Just think of it. The Occupy Movement has given the world a great amazing and unique gift. Just yesterday, I had a conversation with a fellow occupier about how just one picture of tents in Zuccotti Park or on the lawn of L.A. City Hall was a beautiful thing showing the world that people can assemble to address their grievances as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. As we all know, there were probably millions of pictures, videos, and various visuals from the first phase of Occupy between September and December.
Any movement like this, just like a human being, has to grow from infancy into maturity. Even the United States is the new kid on the block in the world of history and yet many have said worldwide that it became the most interesting experiment in governance in the history of the world.
Occupy has shown us how to revisit that infancy in many ways, and how we all must mature, a subject that I hope to revisit as time goes on. For now, what kind of gift is the Occupy Movement?
As human beings tend to be, there are going to be growing pains. Some people will go through those growing pains different than others which will cause some friction once in a while. Here is where we see a lot of the gift. We are giving it to each other when we disagree with each other as much if not more than when we agree with each other. We learn through solidarity of cause in that we really have a lot more in common than we are different from one another. What a beautiful gift. I am working with loving people from all walks and experiences in life and in every part of my life. I feel very enriched and very blessed.
Occupy has gotten a lot of people's attention. Some of that attention is focused on negativity when there are some clashes in egos, personalities, belief systems and priorities even in actions pertaining to the movement. It's like the Charles Dicken's classic tale and sometimes we have to deal with the 'bah humbugs' from the Scrooges of the world. This is when we realize that some of those differences can seem greater than we thought. We learn to process those feelings somehow and we move on and stay focused on the bigger purpose. Again, some process those feelings faster than others. Part of that solidarity is embracing patience, but sometimes we all must set the ego aside for the benefit of the movement, the greater Good.
As Dr. Cornell West said recently while speaking at All Saints in Pasadena: It is important "to be committed to something bigger than our egos, our groups, and our national communities." When we do our work with the right spirit of love and compassion even as we work through our understanding of the point of process, a term that occupiers have become very familiar with, the gift is that we can make a difference in a child's life, for instance, and we can do what we can to keep that child and their parents from being removed from their home through an unfair foreclosure.
This is just the beginning. Going back to my conversation with my fellow Occupy brother. Our greatest gift this year is what the movement does bring, can bring and will continue to bring to the world that we live in.... that is the gift of the Holiday that cannot be replaced by material things. That is the gift that we give to each other, to others in the community, and literally all around the world.
What kinds of gifts do we give to each other? We can give of ourselves to each other.... just to start.
Love and Peace NOW,
NOWMAN
Occupy Outreach
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Outreach/141679115935494
2 Comments
Exactly
Submitted by Antagon-X on
I agree 100% with you. This movement is the best gift we can have, and it is also the best gift we can give to the next generation!
Interesting
Submitted by TechnoZeus on
I had not come across this until just now, the 27th of December, but I spent pretty much all day on the 25th of December doing volunteer work and promoting the cause, and the evening of "Christmas day" I spent several hours out at or near the east steps of the Los Angeles City Hall holding one or more of my signs at any given time for traffic going by and for people walking by either directly or at a distance to see that our presence was still there. Earlier in that day someone asked me "Are you people still around? Didn't you all move on to Long Beach or something?" to which I responded that the tents and all of the property in them had been taken away, and the movement had somewhat dispersed as a result of it, but we had not gone away. Then the same person asked "Why din't you all just go home and go to bed at 10:30 like you were supposed to?" to which I responded that not everyone who was living in the tents had a home to go to. Some were homeless people just happy to be a part of a caring community for a change. Some had lost or given up their nearly everything they had, and some had traveled quite a distance to be there. To this she responded by telling me that it was all a waste of time because nothingwas being accomplished. I disagreed and she shut me out, so I went back to what I had been doing. This lady was with a group of volunteers who were giving gifts like blankets and socks out to people in the park in Westlake, which is the neighborhood I live in near downtown Los Angeles. They had a bit of trouble about then with a new line they were forming as people were crowding them too much to get things started, and they were having trouble figuring out how to say enough in Spanish tobe understood, so I translated the message and helped get things moving. Later on I came across this same person andtoldher "By the way, one of the reasons why people wanted to keep the tents around was so that it wouldn't look like we had just gone away." (Actually, I'm not certain that's a word-for-word quote, but something like that.) I could see by the look on her face that this made sense to her, and she said thanks for what we were trying to do. That evening as I was out there by City Hall, I called my older sister on the phone and told her about some of the things I had been through over the course of the day and how I was still out there "trying to save the world" and she told me that she was reading responses to an online post which asked something to the effect of "If Jesus were alive today, what would you give him for Christmas." (meaning the Jesus who's birth is associated with Christmas, of course) and she said that people were talking about what kind of gift would have been best to buy for him based on what they knew of the person, as the son of a carperter and so on. I told her I wouldn't buy him anything but would be out there doing exactly what I was doing. Afterall, what better gift could I give to someone who spent his life trying to save the world, than to spend the day of the celebration of his birth trying to save the world?
Donald Arthur Kronos
Adventurer and problem solver by reputation, Actor by profession and peaceful Activist at heart - Donald Arthur Kronos, Ph.D.
http://DonaldKronos.info
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