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Writer's pictureThomas Tittmann
Apr 19, 20237 min read

Getting to know you...Places to experience our connectedness...

“The most radical thing we can do…is to introduce people to one another.”

--Building Bridges of Brookhaven


This post grew out of comments people have made to me in the past week, after I mentioned positive groups I’m spending time with. They expressed an interest in getting to know some more about other people in groups on Long Island that are working to connect people to one another and address social issues that are keeping people apart…because, at some level, we've each been caught in the illusion of separation...


START HERE...



Lyrics from this video:








My intention here is two-fold:


1. To introduce all of us to groups that are helping me experience my connections - especially with people that I used to think were VERY different from me...I thought this way for some or all of these reasons: they had different skin color, lived in different neighborhoods, were from a different culture, worshiped different versions of G-d...


2. To connect folks in these various groups - or any other seeker - in ways where we can support the work each group is doing. For example, if one group is holding a public presence somewhere or supporting an action another group is doing, WE can lend OUR bodies as a sign of solidarity…



Here are the groups:

· Poor People’s Campaign of Long Island (part of NYS PPC)

· Multicultural Solidarity of LI’s Diversity Friendship Listening Circles

· Building Bridges in Brookhaven

· Baha’i Fellowship of LI

· West Hempstead Public Library’s Conversation Circle


MY PERSONAL TRAIL OF CONNECTIONS TO THESE GROUPS


As best I can recall : )))...


I read a Daily Meditation from Richard Rohr about the re-emerging Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) and decided to check it out. See upcoming post for more about the work of the organization he started: The Center for Action and Contemplation (CEC ). It was my participation in the PPC that led me to meet people who were also part of other groups trying to “make a difference.” One of these is Multicultural Solidarity of LI and their Diversity Friendship Listening Circles (MCS). MCS included and introduced me to members of Building Bridges of Brookhaven. MCS also helped me connect with some South Shore folks from Long Island’s Baha’i Fellowship. This past week, I reconnected with the West Hempstead Public Library’s Conversation Circle and am glad I did.

My past and present participation is enabling me to meet folks who are helping me SEE – in some cases for the first time – SEE the world through their eyes…that have experienced life in ways I’m only now beginning to understand…only beginning…This awakening is happening as WE listen to one another’s STORIES…as WE share meals…as WE work together to make a difference…right where we live…


POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN ON LONG ISLAND (part of NYS PPC)


(from member Janie Lynch, with my added emphasis) The Poor People’s Campaign, started by Martin Luther King Jr. not long before he was killed, is a movement intended to bring together the strength of all the forces of good, with impacted people leading the way, to combat the 5 evils that plague this country: poverty, racism, militarism, ecological devastation, and the distorted moral narrative. This is not another organization competing for our time. It is a movement bringing people and siloed organizations together, changing the narrative by changing the narrator.

Website: LinkTree

Contacts (co-chairs):

Susan Karbiner: jkarbiner@aol.com


MULTICULTURAL SOLIDARITY OF LI’S DIVERSITY FRIENDSHIP LISTENING CIRCLES


Facebook About:

Our signature program is our Diversity Friendship & Listening Circles. We have revived Zoom circles. Our FB group is a small part of what we do. Opinions and projects posted by other orgs and individuals are not necessarily ours. Please embrace our 4 rules. We also try to do all the other wonderful things multicultural/ anti-racist orgs do.

Our board of 12 is 75% global majority.


Contact: Joel Diamond: Multiculturalsolidarity@gmail.com


Logo:


BUILDING BRIDGES IN BROOKHAVEN



BAHA’I FELLOWSHIP OF LI


Contact: Harriet Fishman harriet9@gmail.com


WEST HEMPSTEAD PUBLIC LIBRARY CONVERSATION CIRCLE


About: Conversation Circle - Virtual

Conversation Circle is essential for staying connected with what is important in our lives. Sit and chat for a spell with friends and neighbors. We pose a question or topic and give everyone a chance to respond. We learn from each other, share experiences and wisdom, and clarify goals and values. These conversations foster deeper knowledge and understanding as we talk about money, improving society, medical issues, any concerns of the day and any topics which arise. Our authentic conversation ends with sharing positive humor to uplift us and enable us to have happier lives. All are welcome to join our conversation each week. Have a topic you'd like to discuss? Join us and share it with the group. Weekly with Sandy Hinden. Registrants will receive a copy of Sandy's book, 7 keys to Love. This class is virtually attended through Zoom. Registration is required.

REGISTER HERE

Contact person: Roseanne Dorfman WHPL Program Coordinator

Library general number: 516-481-6591


SONGS FOR EXPERIENCING OR CONNECTEDNESS


I've deliberately chosen some of these versions of the songs because they feature children...I spent over 30 years in Sunday School (never graduated : )))) ), and still have a heart for our young people...For they are inheriting the world we've passed along to them...Let's do our part to demonstrate life skills that can sustain life...help it THRIVE!!!


WE’RE DIFFERENT…WE’RE THE SAME…




WE ARE FAMILY…




GET TOGETHER…


This version is from a “No Nukes” action in NYC in 1979. I selected it because in preparing this post, I learned that nuclear disarmament was an initial motivation for forming Building Bridges in Brookhaven.




MARCHING TOGETHER MUSIC


--I’m closing with this favorite…a classic that echoes this invitation…FYI – If I’m ever stranded on a desert isle and can get only one channel…Playing for Change would be my choice…


The intention of this verse is echoed in the "The Weight" song that follows...





In the "Symphony of Science" song and video, we were told that we are made of "star stuff"...





My prayer is that we would come together...experiencing our interconnectedness...


...until then...I wish...




RESOURCES FOR EXPERIENCING OUR CONNECTEDNESS...


“The greatest illusion in this world is the illusion of separation.” – Albert Einstein





"The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same. Aang: Like the four nations? Guru Pathik: Yes. We are all one people. But we live as if divided.” ― Guru Pathik



“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”

--Thich Nhat Hanh


Two from this article for the upcoming celebration of Earth Day:


“You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes


“If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.” - Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes


Here's the YouTube video from this article. It contains 10 quotes to help us connect to ourselves and everything else...




Here are a few sections from the article that relate to the contents of this post:


From this article:

He started a radical Christian community in Cincinnati, called New Jerusalem, but, by the mid-eighties, he began to feel that it wasn’t sufficiently focused on global social action. He returned to New Mexico, where he started the Center for Action and Contemplation, in 1987, and the Living School, a two-year, low-residency religious-studies program, in 2014. In the center’s early days, the staff held weekly protests at a nuclear-weapons research facility and worked with a women’s cooperative in Mexico.


One of the benefits of Rohr’s work is its attempt at radical inclusivity. “Jesus without worship of Christ invariably becomes a time- and culture-bound religion, often ethnic or even implicitly racist, which excludes much of humanity from God’s embrace,” he writes. According to his teachings, you don’t have to follow Jesus or practice the tenets of any formal religion to come by salvation, you just have to “fall in love with the divine presence, under whatever name.” For young people who have become disillusioned with the conservative churches of their childhood—which preached Christianity’s supremacy over other religions and taught that nonbelievers would go to Hell—his message is especially welcome.


Tim Shriver, a longtime student of Rohr’s and the chairman of the Special Olympics, told me. “He’s trying to create a new ur-understanding of religion that isn’t bound by separation, superiority, and fighting.”


(with my underlines) Poffenberger [director of the Center for Action and Contemplation] has been attempting to apply the principles of movement ecology, the study of what makes social movements succeed, to Rohr’s wide-ranging ideas. “It’s not just about one’s own individual spiritual journey,” he said. “It’s how that’s tied to social transformation.” He is hoping, for example, to harness Rohr’s large following in support of youth climate strikes and the Reverend William Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign. Perhaps, Poffenberger thinks, as adherence to traditional religions dwindles, social action will become a more relevant form of spiritual practice.



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