In high school I remember Larry, a friend of mine, talking me and another friend out of toilet-paper rolling the South African Embassy. This was during the apartheid protests, and living right outside Washington, D.C. it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Thankfully Larry was successful. “Think about it, dude. You will be throwing things at an embassy in the dark. They will shoot you.” And, thankfully, it wasn’t the end of my political activism.
All through my teens and twenties I was involved in a fair amount of direct-action activism. Later, I moved into non-profit and print activism.
The challenge, of course, is that in a dysfunctional economy often so much energy gets taken up just trying to get by between family and work that there isn’t a lot of energy or time to devote to helping others or supporting causes.
It’s only now that our kids are 4 years old that I have felt some space opening up to again look at how I want to be engaged with the world beyond business and family. I’m excited and wanting to approach it from an engaged spiritual perspective that I didn’t have when I was young(er).
There are some who hold the flag of socially-conscious business, and I count myself among them. However, I don’t believe that business holds the ultimate answer. There are realms where I think that community, friends, and non-profits are much more appropriate to provide help.
Today, instead of a business tip, I want to share two books and a link that I’ve been inspired by recently.
The first book is Sacred Economics – by Charles Eisenstein. It’s the first book I’ve read that goes in-depth into what is wrong in our economy without resorting to conspiracy theories, and manages to hold a depth of grounding and sense in moving into solutions. It breaks a lot of notions and myths we have about how money originated, and what money can be.
I found the first half a bit depressing even while it was extremely insightful, but was incredibly inspired by the second half. I know this book is going to inform my thinking about money and business as I continue to integrate it.
The second book is Active Hope – by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. Subtitled How to Face the Mess We’re In Without Going Crazy, it offers a fantastic way to, umm… face the mess we’re in without going crazy.
One take-away from the book I really liked is how they identify three different necessary parts of the change we’re going through. One is holding actions, including various kinds of activism aimed at slowing down and stopping the harm we’re doing now. The second is personal transformation. And the third is imagining and acting for a new future. All three are necessary, and their process helps link them together.
Both books are highly recommended.
Finally, brilliantly, my wife Holly found a link to the Transition Network.org. The network’s role is to inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they self-organize around the transition model, creating initiatives that rebuild resilience and reduce C02 emissions.
It’s really a brilliant idea, and they have a very clear model, as well as a growing network of actual people and events you can connect with. They call a Transition Initiative a community-led process that helps a town/village/city/neighborhood become stronger and happier. Projects have started up around food, transport, energy, education, housing, waste, arts and are small-scale local response to the global challenges facing us.
I’m grateful to have survived my toilet-paper activism stage. And I’m also grateful that so many people of good heart are involved in holding actions as well as the transformational work of dreaming into our new future together, with business and beyond business.
Your Turn
In the comments, let’s lift each other up! Please share one of two things:
- Resources, books, links, organizations, ideas, stories of how you or people you know are engaged in making the world a better place.
- Requests for any of the above, especially any particular resources. If you don’t know of a resource, someone else probably does!
Right down here in the comments please share.
We’re all here to make noble use of our skills, energy, resources. We’re all here to make love manifest. Let’s help each other do it beautifully.
23 Responses
I would like to share and recommend the book the 7 Graces of Marketing by Lynn Serafinn which is an incredibly eloquently defined way of how we can market ethically and actively change the world. Its an amazing resource and you can check it out at – http://www.the7gracesofmarketing.com Lynn has also written another book called Tweepelicious which describes how you can use Twitter ethically and successfully as a marketing tool.
Blessings and abundant activism to all
With great gratitude for all the Heart Of Business resources and sharings.
Katie
Mark, as I read through your article above, I kept thinking about my friend, Lynn Serafinn, and her book “The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell”. And Katie Rose was thinking the same thing! Lynn believes traditional ways of marketing and selling are ultimately doomed to fail. Both business owners and conscious consumers can begin to heal the world and themselves by embracing a new paradigm called the 7 Graces of Marketing.
You and Lynn have been on some telesummits together. Maybe it’s time for some collaboration?
Loving the recommendations being shared here. Synergy is a lovely thing…
Hi Paula- Thanks for your kind words. And yes, synergy is a wonderful thing.
I’ll third that! The 7 Graces has helped me heal my own inner split between business and spirituality. Do some collaborations already 😉
ps I love Heart of Business and big it up whenever I can – I usually make a triple recommendation of HoB, Marketing for Hippies and 7 Graces, to my holistically inclined friends.
Thanks, Justin!
Hey there Mark! Sounds like the masses are conspiring to connect us. Drop me a line and let’s chat on Skype sometime soon?
Hi Lynn- thanks for dropping by. Sure, I’d love to chat sometime soon. I’ll drop you a line.
I’d like to share the amazing work my friend and colleague Milli Hill has done in setting up the Positive Birth Movement (www.positivebirthmovement.org) – a global grassroots, discussion-group based movement designed to empower and inform women about their choices in childbirth. She’s a great writer, thinker and inspirer of others. I’m proud to be associated with her! She’s compiling a book for my small publishing company Lonely Scribe (www.lonelyscribe.co.uk) – we aim to publish books that make a difference: inspiring and informing new parents to make their own choices about how they will birth and raise their children. We also touch on spiritual matters and have just published a remarkable new book called An Anthology of Hope – a book that we think really can bring light where there was darkness. You can read more about that book here: http://thethoughtfulpublisher.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-incredible-story-of-anthology-of.html
Enjoying and benefiting from the ideas shared here; thank you.
Susan
Mark, thank you for this post. It’s fantastic to see both my “worlds” coming together: spiritual-based business and political activism 😀
I’m a huge fan of Charles Eisenstein’s work, and I strongly recommend his first book, “The Ascent of Humanity”, which you can also read online. Though fair warning to everyone: it can change the way you see the world around you forever.
Thanks again, Mark.
Hi Mary,
Love your post here … I’m a C.E. fan too!
Best,
Cindy
Hi Mary- I’m intending to get to the Ascent soon. Thank you!
mark~the synchronicity of your offering is beyond words for me at the moment. it’s been a few days like that now. i’m just gonna take this in and take a deep breath.
thank you.
Meg- breathing is good. I recommend it highly. 🙂 I love it when synchronicity strikes so completely.
This is exciting! Thank you! I am inspired by India’s Dalit Buddhist movement, http://www.nagaloka.org
which is working to end the oppression of the caste system through educating young Dalits (includes the “Untouchable” caste) in social action, and meditation.
Great resources Mark! I’ve had the privilege of hearing Charles Eisenstein speak and attended a retreat that he facilitated. Deep, amazing, inspiring work. You can also follow him on Reality Sandwich where he posts articles often. I second the recommendation above for Lynn Serrafin’s ‘7 Graces’ and her Facebook group by the same name.
I’ve found an online resource for books that I’ve come to appreciate for their service and their donations to literacy causes — http://www.betterworldbooks.com. Free shipping, no minimum order and prices usually match the online ‘big-boys’.
Thanks again Mark for this great post and for the ‘toilet paper’ title which both got my attention and prompted a chuckle to start the afternoon.
Cheers,
Cindy
Cindy- Glad it got you to chuckle! I needed to laugh in the face of everything. 🙂
Thanks so much for these resources. I can recommend the book Moonrise: the Power of Women Leading from the Heart, edited by Nina Simons It compiles stories of activism all over the world and every one is inspiring. I’d also like to alert those of you in the East of an event on Sunday, 2/17 – a day of action for climate change in Washington, DC sponsored by Sierra Club, 350.org and others. You can learn more at their websites and locate buses to DC for the day. Hope to see you there. Shyama
Shyama- great to highlight the work of http://www.350.org and their day of action on 2/17.
…just took some time to check out “sacred economics” and eisenstein’s work. i’ve heard of him but had not read/heard him. so i read a few of his articles. his work seems fine in theory. i’d love to hear from anyone who is actually engaging and living from the place he’s talking about. i’ve certainly heard plenty about gift & transition economies, etc but is there a real, genuine roadmap to make these transitions? and yes, i’ve studied w. joanna macy, david korten, etc. so i’m no stranger to such things. i’m curious too as to how his ideas line up with HOB’s practices~
Hi Meg- I really recommend reading the entire book. The last section of the book goes in depth into how to do it practically, with some examples and resources.
We’re not living some of those things as deeply as I’d like about the gift economy, etc- but the principles of sacredness he’s talking about are completely in line with what we’re doing.
Thanks, Mark! Looking forward to hearing from you. I also just noticed you mentioned the Transition Network. I volunteered with the for a couple of years here in Bedford and did their training back in 2009. The network’s been quite established here in the UK for some time, but now I’m meeting more and more Americans who know about it.
Thanks
Thanks for sharing that books. I am looking forward to read them. And especially thanks for sharing your thoughts. Encourages me never to give up believing that we can make a difference. If we want this world to be like in our wildest dreams it will be such a world one day 🙂