Green Shoots 3: Living and Nurturing Community in the U.S.

This post is third in the Green Shoots series on community that I began after Reed and I had lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, for a little over a year. Our culture shock turned out to be the opposite of what we had anticipated!

We were both profoundly affected by the warm embrace we received from a community that surrounded us from our arrival. Specifically, we have in mind the director and teachers at CELEP, our Spanish-language school in Pátzcuaro. Not only did they welcome us, but they guided us along that stretch of the never-ending path of cultural awareness that passes through Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. The Best Reads Page on this Blog is a list of many of the books that Reed and I read and discussed in Spanish and Englishe.

The work of 'de-professionalized intellectual' and activist Gustavo Esteva—Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the soil of cultures—has had a profound impact on how I think about Mexico, her indigenous peoples and Mesoamerican culture. The first Green Shoots post introduces Esteva's work: Green Shoots: Community in Mesoamerican Culture.

Next I discovered historian Robert R. Archibald's book, A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community. To my amazement, there is a remarkable—even an eerie—congruence between Archibald's approach and key components of Mesoamerican culture as Esteva describes it. The second Green Shoots post introduces Archibald's work and compares it to Esteva's discussion of Mesoamerican culture:  Green Shoots: Finding Community on Both Sides of Our Shared Border.

After reading Esteva and Archibald, I happened upon interviews that Bill Moyers conducted with two remarkable, powerful women—each of whom not only understands but lives the meaning of community. The first conversation (April 9, 2010) is with writer/novelist and human being Louise Erdrich. As the proud daughter of a Native American (Ojibwe) mother and German father, Erdrich brings cultural richness to her work. I found her observations about community, place, language and memory to be important and hopeful—precisely what I had in mind when I began this series on Green Shoots.

In one exchange, Bill Moyers observed that although she is very close to her German father, Jean Erdrich has deliberately chosen to identify culturally with her Ojibwe heritage. Here is Jean Erdrich's reply:

"I think it has to do with the belongingness and the sense of peace that I feel among other native people, this sense of community, you're in the comfort of a very funny, grounded people, who are related to everything that's around them, who don't feel this estrangement that people feel so often."

Erdrich's comments bring to mind Gustavo Esteva's description of key Mesoamerican cultural characteristics: sense of community and oneness with the natural world.

Next, Bill Moyers had an insightful, important conversation (June 5, 2007) with Grace Lee Boggs, who at the time of the interview was 91-years old. A Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr, Dr. Boggs has been a civil rights activist for more than fifty years. During her conversation with Bill Moyers, she discusses the cultural revolution she sees brewing in our country at the grassroots level. When Bill Moyers asked her what advice she has for young people, she replied,

"Do something local and specific—it doesn't matter what it is, just start."

Dr. Boggs wrapped up their conversation by paraphrasing Alice Walker's famous line "We're the [leaders] we've been waiting for."

I can't resist sharing with you some of Grace Lee Boggs' latest activities:

• Grace Lee Boggs, published on September 10, 2011: Anniversary Questions    
• Grace Lee Boggs Democracy Now! (April 2, 2010):  "The Only Way to Survive is by Taking Care of One Another"
• James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.

So there it is: At the center of each of these four viewpoints is a remarkably congruent sense of community offered by people from seemingly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

I don't know about you, but I believe we're discovering 'Green Shoots' of community along and across both sides of our shared border—and to me that's a very hopeful sign.  My hope is that it is for you as well.