Of Circle and Layers

When I think of layers and circles I can't help but think about history.

Wait - you thought I was going to say cakes - didn't you? And yes, cakes do come to mind, but in this case they also become a great image of the movement of time and history.

Over the many years I've sat down to write about my journey here at Butter, I've landed on the idea of cycles and circles - events that keep coming around in much the way we consider our  trip around the sun each year or await the buds and blooms each spring that mark a rebirth or return and a grounding in the ongoing growth we participate in as humans immersed in the natural world. We can't escape it until one day (as all mortals will) we will.

So, it was with some wonder that in my current "sloughing off" of old papers and files in a process of lightening my load on this earth - that I came across a set of notes I had taken from Eureka Recycling's Zero Waste Summit in 2016. (And yes I keep handwritten notes from events much older than that...)

valuing people as much as we value materials

caring for our soil as a carbon storage solution

sharing our resources through lending libraries

envisioning zero waste through returnable containers

moving to community wealth (solar gardens) from extractive energy (fossil fuels)

a racial justice lens brings holistic solutions

building relationships of solidarity not charity creates the network for direct action

creating movements that go beyond the 'not this' to envision what's next 

community wealth building as the antidote to gentrification

power to change through story and art - heart opening 

and my "commitment card" — what I was going to take with me reads...

1) Redesign "take out" - use real dishware / create a dishware library / recognize the economics that compostables cost more than recyclables

2) Equity demands a sharing of access / wealth / power -  unearned privilege has concentrated this in "whiteness"

As I read through my notes it was dawning on me that I had been echoing these thoughts very recently (as in this morning) as I was writing out notes to my staff about our upcoming month and the events and activities we as a crew and I as their fearless leader would be involved in.

I also have recently finished sorting papers from my past years of political involvement through Main Street Alliance and RAISE (Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment) into folders and came across my first testimony to the state legislature in favor or Paid Family and Medical Leave (2016) - my notes alongside my testimony included -

love demands we don't pick and choose who qualifies for care

opposition argues out of fear - fear of what?

I was struck by an interchange I heard in this Monday's legislative hearing between representatives Davnie and Baker -seeming to come directly out of my comments from six years ago. 

When Rep Baker offered restaurant menu imagery arguing that perhaps we could just start with a few small chunks (appetizers) like just time off for births, instead of the whole legislation (meal) proposed, Rep Davnie asked, so considering your menu, does my wife visiting her dying mother not deserve support with leave time or does her mother not deserve to have someone with her?  Baker's response was that Davnie seemed to want the appetizer, salad, several entrees, dessert and the whole restaurant too. Really?

To be clear, we just want all Minnesotans to have access to the care they need. 

Should I be asking Why am I STILL trying to get these ideas to take root? Why are we still where we were several years ago? (you could say several decades ago...several generations ago...)

As it turns out, I have been circling the sun and adding layers of sediment to the earth.  Time has indeed brought me 'round again' to the very ideas I was soaking up those several years ago.  And the time in-between has indeed stacked many more experiences in the compost of my soil to work with.  Six years ago, Covid hadn't shrunk our circles of community and forced us into re-e-value-ating each other's health and safety.  Six years ago, George Floyd's cries for help had not been captured in a way that would finally move us to stand up and demand justice, calling "whiteness" to the witness stand to tell its truth and begin the process of repentance and reparations. 

Some years the layers of sediment on a lakes bed are heavier than other years.  Some years the rings on a tree are thinner than others.  Some years the spring floods bring more erosion to farm fields than other years.  Yet, the cyclical nature of nature assures us these events will continue to stack upon each other, year after year.  The story of human history (and my own little chapter within it here on the corner of 37th and Nicollet) plays out just like this.  Go back to my list above and you have a dozen Shakespeare plays.  Go back to the list above and the core teachings of world religions take shape.  Go back to my list above and find stories that play out in our daily lives today.

We're walking this together - we'll be back again on this same Green Path - and yes, we're not where we've ever been before.  I'm feeling more hopeful in many ways. I share my gratefulness for your support of our mission here at the cafe and in our community as we build a world where our dreams for equity and justice shall come to life.