by Joanna Macy with Molly Young Brown

When I first saw this book in a funky progressive New York bookshop I was a little disappointed. A very dear friend whose judgement I respect greatly had praised this book and Joanna highly. And now my first impression was "oh no, not another self-help new age book," as that was what "practice to reconnect our lives, our world" conjured up in my mind.

So I didn't buy it.

A month ago Bob gave me the book for my birthday and a couple of weeks ago I swallowed it in one go. And it now sits up there with the other most significant books in my life. It did not so much shift perspective for me, as it gave me practical tools to do the work I am doing as a participant to the great shift which our world is in the middle of.

It is not a new age self-help book focusing on the individual.

It is rather a very clear and compelling account of Joanna's understanding of the shift we - our world - is in the midst of, and a generous sharing in detail of the processes and practices that she takes groups of people through to help them...

• own the challenges, and the pain for how we have treated the world and each other, and
• connect with their energy, passion and unique ability to contribute to the healing of the world.

The Dalai Lama in his foreword to the book shares:

"In our present state of affairs, the very survival of humankind depends on people developing concern for the whole of humanity, not just their community or nation. The reality of our situation impels us to act and think more clearly. (...). This book by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown contains a wealth of advice drawn from their own experience for putting such training into effect, both on a personal and on a public level."

And from the intro:

"Macy invites people to contact their own authentic experience-based responses to the deteriorating environment and then to choose effective actions based in personal motivation."

The first part of the book outlines Joanna and Molly's ideas about the shift that is occuring, as well as the challenges facing us and our world. The second part of the book then clearly outlines a series of exercises and processes that in different ways can contribute to helping people connect with the issues, challenges, as well as their own ability to respon, ranging from sessions to own our pain for the world, sessions to tuning into and seeing the shift that is occurring, exercises to connect with a larger sphere in our thinking about the issues and our role in them, i.e. the natural world, and past and future generations, and a series of very practical and effective exercises to help individuals apply and translate their insights in practical ways in their own life and work. We have just hosted a change agency workshop in Johannesburg, in which we very successfully used some of the exercises from the book.

It is clear and it is practical, especially for those working with workshopping and facilitation to glean new ideas for sessions and exercises. In fact it is relevant to anyone working with people is up for introducing interactive dialogue sessions into parts of the work.

In concluding let me share a couple of their ideas that particularly struck me.

One was simply the terminology they use, which I found useful to my thinking about what we are all up to.

The first term was that of the Industrial Growth Society, in which we are currently caught up. Just like a continuously growing cancer eventually destroys its life-systems by destroying its host, our continously expanding global economy is slowly destroying its host.

The second term helps define what they mean when they speak of choosing life: "To choose life means to build a life-sustaining society, one which operates within the carrying capacity of its life-support system, regional and planetary, both in the resources it consumes and the wastes it produces."

None of these terms are surprising, but they contain subtle differences to simply referring to the Industrial society, or to a sustainable society.

A second element which helped clarify things to me, was their description of the three different areas of positive contribution that people are involved in in moving from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society. They are,

1. actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings (many activists and protesters);
2. analysis of structural causes and creation of structural alternatives; and
3. a fundamental shift in perceptions of reality, both cognitively and spiritually.

While many are involved in all three, this helps connect the work of people going down a different paths, and, for me, put into perspective the value and need for each one, in the world, as well as in my own life.

I feel this book is difficult to capture in a page of commenting on it, I encourage you to pick it up and allow its clarity, its beauty and its urgency to inspire you and your work.

Back to Book Reviews!