[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: Kathy's piece on Climate Change.

[Spencer Graves]

       Below please find a brief essay (not quite poem) by Kathy LeMay, 
who did a workshop on fund raising at the National Conference for Media 
Reform in Denver, April 4-7, 2013. (I attended an even bought her 
book;-)  Spencer


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:     Kathy's piece on Climate Change.
Date:     Mon, 24 Nov 2014 15:07:41 +0000
From:     Raising Change, LLC <info at raisingchange.com>
Reply-To:     Raising Change, LLC <info at raisingchange.com>
To:     <spencer.graves at effectivedefense.org>



My Piece on Climate Change.

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**  "We will remember we are not alone."
------------------------------------------------------------

============================================================

Lather, Rinse, Repeat. by Kathy LeMay

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."


When you fight for the truth to be told and denial tap dances on it, 
sometimes waking up and naming truth all over again feels impossible.


For those who devote their lives to creating societal change, what we're 
aiming for is big change. Policy, legal, social, cultural change. On 
most days what we'd take: the truth, said by everyone, out loud.


When it doesn't come and so often it doesn't come, we keep trying. We do 
it all- write, fight, collaborate, convene, listen, learn, strategize, 
organize. Days of certainty, resolve, and celebration followed by days 
of defeat, fatigue, and depletion. We go to sleep having given 
everything we have. We wake up and do it again. Looking for a when, 
where and how the truth will be named and when it is named the cascade 
of transformation that will follow.


We rise. We work. One step forward. Ten steps thrown back. No change. A 
little change. Not enough change. Attacked. Misunderstood. 
Misrepresented. So often we are in small groups, many times it is just 
two. And in some cases throughout the world, there is only one sole voice.


Then, after day in and day out, weeks in and weeks out, years in and 
years out of naming truth and wondering what it might feel like to have 
truth be the collective voice, a gathering. You, who was just one person 
is suddenly a one plus 399,999. The you who was a voice of hope and love 
and possibility is everywhere around you. You are beautifully and 
lovingly amplified.


On September 21, 2014 in New York City, hundreds of thousands of you 
marched. You occupied 4 miles of NYC streets. Artists, musicians, 
students, teachers, dancers, doctors, social workers, justice seekers, 
capitalists, socialists, communists, parents, and puppeteers. You who 
has felt what it is to be on the outside looking in waited nearly two 
hours to begin marching. You waited with love and patience. You know 
what it is to wait for truth. You could wait two hours longer if needed.


Then movement began and you erupted with joy and celebration. 400,000 
truth tellers, catching each others eyes and knowing that you were seen 
and known. Realizing that truth has a powerful place in this world. 
Turns out, it's worth working for and waiting for.


And what of denial and its ever present place in this world?


Before marching and after marching denial will be there. It will keep 
tap dancing along, upheld by sleekly tainted dollars, flashing digital 
billboards, illusionary distractions, magical consumption. On those days 
you  are fatigued, you might even be captivated by its brightness. 
Despite your best efforts, some days you will want to sink into it, the 
comfort of it. Just for a break. Just to breathe. Underneath it all 
though you will remember. You will remember what it feels like to be in 
the presence of truth-telling. You will remember the looks in all of our 
eyes: that beautiful knowing that you were not just there for you, you 
were there for everyone who has been alongside you. On those days after 
this march we will remember that we're not alone, that we want a good 
life for everyone who was there and everyone we'll never meet. No one 
excluded, all of us breathing together.


We go to bed knowing that we'll wake up and do it again the next 
morning. Lather, rinse, repeat. Except this time with hundreds of 
thousands by our side.



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