VFP CHAPTERS
Editor: Woody Powell
woodypowell@gmail.com
September 11, 2008
You are wonderful! The two questionnaires we sent out are coming back with information we think will be useful in plotting our future. There are a few more chapters to be heard from. You know who you are. We look forward to your most valuable input.
Every once in a while a piece of writing comes across this desk that really challenges our thinking about ourselves.
Some of us go along doing our thing from day to day and don't give much thought to our own motivation, our sources of energy and imagination. After a while, the fabric of our lives wears thin, no longer seems to have the substance, the meaning that drew us in when we first embarked on our activism. We want to go on, but the effort seems almost too great.
Then we attend a VFP convention and we are refreshed, ready to go again, as Lee Thorn noted when he wrote this piece:
POST MORTEM
I hope this
finds you and your families well. It was great to meet so many of you at the
VFP convention and at the IVAW workshop I attended. I've been hanging around
the vets movement since 1967 and I saw a lot of health at these conventions -
and laughter - which were absolutely great. Thanks for being yourselves and
great thanks to the Minnesota folks, national staff and other volunteers that
made the conventions such successes.
I want to go out on a limb today and share what I know about social change.
I've been thinking a lot about social change, now, for 40 years, and have been
lucky to have worked quite often as a strategist in parts of three movements
(war veterans working for peace, disabled people working for rights and
livelihood, and rural poor people using ICT to better their health and
education and make more money). These have changed and are changing the world.
Back in the day I also helped nearly 100 nonprofits and a couple of companies
do visions, planning and strategies. I'm 65 and God only knows how much longer
I have, so I'm sharing below what I know. I hope it helps.
I look forward to some of you other old farts sharing your stuff, too.
MAKING HISTORY 201: THE GRADUATE COURSE
1. If you are
not having fun, you are doing something wrong.
2. Imagination is more important than intelligence. It is also more fun.
3. No one person makes history. History is made by movements. Sometimes one
person can express something that speaks for others' yearnings. This is like a
dessert, not a meal. The meal is the movement.
4. Any change has ripple effects to the ends of the Universe and in the
smallest thing. No one knows how long this takes. It is probably instantaneous.
Physicists believe this. So ... get over yourself.
5. Whatever your claim about actually starting movements is ridiculous.
Movements are more like fractals than sports teams. They are like fractals with
a sense of humor and no real beginning or end.
6. Sometimes waves of change form. Surf them. If you try to control things, you
will fall off the surf board and get eaten by a shark.
7. Visions pull. Visions only work if you imagine at least 10 years into the
future. Everyone, even the poorest community, can imagine 10 years into the
future. Don't believe anything that puts down another human being, like "poorer
people cannot think 10 years into the future." Good social change's bedrock is
equality. All movements are about reconciliation.
8. Plans push. If you want to spend your time pushing, do a plan. Sometimes it
is unavoidable. Too much planning leads to too many meetings which is a sure
sign you fell off the surfboard. Don't turn into shark food.
9. Both God and the devil are in the details. Concrete knowledge is local.
Social change happens through small groups that pay meticulous attention to
their vision and their execution and draw attention respectfully. Spinosa said,
"The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God."
10. See how big you can think, and then think bigger than that. You are much
more powerful than you will ever know.
11. You cannot expect to do good by being bad. Be the change you want. This is
not to say perfection is possible. It certainly is not. Progress is possible.
Mark it.
12. Change is. The status quo is the sales pitch of sharks. Status quo IS NOT
‘traditions'. Actually a good bit of change work is protecting healthy
traditions that lead to or manifest reconciliation and equality. And mistakes
are THE BEST. Dare to be wrong. Mistakes are the best places to learn things ...
and if anything is inevitable, mistakes are. Revel in them.
Don't worry too much about money. The deal is not about making millionaires
particularly. The deal is about compassion and fun and multiplying resources
smartly. This is actually more difficult than making millionaires. Each of us
can do our part ... and probably should, given melting ice caps, professional
‘spin', disgusting geo-politics, rising food prices, oil maxing out, growing
disparities in incomes and all the rest that neglect and ego have built.