take twice as long.  But people love it.  It makes you feel heard, and amplifies your voice.  It makes even prosaic statements sound like religious liturgy.  It creates a great sense of unity and community, which everybody craves.

Something is happening.  Occupations are springing up all over the place.  One of the young women organizers told me she'd passed on my consensus download to someone about to start Occupy Mississippi!  There are union folks here from Wisconsin, displaced stokebrokers from New York, laid off policy wonks from here in DC, affable former corporate managers from Texas, ex-cons from the 'hood here in DC and a lot of homeless people and students who've woken up to the fact that they are debt-slaves.  What will happen if ordinary folks all over the country get addicted to having a say in the decisions that affect their lives?

I feel more and more ent-like by the day.  You know, those ancient tree-beings out of Tolkien.  It's not just the bendability factor, but the time thing.  I'm sixty, and these young generations of activists seem to come up so quickly, as if they are in a different time-stream.  The truth is, activist fashions don't change that much and this cohort looks enough like the ones we were marching with ten years ago that they could be the very same people, somehow ageless, only with some very different sets of assumptions.  Instead of smashing the windows at Starbucks, they're using the toilets and in return, rating them high on the internet.  Here in DC the police have been extremely mellow so far, and one young man actually proposes marching to thank them.  True, he doesn't gather much support, but no one shouts him down.  And they all seem universally, unquestionably devoted to non-violence.

But I said I wasn't going to write a long blog.  Tomorrow will bring more surprises—and yet more meetings!

Freedom Plaza–The First Day

"I hate young people!" I'm grumbling as I puff along in the wake of the march led by the Occupy DC folks who have established their base in McPherson Square.  They've asked for drummers and music on their march, but they are travelling at such a fast pace it's all I can do to try and keep up with them, let alone drumming at the same time.  Simon helps by carrying my bag—he's a young person but I forgive him for it.  Finally we reach our destination:  The Newseum where the American Ideas Forum is happening and where Dick Cheney is speaking.  We hold a short, spirited rally and head back to the Square at breakneck speed for the general assembly.

I don't really hate them, however—just their tendency to compete for the Olympic Speed-Marching record.  Really I've had an amazing day, mostly spent in the company of predominantly young people who have set up this occupation, separate but linked to the events in Freedom Plaza.  The Occupy DC group are mostly locals, and they intend to stay in the square indefinitely.  They're a mix of students and a good sprinkling of older people of varied backgrounds.  "I quit my job at Morgan Stanley," says a well-dressed, gray-haired man.  An older woman with a rugged face talks about the protests of the sixties.  A slow-talking older man says that he wasn't an activist in the sixties, he knew that stuff was happening but ignored it.  He's not an activist now—he's an analyst for a global corporation.  But if we don't bring some reason into our tax system we will be destroying the base of labor upon which an economy rests.

The folks at Freedom Plaza, like us, mostly come from out of town.  Judging from the nonviolence training we did last night, more than half of them have never done anything like this before and many of them have come to the action alone, without knowing anyone else.  I admire their courage—I doubt that I would hop on a plane from Iowa or Texas to come demonstrate in Washington DC all by myself, with no support.  What if the other kids don't like me, and I don't make any friends?

I spent a lot of the day in meetings.  It was a bit like a relationship I once had where we spent far more time in couples counseling than we ever did having sex—I spent far more of the day in meetings than in the actions the meetings were meeting about.  But in a sense, maybe the meetings were actions—interposing this exercise in direct democracy at the feet of the lobbyists and the Congress and all the systems that are captives of money and corrupt power.  "Demoncracy" I wrote by accident—democracy made servant of the demons of greed.

Occupy DC has two General Assemblies a day.  Freedom Plaza has its own General Assembly.  With so many people new to consensus process, the meetings are sometimes ponderous—and yet there's an archetypal quality to it all, people sitting under a tree debating and discussing and coming to decisions together in a process designed to assure that everyone has a voice.  I think we crave that experience, somewhere deep in the soul.  It is exactly what democracy looks like, and right now it seems that all over the world people are hearing the call.

I did sit in on their facilitators' working group, and some of us from the Pagan Cluster gently offered some of our tips.  (All of which you can read in the free download on my website: "The Five-Fold Path of Productive Meetings".http://www.starhawk.org/.  Three young men were down from the Occupy Wall Street group in New York and the DC folks were appreciative, thrilled, and admiring.  These young folks who learned their activist skills a month ago and now the seasoned veterans and the experts.

The evening assembly went much more smoothly, we were told, than yesterdays.  Simon—bless him—raised the issue of marching a bit more slowly, being aware of the tail of the march as well as the head.  His comments elicited a long discussion and a plethora of suggestions.  A tall,very dark man with a big smile from the Communications Workers of America explained how they always had marshalls in orange vests at all their marches.  Some people liked the idea of marshalls, others were wary of establishing a role that gave people power they might abuse.  I hear comments of staggering maturity and common sense:  "I'm as anti-authoritarian as anyone, but I'm against illegitimate authority and this would be giving people legitimate authority."  "We're asking people to take on responsibility and that's a good thing, to use it in service of the groups—like these facilitators are doing, to make the process more democratic and easier for everyone to participate in."  We don't really come to a resolution, but do make a plan for the next day, a march to the IMF and World Bank.  Many people don't know what the connection is to the economic interests at the heart of this action—others explain that the "austerity" measures we're having forced on us have already been shoved down the throats of the global south by the IMF, and the poverty they've created abroad is now coming home to us as well.

The Freedom Plaza folks will be supporting the tar sands protests tomorrow.  Hearings are scheduled about the proposed pipeline that would carry the world's dirtiest oil over the country's key aquifer, running from Canada to Texas.  I want to do it all and I want to do some trainings and I want to lie in the sun and sleep.

At the very end of the night, we wait until the last performer on the Freedom Plaza stage is done, then we strike up the drums and lead people in a spiral dance.  "We are the rising sun, we are the change, we are the ones we've been waiting for and we are dawning"—we used Raven's beautiful chant and wove in and out under the stars, finishing with a cone of power.  Then a young woman standing next to me asked for one more song.  We sang song after song, from John Lennon's "Imagine" to a rousing chorus of "What Can We Do with the Drunken Sailor" with the words changed.  It was very sweet, standing in a circle in the night, singing together.  Imagine!  This is what democracy looks like.  Imagine a world where we sing together, and together make the decisions that affect our lives.  It isn't hard to do.  Then make that world together.  It's easy if you try.  The old, corrupt world falls away and a new world is born.

Why I'm Going to Freedom Plaza

After nearly two months on the road, I managed to touch down briefly at home, long enough to hug my sweetie, connect with my dear friends, do the laundry and dry it on the line just before the first rains of the winter blessed us with their showers.  Then I packed the bags again and headed out, this morning, to Washington DC to join the protests planned at Freedom Plaza.  Asking myself, "Why?"  And "Do I really need to do this?"

As much as I've spent years of my life involved in demonstrations and various forms of political actions, I don't really like them.  I like being home, playing with the big white fluffy dog and the baby, sleeping in my own bed and making myself a cup of tea any time I want to.  I'm older now.  My knees are stiff and I get more like an Ent every year—that is, more treelike and less bendable.  I have a hearing problem that amplifies all kinds of ambient, irritating sounds so they reverberate around in my head like a very bad sound system while meaningful noises and conversation get harder and harder to hear—which makes loud, noisy demonstrations a form of purgatory.  I have a very full life, full of meaningful work aimed at changing the world for the better.  There are many constructive things I could be doing, should be doing, am doing—besides getting out in the streets.

Yet, here I am.  Do I really need to do this?  Well, yes.  Why?  Because in the end, it always comes down to the streets.  When the greed, the hypocrisy, the assaults on our freedoms, our pockets, our future and our common sense go so far beyond the level of toleration, there's no substitute for the outrage of the streets.  Internet petitions are fine, and constructive programs of creative community-building keep us sane and help point the way to a future, but those noisy bodies in the streets put the politicians, the greedy bastards and the high-level criminals to take their frakkin' boots off our necks, thank you!

The protests mark the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, linking the continuation of that war with the erosion of our civil rights, the assaults on workers and the middle class and the Obama administration's reluctance to take a strong stand on climate change and environmental protection.  But more than that, they're part of this global phenomenon, this surge of people swarming into public space in Egypt and Wisconsin, in Greece and Spain and Israel, in London and in Wall Street, New York City, to say "Enough!"  Globally, the rich are stealing from the poor at a level that has reached almost surreal proportions.  They back the theft with all the instruments of war, repression, and massive propaganda.  Meanwhile the earth's life support system are racing toward melt-down and the people in power are unable to do the clear and simple things we need to do to assure our children a viable future because they are bound to the service of greed.  And so I find it hopeful that around the world people are rising up and demanding something different: a world where we remember that we are mutually interdependent, and develop systems that let us get good at it.

So, here I am, in a big Pagan cluster slumber party in the house of a supportive and brave friend in the DC area.  We've had our morning meeting.  We've made our plans for the day and for tomorrow.  We're going to create a water station on the Plaza, with filtered water, and some sort of permacultural toilet facilities, hopefully.  I'll be helping out with a nonviolence training tonight.  We'll be offering trainings on the Plaza, and some sort of public ritual, sometime.  Besides the actions in Freedom Plaza, we're interested in connecting with the Occupy DC group in McPherson Square, who are linked to the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and around the country.  On the 7th, there will also be actions targeting the hearings around the tar sands pipeline, the plan to pump the world's dirtiest, least energy-efficient oil from the New Mordor the tar sands have created in Alberta across the country's key aquifer to refineries in Texas.  Obama could stop this travesty with an executive order, and we intend to make sure that he feels pressure to do so, and that indigenous elders are heard at the hearings.

Riyanna and I will be sharing blogging duties.  I love her blogs from actions—and that way we will each be able to sleep occasionally.  Mine will be up here, at http://starhawksblog.org/ and hers will be at http://wildandserene.blogspot.com/.  We encourage you to read them both, to join us here if you can (email pagancluster2011@gmail.com) or to look for the many sister actions in your own areas.  Magical support, energy and protection are always welcome—think of us being in the right place at the right time in the right way, with the protection, energy, support, health and luck to do the work.

And when this is all over, I promise to catch up with reports from the awesome International Permaculture Convergence in Jordan–meanwhile, a lot of it is archived at http://www.ipcon.org/.

.

Love to you all, Starhawk

Thanks for Making our Kickstarter Campaign a Success!

Our Kickstarter campaign for The Fifth Sacred Thing movie is over—and thanks to the incredible, generous support we've received, we did fantastically well, raising $76,327 from 1431 donors!  That puts us in the top fifty of most-funded Kickstarter campaigns.  And we did it not with big donors—grateful as we are for their support—but from lots and lots of smaller donors who gave what they could to show their faith in this project.  I feel deeply touched and grateful.  As a writer, I don't get to see people reading my books or get the immediate feedback a performer might—applause or boos.  But I've felt, these last two months, like I was getting a big round of applause, and I'm deeply thankful.

Putting our vision out to the world and asking for help was a scary move for me.  Receiving support is in some ways even scarier—it feels like a sacred trust to make the movie happen.  We're now in position to move forward with it.  I realize that many people probably have no idea how long it takes to make a major feature, and what the steps are.  We're now in what's called 'development'.  We are in good shape, in that we have a screenplay (that I've written—and that alone was a process that took years!) as well as much work already on the visuals, the arts, the connections with other organizations, one major actor committed to a role, and now, the money we need to put together a full financial packet for investors.  Our next big step will be to secure a director, and to go after the next round of financing which will put us into pre-production.  That's the stage where we start nailing down locations, cast the rest of the movie, design sets, costumes, etc.  After that comes production, when we film the thing, and then post-production, when it's edited, sound and color-balanced, and all the special effects get added.  So it is still a long, long road before you hear me exhort you to get all your friends together to make the opening weekend big!

But thanks to you, we're on the road!  I'll continue to blog about our progress and send out updates.  And you can follow it—and participate—at our website and by Liking our Facebook page.

We've received so many generous offers of support, from office help to music to art to ideas and contacts.  So many people want to be part of making this film!  We now have a signup page on our website where you can tell us about yourself and get on the list we'll use for auditions, calls, and other needs.  It's at:

http://fifthsacredthing.com/home/get-involved/participation-signup/

So grateful to have you with me on this exciting journey!  Starhawk

The Fifth Sacred Thing Green Plan

Less than a week to go on our Kickstarter campaign for The Fifth Sacred Thing movie.  We've done so well–but still have far to go!  However, it occured to me that it was past time to share with you all the Green Plan I wrote up for our production.  It's designed to guide us in making the movie, and to explain to potential collaborators and investors what our goals are, how permaculture principles can inform a project like this, and to generate excitement.  We welcome feedback as this plan evolves, so please feel free to comment.  And if you like what you read, please support our Kickstarter campaign if you can!  Thanks–it means so much to have you on our team!

The Fifth Sacred Thing envisions streets turned to gardens.

The Fifth Sacred Thing:

The Green Plan for Production

The Fifth Sacred Thing shows us a vision of a positive, resilient future, where at least one city has achieved environmental balance and social harmony.  Applying the ethics and principles of permaculture to the production of The Fifth Sacred Thing will embody the message of the film and generate ecological, social and financial returns.

Why do this? First and foremost, because it's the right thing to do.  And fortunately, doing right will bring back enormous rewards—financially as well as spiritually.  Here's how:

These values will attract high-quality people to work on the production and inspire them to do their finest work.

By 'walking our talk', we will create enormous public relations benefits and attract a huge following of supporters.

Each environmental group or social agency we link to expands our web of support—people who will spread the word about the film and bring others to see it.

Reducing waste will reduce costs.

We will  set a new bar for green production in the film industry.

Each innovation we create can be a focus of news stories and blogs that will publicize the film.

In solving our problems, we will potentially find solutions, develop systems and create spin-offs that are applicable to other productions and industries.  These are also potential sources of additional income.

The cost of living our values will be a small percentage of the overall cost of a big-budget film, and will be offset both by savings and PR.

We will contribute to the overall health of the planet and its people.

Permaculture for the Film Business

Permaculture is both an approach to ecological design and a global movement.  Begun by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970's, it now has practitioners and projects all over the world.  The ethics and principles of permaculture can be applied to everything from gardening to business planning, guiding us in creating systems that meet human needs while regenerating the environment around us.

Permaculture Ethics:

Care for the earth:

The Fifth Sacred Thing will set a new standard for 'green' film production, going beyond 'carbon neutral' to 'earth positive': creating inspiration, education and resources for ecological regeneration.

Care for the people:

The Fifth Sacred Thing will go beyond fair labor and hiring practices to create positive benefits for the larger community.

Care for the future:

By presenting a positive and hopeful vision of the future, The Fifth Sacred Thing will inspire action and optimism.  The production will invest some of its operating costs in resources that will provide ongoing benefits in the future.

Permaculture Principles

Abundance Springs From Relationships:

Build a network of beneficial relationships within the company, with other ventures, with artists, technicians, workers, performers and audience.

Cherish relationships—treat people well at every level.

Develop links and networks—look for ways to involve other organizations with mutual benefits.   Every link you make multiplies your impact.

Catch and store energy:

Use renewable sources of energy—solar, wind, etc.

Find ways to capture the enthusiasm and good will that surrounds a project, to help people feel involved and connected.

Money is energy—look for ways to spend it that will multiply its impact and build interest and good will for each project.  For example—buying food locally on a location shoot can create good will for the project in the area and provide more fresh and healthy food for the crew.

Close loops:

Produce no waste.  Look for ways that 'waste' can be a resource.  Re-use and recycle materials.  Donate materials to other organizations to create partnerships—for example, used building materials to Habitat for Humanity or similar organizations.

Use onsite, re-usable, renewable and recyclable materials.  Avoid the use of toxic substances.

Stack functions:

Every element in a system should serve more than one function.

A website, for example, could promote the film, give people resources for going deeper into subjects the film presents, provide a platform for people to engage and bring their own ideas and creativity to bear on aspects of the story world—which in turn will build relationships, 'buzz', and audience.

An internship program could help train disadvantaged youth and solve social problems, create strong relationships within the community, provide useful services at low cost, and generate good public relations.

A portable solar power unit built for one film could be re-used, loaned to nonprofits to generate good PR, taken to festivals such as Burning Man as good film promotion, sold at the end of production or donated to a school or organization.

Redundancy:

Every crucial function should be provided by more than one element.        Have multiple streams of financing and potential revenue, multiple sources of energy.

Always have a plan B.

Plan for catastrophe—Have a backup location for an indoor shoot in case of bad weather outdoors.

Work smarter, not harder:

Begin by observing, analyzing and designing.  Observation, forethought and creativity will save time, money, effort, energy and materials.

Put things in the right place to facilitate ease of use.  Things used most frequently should be in the most central location.

Do things at the right time and in the right order.

Value creativity—an unlimited resource.  The problem is the solution—solving problems will lead to new opportunities and create new resources.

How we will put these principles into practice:

Abundance springs from relationships:

We begin the production with a wealth of helpful relationships:

Executive producer Philip Wood has extensive networks in the Bay Area film, technical, arts and music communities.

Writer and producer Starhawk has enormous networks in the environmental community, the global permaculture network and the Bay Area 'green' networks.  A permaculture designer and teacher herself, she heads up Earth Activist Training which has trained hundreds of students in permaculture design.  Earth Activist Training partners with a community-based organization, Hunters Point Family, which runs violence prevention and food justice programs in Bayview Hunters Point—a low-income neighborhood of San Francisco plagued by unemployment, drugs, gangs and violence.  Starhawk trains at-risk youth in permaculture and environmental leadership skills, in conjunction with three community-run gardens that provide food in a neighborhood with no supermarkets or access to fresh produce.  The program includes media training, where youth learn video and audio production to document what they are learning.

These connections give us a huge pool of talent to draw from, for everything from interns to gardeners to inventors and artists.

The Sets:

The Fifth Sacred Thing is set partly in a San Francisco of the future that embodies ecological balance.  The streets are transformed into gardens with running streams, lined by fruit trees and filled with art.  Energy is provided by solar panels, solar films and wind generators which are decorated to become works of art.

Garden plants, flowers, fruit trees will need to be grown ahead of time.  We will contract with local, organic nurseries to grow the plants, giving priority to businesses in low-income areas.  As vegetables reach their prime, they can be harvested to feed crew and cast and replaced as necessary.  After the shoot, remains can go back to community gardens to be composted.  Remaining plants and trees can be donated to community gardens, school gardens, etc.

(Abundance springs from relationships, close loops, waste as a resource.)

The solar panels, films and wind generators needed for the sets can be live, wherever feasible.  They can generate electricity to help power the shoot, feed electricity back into the grid to offset power costs, and at the end of the shoot, be sold to recover their costs or donated to a non-profit for a tax benefit and good will.  The cost of a large 'buy' of solar panels would most likely be comparable to the cost of labor to fabricate fake panels, and be offset by savings in energy and potential resale, as well as the tax rebates (30% currently) for renewable energy.

(Catch and store energy, stack functions, abundance springs from relationships.)

One of the sets includes an aquaponics greenhouse—an integrated fish farm and vegetable growing system.  A real system can be set up for approximately $20,000.  It could be built as an educational project with youth from Hunters Point Family or similar organization, designed to facilitate the shoot, and made operational to provide food for the cast and crew.  At the end of the shoot, it could be donated back to the organization for a tax benefit to the film company and become an income and food-producing venture for the community.

(Close loops, re-use and recycle, stack functions, abundance springs from relationships.)

The sets are filled with climbable sculptures, murals and mosaics.  The Bay Area is a hotbed of art and sculpture, much of it centered around the Burning Man festival and community.  Many existing pieces could be rented, at a lower cost than building.  Specific pieces might be commissioned and later donated for a tax write-off.  The production might partner with Precita Eyes, an arts organization that has created hundreds of mural projects around San Francisco.  Murals and mosaics could be created for the film by arts education projects, at similar or lower cost than having them done by set painters.  Their 'look' would be more authentic and perfectly suit the film—and money so spent would help fund the organizations, creating enormous good will.

(Use local resources, close loops, catch and store energy, stack functions, abundance springs from relationships.)

Materials:  Recycling of materials is already standard 'green' practice in the industry. The sets will use building materials, masonry, paving, pond liners, pumps, etc.  Sets will be carefully deconstructed at the end of the shoot—an opportunity to hire local companies and provide on-the-job training for disadvantaged youth.  Materials will be donated to programs such as Habitat for Humanity or to local community projects.  San Francisco has an artists' resource center where odds and ends can be donated.

Some sets might be partly built of recycled materials—for example, the destruction in the Southlands could use a lot of waste chunks of concrete which could afterwards be re-used in natural building projects.

(Re-use and recycle, waste is a resource, abundance springs from relationships.)

Models and props:

We will seek an agreement with the City of San Francisco first, then with other museums and educational institutions for a permanent display of the models of the transformed city used in the film.  Possible venues might be a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station—possibly Powell and Market near the Tourist Office, the Airport museum, or an educational institution.

Such a display would be ongoing publicity for the DVD and downloads of the film long after its theatrical run.

Costumes, props and wigs:  At the end of production, props wigs and costumes could be donated to high-school drama departments or local theater companies.   Some might conceivably be sold on Ebay, offered as prizes for web contests associated with the film, or donated to nonprofits for raffles or silent auctions.

(Re-use and recycle, abundance springs from relationships.)

Energy:

Film production uses a huge amount of electricity.  This can be mitigated:

On the outdoor sets:  By using real solar and wind generation wherever possible.

At the office: San Francisco has a program that helps to subsidize retrofits for energy efficiency and renewable energy that could potentially subsidize solar panels at the production offices.  Rental and lease agreements could be negotiated with this in mind.

Sound stages, special effects and post-production facilities:

Companies could be encouraged and aided to install solar panels or wind generation.  Working in conjunction with a program like Hunters Point Family's Environmental Leadership training, interns could do free energy audits for partner companies and help them find the most cost-effective retrofits and the resources to do it.

However, it is unlikely that every company we want to work with will be in a position to do this.  This is one area where we may need to purchase offsets—or create our own.  For example, if we can do a huge buy of solar panels at a good rate, systems could be donated to nonprofits giving us a double tax benefit–a rebate on the panels and a tax donation credit.

On location:

The Fifth production will build a portable power system—solar panels and wind generation on a towable trailer that can be brought to location sites to provide power.  A backup generator could run on biodiesel or methane.

The power unit could then be used on future productions.  When not in use by the film company, it could be rented out or loaned to non-profits for special events.  It could be brought to festivals, outdoor concerts and gatherings as good PR for the film.

(Catch and store energy, redundancy, stack functions, abundance springs from relationships.)

Care and Feeding of Cast and Crew:

The company will contract with community gardens, urban farmers, local growers and caterers to provide fresh, healthy, organic and delicious food for cast and crew.

Food will be served on real plates and dishes whenever possible.  This creates another opportunity to partner with local artists to design plates and mugs with the film logo or images which could also become a spin-off product to be sold.

When disposables are used, they will be compostable.

Cast and crew will be given water bottles and mugs—another potential spin-off product.  Water and other drinks will be provided in large containers, not plastic bottles.

Food scraps will be collected and composted at community gardens, or fed to a methane digester to produce gas which can be used for cooking or energy generation.

The company will build a portable compost toilet/methane digester unit which can be taken on location.  It will be clean, pleasant, and odorless—unlike the usual port-a-potty.  The methane can be used for cooking or for energy generation and the residues can be further composted and used to grow trees or ornamental plants.  This unit will be a prototype that can also be taken to festivals as promotion for the film.  The design can be replicated to provide another potential spin-off business—such units would be invaluable in natural disasters as well as outdoor gatherings.  The cost of building it would be offset by savings on port-a-potty rentals and servicing.

(Waste is a resource, use local resources, stack functions)

Transport:

Affordable electric cars are on the verge of coming to market.  Cars purchased or leased by the company should be electric or hybrid electric—they can be charged by solar panels and their price will be partially or fully offset by savings on gas and fuel.

After the production, they could be resold.  The company might also  partner with ZipCars or City Car Share or a similar company that provides car-sharing services in the Bay Area—either to lease cars or for resale of cars.

Trucks and trailers can run on biodiesel—the cost will be somewhat higher than regular diesel.

For short runs and for on-set transport, bicycles can be provided for those willing and able to use them.  After production, they could be donated to local programs or resold.

(Catch and store energy, use renewable energy.)

Inspiration and Education:

People will come away from viewing The Fifth Sacred Thing saying, "I want to live there!"  We can provide the knowledge and resources they will need to create their own vision of the future.  Not in the movie itself—because a movie must above all, be a drama, with the story as the driving force.  We can't stop in the middle to deliver a treatise on rain catchment or how to build a worm bin.  The vision of the city will be glimpsed as the context for the action.

But the film will generate enormous opportunities to educate people.  We will have a website where people can take a virtual tour of the city, lingering on parts that interest them and delving into the details.  On the website, we can provide links to other organizations and resources.  Each organization then has a stake in promoting the film.

We can provide short 'how-to' videos that can be made, at low cost, by trainees in local youth media programs.  The film company can help fund the programs—generating good will and potential tax deductions.  The trainees will gain experience, exposure, and connections in the industry.

The website will be rich in interactive experiences: 'wikis' where artists can create their own versions of painted wind generators or sculptural play structures, programs that can guide a viewer to design their own permaculture garden or plan their own version of an ideal city.  Spin-offs would include a variety of games that could also generate revenue.

The project will also educate and inspire everyone involved in the production and marketing of the film, and all those who hear or read about it, providing a living example of how to do a big, complex project sustainably and profitably.

(Work smarter, not harder, value creativity, stack functions, abundance springs from relationships.)

What's the downside?

The program will need careful oversight and skillful management.

It will need its own producer and staff.

It will involve the company in more complex relationships and projects than an ordinary film.

It will need legal support to draw up agreements and contracts with a variety of organizations, and experts to negotiate with city and county regulations and permits.

Summary of benefits:

The Fifth Sacred Thing's applied permaculture program will reduce our carbon load, save energy, and create regenerative resources that will contribute both to ecological health and social justice.

The project will attract high-level talent in every area who will be thrilled to work with us.

The program will save money by saving energy, reducing waste and reducing costs.

It will generate financial benefits by producing income-generating spin-offs and tax credits and deductions.

It will create incalculable benefits for marketing the film.  The positive PR will be enormous.  Every organization we partner with or link to will have a stake in promoting the film.  Youth, artists and activists are great social networkers and will create enormous positive 'buzz'.  Every innovation will be great material for news stories and blogs.  By 'walking our talk', we will attract not just fans but passionate supporters.

And it's the right thing to do!

A Tale of Many Meetings

In a triumph of optimism and ideology over observation and common sense, I've just hung out my laundry to dry in the cold, dank, near-freezing San Francisco fog.  There is a reason I love this place—and there's another reason I generally do my big travels in the summer, which I'm preparing to do now, today—assuming my laundry dries by then, which is doubtful.

Preparing to go, I've been reflecting on the last few weeks, which have been jammed with meetings of various sorts.  Not the meetings as in we all get together and decide how to block the road kind of meetings, but Meetings as in "take a meeting with _____", mostly centered around The Fifth Sacred Thing movie project.  So, we went to L.A.  By 'we' I mean me, Mouse aka Philip Wood, and Paradox Pollack, the three of us being the core team of producers.   "Producer", in movie-land, means many things, but at this point, for us, it's like being the organizer of an event or an action—a big event.  Pulling together the details, the plan, the look and feel of the thing, and eventually, we hope, the money.  Never have three people with such funny names and so little money set out to make a major feature film!

Fortunately, I enjoy meetings, first because I'm fascinated by human interactions and power dynamics, secondly, because it's easier to sit and talk than to sit and write or to carry heavy buckets of compost tea and slosh it about.  We met with financial people and green business people ('green' as in 'ecologically conscious' not as in 'alien invaders') and some producers and other people involved in varied aspects of the film business.  Then we came back to the Bay Area and met with the San Francisco Film Commission and other producers and potential finance people and our friend in the Office of Economic Development who wants to help us realize our plan of creating legacy projects.  We connected with the Burning Man Project which is going to be working with the city to help revive the Market Street corridor with art, and with friends involved with creating games and music and urban agriculture, and looked at some sites for possible sets we could build that could remain as legacy gardens for the community.  Really exciting!

In all of this, we've found that many people are deeply excited by the project and eager to be a part of it.  While my image of Hollywood is of cutthroat, ruthless, cold-eyed greedy business people staring you down and plotting how to do you in—and they do exist!—we've found a lot of amazing, creative people hungry to do something with meaning and extremely generous with their time and support.

And our next steps have become clear.  We will look for a director—someone who shares our vision and who has the credits and the experience to make investors feel comfortable.  To get a director at that level to talk with us, we need to put together the financial package that ultimately we'll use to attract investors.  Films, these days, are sometimes financed by big studios, and we could go try to go that route but if we do, we will give up much control.  More often, independents are financed by a complex combination of investors who come in at different times and different levels—who, in fact, must wade through complicated mixed metaphors that somehow combine natural features with the architecture of a hotel, so as to be coming in on the mezzanine level while the waterfall flows, or getting in on the ground floor while not getting left out in the cold—I found myself distracted by wondering what it might mean, say, to come in the lobby of the cloud forest or scale the alpine heights of the balcony or perhaps dive into the swimming pool of the maelstrom or weather the storm of the Grand Ballroom?

Fortunately, I've learned in life that often one good phrase can make you sound knowledgeable even if in truth you have no idea what's going on.  To sound knowledgeable about wine, for example, nod wisely and say thoughtfully, "Yes, a great wine is a great interpretation of the soil."

About film finance, a more rapid, definite nod, perhaps a wink, and say, "We're getting the guy who makes the waterfall happen."

Translated, that means a big, big chunk of our Kickstarter money will go to the financial package.  An experienced line producer will cost out the movie from the screenplay—in a low-budget and a dream-budget version.  A professional agency will project a Return On Investment (I could do that myself for free with Tarot cards but it doesn't carry the same weight),  The Guy/Gal Who Makes The Waterfall Happen will figure out exactly what to offer people who invest, when each tier of financing comes in and when each gets paid out—the waterfall—and the lawyers and accountants who can put it into watertight contracts.  In the end, at least half of the $65,000 we've raised so far will go into the packaging, plus other fees for lawyers and contracts.  Not very sexy, but it's got to be done, and done by those horrendously expensive entertainment lawyers who do it all the time, know the slippery rocks and the treacherous rapids—otherwise we risk drowning in the torrent as our vision gets swept away.

As for the rest of the money, about twenty per cent goes to Kickstarter fees and money they require us to set aside to fulfill our rewards.  Some will go to getting an assistants for Mouse and Paradox who will work a few hours each week, and to enough of a pittance of a stipend that they can—if not quit their day jobs—at least make the movie their prime time occupation.  I'll get an option payment, which will allow me to:

Choose One Only:

A) Fix the leaky roof.

B) Replace the rotting deck.

C) Set aside 3-4 months in the winter and spring to write the sequel.

Reader, which would you do?  Here's a hint—the roof only leaks when it rains, no one forces you to walk out on the rotting deck, but if a sequel is ever to be written, sooner rather than later is the time to do it.

The rest will go to pay for more art.  We want to include a few storyboard illustrations of key scenes in the movie, and before we go to investors, we'll update our video.

When we crunched the numbers, we realized that our original Kickstarter goal was too low.  We're grateful to have reached it, and it's probably just enough to let us squeak by, but in reality we need more to keep the project moving forward in a way that's sustainable.  That's why we've upped it to our real goal of $100,000.  And we are deeply grateful for anything you can contribute to that end.

Because we are committed to openness and transparency, we want you to know how the money will be spent.  When people hear "film" they think "big money", and in time, if we're successful, that will come.  But that time is still far away.  We'll be crammed into the cab of my '95 pickup (running on 99% recalled veggie oil biodiesel!) for a long time before we get into the limos—and in truth, we don't really aspire to the limos.  We aspire to change consciousness and  to make the world itself more resemble our vision of what it could be.  To have many sorts of resources to pour into those efforts will be really, really wonderful!

I feel this Kickstarter money, that so many people have given to us in good faith, is a sacred trust.  It comes from the community, and it should eventually go back to the community, to help us leave a legacy of jobs, internships, training, gardens and the infrastructure that will be needed to sustain the gardens.  If and when the big bucks come, I commit to seeing that at least as much money as we've raised here—and hopefully, even more—goes back to social, environmental and community projects.

Thanks to all of you who have given us your trust.  That means a lot!  We now have a short time left and a big goal to reach, so please do continue to help us spread the word.  We need to rebuild momentum after the relief of reaching our funding point.  For those of you who've thought—'sure, I want to give them something' and haven't yet, now is a very good time!

Miracles do happen.  The laundry is dry—time to pack it up and get on the road!

Again, huge gratitude to all of you.  The adventure continues…

Lammas Blessings and Gratitude

Lammas morning—I woke up and saw that during the night we'd reached our first funding point on our Kickstarter campaign for The Fifth Sacred Thing movie.  Yesterday, I'd posted the update below on our Kickstarter page—hoping that we'd hit that landmark on Lammas, and we did!  Such good magic!

"August 1, Lammas, one of the eight key Celtic Pagan holidays on the Wheel of the Year.  Lammas, traditionally, was the beginning of the harvest, when the early crops are coming in and the summer fruits are ripe.  In Ireland, it was Lughnasad, the festival of the sun-God Lugh.  "Lammas" comes from "Loaf-mass"—the loaf made from the first-harvested grain.  It was a time of fairs and feasts, of hopes and fears, when the grain is ripening in the fields but not yet brought into the barn.

"Here in northern California, Lammas generally marks the beginning of the driest, most dangerous time of the year.  We are midway through our long dry season, with all the moisture burned out of the grasses and the trees beginning to thirst.  A spark, a careless cigarette butt, a bottle of water left in the field that serves as a magnifying glass can start a fire that will rage over thousands of acres.  Water tanks are running low, springs dry to a trickle, and rain is still weeks away.

"For that reason, I chose Lammas as the date of the Uprising, and its anniversary, in The Fifth Sacred Thing book.  "In the dry time of year, the dangerous time, the risk time, an old woman climbed a hill…" so begins the story.  "Like most people in the southern part of the city, she called the season El Tiempo de la Segadora, the Time of the Reaper.  The hills were dry, the gardens dependent on the dwindling waters of cisterns, the rains still weeks away. A time of ripening, but not yet of harvesting, when nothing was certain."

"Incidentally, I was originally going to call the novel The Time of the Reaper.  Bantam thought that sounded too much like a Gothic novel or horror film, and someone in their editorial offices suggested The Fifth Sacred Thing.  Thank you!

"As I look at Kickstarter today, I realize we may well reach our first funding point on Lammas—or very shortly thereafter.  A first harvest, indeed!

"Lammas is also a time for gratitude, and I am deeply thankful for all the wonderful support we have been receiving in so many ways.  The movie is far, far from its ultimate harvest point, and our funding point on Kickstarter, we hope, will not be an end point but an important marker—and a moment of huge relief as after that, we know that we will actually be getting all the funds that people pledge!  But what a powerful first harvest!  Thank you all so much for being part of this wonderful adventure!  May your own harvests be abundant and your endeavors yield sweet fruit!"

No one was up at my house when I saw the good news, except for fifteen-year-old Kore who was subjected to a sequence of ecstatic hugs and eventually fled to go rouse the parents.  I called my good friend Donna—good news needs to be shared!

"Well, now you must really be terrified," she said.

"I was," I admitted.  "But fortunately our Lammas ritual this weekend focused a lot on letting go of the things that get in the way of your dreams."

I should say that I had nothing to do with planning the ritual.  That's the wonderful part of collaborative organizations—in Reclaiming, over the years, I've been able to step back from many roles and let other people take them on.  The gift is that you often get something you don't expect.  Were I planning the ritual, I probably would have focused on something different.  But for me, having a chance in ritual space to connect with a few people to share our dreams and name what might keep us from them, and consciously let go of the outcome—oooo, I resisted that, but it was good for me.

I don't let go of the sense of responsibility I feel—to all the people who have given their support and good will and hard-earned money to this project.  I feel a great determination to do all that's within my power—and perhaps a bit beyond—to make it the movie, and the larger project, that can help propel us into the positive vision of the future we want.

But there are many things beyond my control that could get in the way.  The most likely being that the Republicans and Democrats between them will utterly destroy the economy in the next week.  A tsumani could wash away San Francisco.  Another earthquake could hit.  A giant asteroid could crash into the earth.  The rapture might actually happen this October.  The sun could burn out way ahead of schedule.  We could make the movie and everyone could hate it.

So…take a deep breath, and instead of focusing on the worries, let go of the outcome.  Move ahead without fear, but with joy and gratitude.  Enjoy the harvest as it comes in.

We will continue to raise money—it's amazing the amount of money it takes to put together the proposal for the investors whom we hope will provide the next tier.  But now we know we can move ahead with some key facets of the project, and that we have some resources to lay on the table.  Thanks to all who have been supporting us in so many ways.

And great gratitude to the Reclaiming ritual planners, and to all who offer ceremonies and spiritual support to your communities.

A blessed Lammas to you all!

Reclaiming has groups in many areas who offer rituals, classes, and camps:

http://www.reclaiming.org/

Website for The Fifth Sacred Thing movie:

http://fifthsacredthing.com/home/

Kickstarter Page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fifthsacredthing/the-fifth-sacred-thing

Facebook for the Film:

http://www.facebook.com/TheFifthSacredThingFilm

Facebook for the book:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fifth-Sacred-Thing/109374575747760?ref=ts&sk=info

Starhawk's Website:

http://www.starhawk.org/

Fifth Sacred Thing Book:

http://www.starhawk.org/writings/fifth-sacred-thing.html

On the Murders in Norway: The Need for a Multicultural Vision

This summer has been a whirlwind of teaching permaculture and working on making a movie from my novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing.  But a few days ago I took a break to attend a performance of Guys and Dolls put on by SF Arts Education, in which my fifteen-year old Goddess-child Kore was singing and dancing. SF Arts Ed runs a wonderful program where students from middle schools and high schools put on Broadway musicals, complete with singing, dancing, and a full jazz orchestra.  We had balcony seats behind the stage, so I was looking down on these bright and beautiful young people of all different backgrounds and ancestry, reflecting the multicultural nature of San Francisco itself.   They are a talented bunch, but I also know how hard they work, how much time they rehearse and the discipline they develop.  What a gift it is to have such wonderful youth growing up in our city!

Weighing on my mind were the terrible murders in Norway, where Anders Behring Breivik blew up government buildings and then went on a shooting rampage at a camp full of young people.   His avowed intention was to somehow defend the purity of Norwegian and Christian culture against Moslems and others who in his mind are undesirable.  He apparently fantasized himself as some sort of modern-day crusader.

Breivik is clearly insane—meaning, far off the spectrum of consensus reality.  Unfortunately, there are many others who share his views if not his eagerness to commit mass murder.   When news of the bombing first surfaced, the media leapt to the conclusion that Muslims had done it.  Racist commentators bleat their poison over the airwaves daily, and solemn pundits intone that somehow in Europe, 'multiculturalism has failed.'

I was pondering all this, watching the wonderful dancing and the songs from a day when multiculturalism meant Jewish gangsters on Broadway encountering Salvation Army missionaries.  A Broadway musical, I thought, must be the most quintessential American art form, if there is such a thing.   I considered whether these youth whose ancestors came from Europe, African, China, Japan, Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, India, and probably some other places I haven't listed might not benefit from doing something more 'multicultural'—the Ramayana with African drums, perhaps, or Ntozake Shange's play For Colored Girls Who Have Committed Suicide When the Rainbow was Enough.

But the jazzy music caught me up in pure enjoyment.  And then suddenly it struck me—Guys and Dolls is multicultural.  Along with every other Broadway musical, as well as jazz, gospel, blues and rock & roll, it owes as much to Africa as to Europe in the rhythms and patterns of its music.  That fabulous tap dancing started as Irish clogging way back when.  The form of storytelling with music and dance goes back as far as humankind recounting the hunt around the communal fire.

"Western culture" itself is multicultural.   Breivik blew up his buildings with explosives invented in China.  He counted his dead in Arabic numerals.

The media is full of strident voices telling us greed and prejudice and self-righteous, self-justifying bile are not only okay, they're patriotic!   Breivik's horrific murders were a clear message about where that thinking leads—to the death of innocents.

We need strong voices now to raise up a powerful countercry, to say that all of us have value, that we're here on earth to take care of one another, to proclaim that every difference of background and culture and perspective is a gift.   We need a vision of how we might live in such a world—for if we can't imagine it, how can we create it?

That's why I've thrown myself so deeply into the project of making my novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, into a movie.  In the book, I envisioned a society that truly valued diversity.  It's one vision—not the only vision—of how ideals of justice might play out, and the huge support we're receiving for the project shows how hungry people are for a positive vision of a future here on earth.

But truly, I don't just want to make a movie.  I want to make a different world.  The movie is a vehicle toward that end—one vehicle, maybe not the best but the one that seems to lie before me right now.  I'm enormously grateful for all the help and support we've been finding along the way.  But I don't want people to wait for the movie.  Now, today, do something to nourish and strengthen your own vision.  Now, today, do something to counter the voices of hate and greed and doom.  Every heritage includes great beauty and great pain, and we will need to draw on the wisdom and experience of all of them to weather the storms ahead.  Shout out the truth—that we all count.   We are interconnected, interdependent, and when we get good at it, a multiplicity of rhythms will move our feet in a joyous dance, and a chorus of voices harmonize in exultant song.

Some simple things to do:

Pat Buchanan, on MSNBC, stated that Breivik may have been right about a Crusades-like conflict between Christians and Muslims.  CREDO is circulating a petition to get the network, which is trying to position itself as a counter-voice to Fox News, to deny him a platform.  Sign the petition at:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/fire_buchanan/?r_by=24909-2190680-HCRZxNx&rc=paste1

Oppose John Boehner's plan to take money from seniors, the poor and the middle class to support big business, big oil and big money.

http://act.aflcio.org/c/18/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2592

You can support The Fifth Sacred Thing movie by backing our Kickstarter campaign:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fifthsacredthing/the-fifth-sacred-thing

The Fifth Sacred Thing website:

http://fifthsacredthing.com/home/

Like us on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/TheFifthSacredThingFilm