I am a connector as such how I show up
in the world has always been impacted by
my desire to bring people interests and
of course communities together for the
common good like so many of us I have a
deep desire to see us cluster our gifts
and assets together a starstruck
constellation of freedom and justice for
all
well newsflash there’s not going to be a
Big Bang that changes the world I know I
was disappointed too but the good news
is that the world change that we desire
requires a movement and everything we
need to create the movement we have been
seeking lives inside of us with just
seven small pivots and how we live we
can create the constellation for change
we so deeply desire we should begin at
the root of all things debilitating fear
it often squelches our capacity to
accomplish anything and so often we’re
told just be fearless as if it were that
easy
realistically neither allowing our fear
to stagnate us nor just proclaiming the
relinquishes of it is really helpful but
if we can acknowledge our fear to name
it without allowing it to rule over us
we can move forward with our
achievements even in the face of our
fears today is not about overcoming our
fear
but rather it’s about being willing to
just do it
afraid wherever you are whatever your it
is don’t wait until the fear passes let
it be the catalyst even in the midst of
fear let the fear be the fuel that
propels you toward the freedom and
liberation that lies just on the other
side of our doing it whatever your it
may be often in response to fear we
create buffers barriers between
ourselves and that which we fear
sometimes we Harbor our feelings
sometimes we disassociate ourselves from
people who are not like us sometimes
quite literally we build walls but what
would our lives look like if we made the
pivots from building barriers to
building bridges connectors between us
and our feelings between us and
strangers between us and our neighbors
keep in mind that the bridges that put
us in proximity to discomfort also bring
us closer to moments of sharing and
learning and growing we need to build
more bridges and we need to do it
together and this idea of togetherness
is another pivot to consider when all of
the messaging we receive in the world is
about taking care of ourselves becoming
self sustaining it seems almost
counterintuitive to concern one’s own
self with another but in truth all any
of us really want is to be seen and
named and known and
understood by others this is a universal
desire and if each one of us pivoted
from self-centeredness to solidarity we
could witness the beauty and experience
the endurance that comes when we work
collaboratively and I don’t mean the
cheapened form of simply sitting at the
same time in the same place while we’re
pushing and shoving our own agendas onto
a crowded table or a crowded platform I
mean really experiencing the value of
what it feels like to hold our own plans
loosely enough to consider another’s
ideas and giving ourselves permission to
be genuinely curious and earnestly
wondering about new and fresh
perspectives not our own this is the joy
of collaboration and in reality
collaboration and working together is
emotionally healthy as much of the hurt
and pain we’re experiencing is coming as
a result of sheer loneliness but taking
the risk to be vulnerable in
intersectional relationships that foster
true solidarity allowing yourself to be
seen allowing yourself to be named and
known and understood while making room
for others to experience the same can
also bring about a pivot from the hurt
and pain of loneliness to the hope that
is rooted in being in genuine community
with others hope emerges when
communities work together to overcome
the hurt in the world I hope you’re
starting to see how each pivot you make
builds on the one before it
multiplying individual and communal
transformation when we embark on
transformation of this type together we
create the accountability that enhances
sustainable change one of the biggest
challenges to our collective forward
progress is our own consumptive nature
our lives and everything in them is
bound by consumption consumption of food
culture consumptive religious doctrine
even consumption of each other’s trauma
these are all elements that we consume
and often even critique while consuming
when in reality if we could relinquish
some of our consumptive habits we could
exchange that energy to become creators
of the beauty and the innovation we hope
to see in the world
surrounding ourselves with artists and
activists and organizers those who are
constantly creating and innovating and
hacking into new and beautiful ways of
being is a key element in moving from
consuming to creating and it is through
innovation and creativity that we can
bring forth the changes necessary for
all of us to live well we often practice
charity as a means by which to share
goodness that so that we might all live
well and while charity has a noble and
honorable practice in attempting to
transform the community it often comes
with the stigma of labeling people as
needy or poor in reality all of us are
in need or experiencing poverty of
something poverty of heart poverty of
mind poverty of spirits or body there is
so much more than just fiscal poverty to
be considered when we begin to
recognize that we all show up on the
spectrum of poverty depending on the
circumstances in question that we all
have gaps between where we really want
to be and where we actually are in our
lives then we can pivot from practicing
one-directional giving to the mutual
relationships the results in the kind of
change that deeply impacts our lives
together if we each made these pivots in
our lives as a community we would have
the movement we’ve been hoping to see no
big bang needed turning away from just
maintaining stuff and managing life and
dealing with the day-to-day and moving
towards collective creative culture
making would result in the world that we
hope for the one that we so deeply
desire one full of gifts and talents a
collective of gifts and talents
comprising a cosmos of equity and
abundance for all of us these seven
pivots are what stand between the ideal
world of which we dream and the actual
one in which we live
Howard Thurman once said there is
something in every single one of you
that Waits and listens for the sound of
the genuine in yourself it is the only
true guide you will ever have and if you
can’t hear it you will all of your life
spend your days on the ends of strings
that somebody else gets to pull if each
of us made these small changes in how we
show up in the world these strings would
become
the ties that bind us together
connecting us to a system of freedom and
liberation that we so deeply desire
so let us courageously pursue this
constellation of Liberty and relinquish
those puppet strings of dis ingenuity
because our authentic selves are waiting
let’s not let us down thank you
[Applause] [Music]
in the world has always been impacted by
my desire to bring people interests and
of course communities together for the
common good like so many of us I have a
deep desire to see us cluster our gifts
and assets together a starstruck
constellation of freedom and justice for
all
well newsflash there’s not going to be a
Big Bang that changes the world I know I
was disappointed too but the good news
is that the world change that we desire
requires a movement and everything we
need to create the movement we have been
seeking lives inside of us with just
seven small pivots and how we live we
can create the constellation for change
we so deeply desire we should begin at
the root of all things debilitating fear
it often squelches our capacity to
accomplish anything and so often we’re
told just be fearless as if it were that
easy
realistically neither allowing our fear
to stagnate us nor just proclaiming the
relinquishes of it is really helpful but
if we can acknowledge our fear to name
it without allowing it to rule over us
we can move forward with our
achievements even in the face of our
fears today is not about overcoming our
fear
but rather it’s about being willing to
just do it
afraid wherever you are whatever your it
is don’t wait until the fear passes let
it be the catalyst even in the midst of
fear let the fear be the fuel that
propels you toward the freedom and
liberation that lies just on the other
side of our doing it whatever your it
may be often in response to fear we
create buffers barriers between
ourselves and that which we fear
sometimes we Harbor our feelings
sometimes we disassociate ourselves from
people who are not like us sometimes
quite literally we build walls but what
would our lives look like if we made the
pivots from building barriers to
building bridges connectors between us
and our feelings between us and
strangers between us and our neighbors
keep in mind that the bridges that put
us in proximity to discomfort also bring
us closer to moments of sharing and
learning and growing we need to build
more bridges and we need to do it
together and this idea of togetherness
is another pivot to consider when all of
the messaging we receive in the world is
about taking care of ourselves becoming
self sustaining it seems almost
counterintuitive to concern one’s own
self with another but in truth all any
of us really want is to be seen and
named and known and
understood by others this is a universal
desire and if each one of us pivoted
from self-centeredness to solidarity we
could witness the beauty and experience
the endurance that comes when we work
collaboratively and I don’t mean the
cheapened form of simply sitting at the
same time in the same place while we’re
pushing and shoving our own agendas onto
a crowded table or a crowded platform I
mean really experiencing the value of
what it feels like to hold our own plans
loosely enough to consider another’s
ideas and giving ourselves permission to
be genuinely curious and earnestly
wondering about new and fresh
perspectives not our own this is the joy
of collaboration and in reality
collaboration and working together is
emotionally healthy as much of the hurt
and pain we’re experiencing is coming as
a result of sheer loneliness but taking
the risk to be vulnerable in
intersectional relationships that foster
true solidarity allowing yourself to be
seen allowing yourself to be named and
known and understood while making room
for others to experience the same can
also bring about a pivot from the hurt
and pain of loneliness to the hope that
is rooted in being in genuine community
with others hope emerges when
communities work together to overcome
the hurt in the world I hope you’re
starting to see how each pivot you make
builds on the one before it
multiplying individual and communal
transformation when we embark on
transformation of this type together we
create the accountability that enhances
sustainable change one of the biggest
challenges to our collective forward
progress is our own consumptive nature
our lives and everything in them is
bound by consumption consumption of food
culture consumptive religious doctrine
even consumption of each other’s trauma
these are all elements that we consume
and often even critique while consuming
when in reality if we could relinquish
some of our consumptive habits we could
exchange that energy to become creators
of the beauty and the innovation we hope
to see in the world
surrounding ourselves with artists and
activists and organizers those who are
constantly creating and innovating and
hacking into new and beautiful ways of
being is a key element in moving from
consuming to creating and it is through
innovation and creativity that we can
bring forth the changes necessary for
all of us to live well we often practice
charity as a means by which to share
goodness that so that we might all live
well and while charity has a noble and
honorable practice in attempting to
transform the community it often comes
with the stigma of labeling people as
needy or poor in reality all of us are
in need or experiencing poverty of
something poverty of heart poverty of
mind poverty of spirits or body there is
so much more than just fiscal poverty to
be considered when we begin to
recognize that we all show up on the
spectrum of poverty depending on the
circumstances in question that we all
have gaps between where we really want
to be and where we actually are in our
lives then we can pivot from practicing
one-directional giving to the mutual
relationships the results in the kind of
change that deeply impacts our lives
together if we each made these pivots in
our lives as a community we would have
the movement we’ve been hoping to see no
big bang needed turning away from just
maintaining stuff and managing life and
dealing with the day-to-day and moving
towards collective creative culture
making would result in the world that we
hope for the one that we so deeply
desire one full of gifts and talents a
collective of gifts and talents
comprising a cosmos of equity and
abundance for all of us these seven
pivots are what stand between the ideal
world of which we dream and the actual
one in which we live
Howard Thurman once said there is
something in every single one of you
that Waits and listens for the sound of
the genuine in yourself it is the only
true guide you will ever have and if you
can’t hear it you will all of your life
spend your days on the ends of strings
that somebody else gets to pull if each
of us made these small changes in how we
show up in the world these strings would
become
the ties that bind us together
connecting us to a system of freedom and
liberation that we so deeply desire
so let us courageously pursue this
constellation of Liberty and relinquish
those puppet strings of dis ingenuity
because our authentic selves are waiting
let’s not let us down thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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