Facebook Publication Date: 4/24/2021 18:04

Dearest Lace on Race Walkers:

I am so very gratified by the quality of commentary during this last difficult week. I am seeing perspectives that I had not considered, which leads my mind down new and different avenues.

I have been spending time in lots of other spaces; both as a listener and as a participant; there is absolutely no other space with the analysis and the thoughtfulness that I see here.

I love coming home to us.

This is a big deal.

But even more than the quality of the posts, is the Hesed that I see permeating the comments themselves. It would be easy, so very easy to abandon Hesed during these times. Easy to succumb to unbridled self expression; easy to forget our shared ethos; easy to allow snark or cynicism or sarcasm to infect our discourse here. That we hold on to our shared commitment in this space is notable.

And gratifying.

And needed.

As New People Doing New Things in New Ways, we approach topics and issues differently. We look for larger themes; we pivot; we remember who we are talking to; we cherish each other even as we confront and challenge what the world would have us to swallow.

And always, always, with North Star at the core.

That’s it, I think.

The secret sauce. When you approach prompts, and then engage with your fellow pit crew members, if North Star is front and Center, it can never be forgotten why we are here; never can NS be discarded in favor of the easy score or snarky drive-by.

Our North Star asks more of me, and of you, than other spaces. Holding our thought lives and our words to NS scrutiny forces a certain discipline; a certain rigor.

It is anything but self censorship. It is certainly not internal tone policing. The thoughts and comments I read here are indeed often provocative and innovative.

Closing doors to less effective forms of communication in favor of Full Respect living, both from our fingers and between our ears can, and here, so often does, lead to an expansiveness. When the easy verbal and written tricks are eschewed, what is left is curiosity; creativity; the holding container that is North Star becomes not frustration, but a chrysalis for gestation of new ideas; new perspectives; new ways to both ‘Get It In’ and also to ‘Take It Outside’.

I see some of you ‘out in the wild’ as it were. In ‘Regular Facebook’, where there is little alignment indeed with a comprehensive nonviolent ethos infused with Hesed. I can see y’all from a mile away.

As we do the work here, so we can do the work ‘out there’ both online and offline, as we teach teachers, mentor mentors, and influence influencers, never forget that our impact is greater than we think; that the seeds we plant are indeed growing shoots; that what we learn here is indeed shaping the conversation.

We may never see all the fruits of our individual orange trees, but others will. And rest in the shade of our individual collective trees. And nourish and influence others, whether or not our name is on the cup.

To the new people recently joining us, this is what we are inviting you into.

More than you bargained for, maybe.

But in our community here, and our steadfast walking, and our learning skills that can generalize and replicate, maybe also–more than you dreamed.

Beloveds. Keep walking.

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