Country Wisdom News

This is What Community Looks Like

by Scott Tillitt

The Dalai Lama visited NYC in 2003 for a week of events culminating in a public talk to 60,000 people in Central Park. I helped manage the media frenzy surrounding the visit. That was cool.

In 2004 I spent a week in India with leading environmental and anti-globalization activist (and Time magazine heroine) Vandana Shiva, fellow activist and editor Satish Kumar, Ela Gandhi (yes, that Gandhi—his granddaughter), and about a dozen others on a small research farm discussing Gandhi's approach to nonviolence and personal and community self-sufficiency. It was a profound introduction to what we now call Localism (or Local Living Economies). That was beyond cool.

But nothing I've done has been as personally fulfilling as what transpired in Beacon, NY on June 7, the culmination of months and months of planning and hard, selfless work with a small, dedicated team.

The inaugural TEDxLongDock brought together a diverse group of more than 100 doers, thinkers, facilitators and catalysts interested in making our region a better place to live: entrepreneurs, creatives and artists, economic development professionals, elected officials, community advocates, scholars and funders.

The energy in the filled-to-capacity room was electric. The love was palpable.

We heard from 20-plus handpicked speakers and performers from the Hudson Valley and beyond and watched a handful of curated TED Talks. We had folks as diverse as:

Susan Batton, the managing director of Dia:Beacon who is active in arts and culture nationally and locally;

Marcus Guiliano, the chef/owner of Aroma Thyme Bistro and advocate for supporting ethical, independent producers;

Joe Concra, a fine artist and co-founder of the art and music and wellness event O+ Festival; and

Shawn Dell Joyce of the Wallkill River School, a noted artist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and organizer who bridges arts and agriculture.

We had chosen the presenters and designed the agenda to inspire, engage and provoke. We’re told it did exactly that. The presenters were heartfelt, smart, funny, endearing, caring. In isolation, each brought an extraordinary story to TEDxLongDock—a brave journey, a fresh take. Together, the Gestalt painted a portrait of what a vibrant, healthy community can look like.

We ate food from local cafes and farms, drank coffee from a local roaster. Later that night we drank wine from Hudson Valley vineyards and craft beer from a local tasting room while listening to more performers, celebrating the event (and life) at BEAHIVE on Beacon’s revitalized Main Street with some of the area's most creative denizens.

Fellow Beaconite Sommer Hixson really captured the spirit of the day in a review in The Paper/Philipstown.info. An excerpt:

The concept of community was popular with speakers, along with collaboration and sustainability. Catchphrases like “social capital,” “place-making” and “civic protagonism” were duly noted by attendees. Not surprisingly, author and activist Jane Jacobs was conjured more than once, as was Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now).

Why did a small volunteer team with limited resources but boundless passion do this—for no remuneration? Because, like those in the audience (and I hope, you), we care about where we live, about making our communities vibrant, healthy places to work and play. Because we believe that bringing together vital, creative souls has real and lasting implications for the future of our region. In fact, I’ve heard of several connections that were made that will likely result in interesting collaborations.

If you’re unfamiliar, TEDxLongDock is operated under license from TED, the nonprofit known for its extraordinary events featuring extraordinary people who give the talks of their lives in 18 minutes or less. Those talks are posted on the vast award-winning TED Talks video site. The 1500-plus posted videos have been viewed more than one billion times. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Our small organizing team included Rob Penner, John Rooney, Matthew Perks, Re>Think Local’s Doreen Johnson and Brendan Cunningham. We also relied on volunteers, supporters and sponsors. Re>Think Local, BEAHIVE and the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries were supporting organizations. See more about the event at tedxlongdock.com.

I was the most visible organizer of the event (online and on stage)—but it really took a village.

Scott Tillitt is a co-organizer of TEDxLongDock, as well as a founding board member of Re>Think Local and founder of BEAHIVE and Antidote Collective.

by Ajax Greene

In 2000, at my second of many Social Venture Network conferences held that year at the Mohonk Mountain House (localism has deep roots right here in the Hudson Valley), I responded to an announcement by Judy Wicks about starting a new organization. Over a two-year period and after two retreats at Judy’s weekend homes in the Poconos, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) came into being.

The recent conference in Buffalo, with hundreds of amazing attendees, was BALLE’s 11th annual conference (described by Bloomberg press as “Davos for Main Street”). Several things struck me while in Buffalo at the conference: first, Judy’s original vision of an economy based on interlocking local economies is stronger and more important than ever—encouraging massive changes in how experts, business owners and shoppers nationally and globally view the best way to spend their hard-earned dollars. My next observation is that we will not only think our way out of the economic mess we find ourselves in—being heart-centered and doing some deep inner work is a necessary part of the dynamic, vibrant new economy that is emerging. Being fearless in the face of a world undergoing massive transitions is not easy, but vitally important. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of people bravely affecting positive economic change in their local communities.

Under Judy’s leadership (something I have always been drawn to), BALLE is not against things so much as it is about having a vision for positive change in the world. Where others find problems, Judy’s guidance for BALLE has been about small-scale, proven strategies that work. Historically, economic development has been about doing the “big deal,” a very male-oriented "size matters" approach. We find that many women are drawn to Judy’s brand of wisdom because they historically have been the folks most connected to place, doing great work that at least begins small (nothing I might say is to suggest that growing a locally owned independent social enterprise to scale is anything but a good thing). It’s amazing how many people are truly content with their modest-sized business; they enjoy owning and operating what they are able to infuse with their values, and connect with their community. Now that is the new sexy.

As an imperfect interpreter at this point, I would love to invite you to hear directly the BALLE Mama’s own words. Judy Wicks will be speaking at a Re>Think Local event on July 17 from 12-3pm at the Buttermilk Falls Inn + Spa in Milton, NY. Learn directly from Judy how BALLE originated the term “Think Local First,” and if you’re lucky you might just get a hug. There will be signed copies of her inspired memoir, Good Morning, Beautiful Business. This is a must- attend event for current or aspiring women entrepreneurs and business owners, restaurateurs, and anyone who thinks that Localism and having your values reflected in your business are worthy goals.

With over 80 networks around the country (like Re>Think Local), representing some 30,000 businesses, when Judy launched BALLE she launched a movement that is transforming the way the world does business. I find people are hungry to be part of something larger than themselves, where prosperity and caring for both people and the planet are included.

For me it is tremendously comforting that thousands of really smart, heart-centered people are working so hard to save the world from an economic system run amok. Much to my personal chagrin, last year I discovered what a nerd I am by how much I love discussing economics. Please go beyond any jargon in this article and if you remember nothing else, find the joy in connected communities that care, as envisioned by Judy.

Here in the Mid-Hudson Valley we started losing IBM 20 years ago and continue to lose if we bet on their economic model—while at the BALLE Conference I saw another announcement for an additional 700 layoffs in Dutchess County. Places like Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit have hit bottom and by force were required to find new ways forward. My sincere hope is that we here in the Hudson Valley get smart long before we find anything like a bottom, and take advantage of all the amazing opportunities for locally owned independent businesses to thrive in our region. Come get inspired and learn some practical BALLE steps from The BALLE Mama, Judy Wicks. rethinklocal.org/events/judywicks (If you can’t make it on 7/17, she is also speaking the evening before at an event hosted by our friends at Hawthorne Valley Farm, linked to from our website.).

by Sherill Hatch

“The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.” This century-old labor slogan bears repeating today. Beauty, pleasure, celebration—the “roses” of life—are not extras; they’re just as essential as food and shelter to our well-being.

To start meeting everyone’s needs for both bread and roses, it’s important to insist that governments and businesses make the appropriate changes. But it’s also crucial to embrace, create and share the bread-and-roses paradigm in our individual lives, here and now. Even in a world in which resources can seem scarce, commitment, openness and ingenuity can reveal some amazing roses.

Local artist Andres San Millan is a great example. Awhile back he decided it was time to expand beyond his previous artistic parameters and do what he’d always wanted to do: create a really large sculpture. He knew that moving forward with his dream was a vital part of his life’s work—but he didn’t have the financial resources to purchase materials for such a large piece.

The way San Millan responded to that seeming obstacle can inspire all of us who seek more of the roses in life. He used Hudson River driftwood to create a work infused with such grace, meaning and power that it’s clear this artist and this medium were destined to work together.

The 13-foot sculpture, Man, on exhibit in front of Taste Budd’s Cafe in Red Hook, is a dynamic archetypal figure that carries the same energy as the driftwood of which it’s made. San Millan, who has a deep affinity for Native American culture, says, “I wanted Man to reflect those cultures, the way they flow without resisting the rhythms of nature. That’s the same reason the earth goes around the sun: nothing impedes it, so it just keeps going with the flow. Driftwood does that too.”

And that same energy powered San Millan’s creative process. Instead of resisting the circumstances with which we’re faced, he says, we can know that “we have everything we need. It’s all here.” When I stand looking at Man, I know in my bones that’s true.

My family and I attended the installation of Man, looking for something interesting to do on a frigid January day. What we experienced went way beyond interesting. The power and beauty of the piece fed our souls deeply, reminding us that art is as vital as bread.

Our culture tends to pressure us to starve the right sides of our brains. San Millan says, “The right side of the brain is spiritual, empathic, creative, wild, spontaneous. It’s alive and it has needs. We absolutely need to nourish it because it’s part of us.”

To spend time with Man, on exhibit through December, visit Taste Budd’s Cafe, 40 West Market Street, Red Hook. For more on Andres San Millan (who also cofounded the Cocoon Theatre in Rhinebeck with his wife, Marguerite), visit figureartscape.com or email andres@figureartscape.com.

Sherill Hatch blogs at fulljoy.us, offers life coaching, and facilitates the support group Stone Soup: Living Sustainably on a Shoestring.

Local Health Care Groups Answer the Call

by Sherill Hatch

“The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.” This labor slogan is overdue for a revival. Let’s spread the word that we’re all entitled—yes, entitled—to have our basic needs met, and more. We need beauty, pleasure, rest, and love. Bread and roses.

It can be hard to hear a call for “roses too” against the background of loud cultural arguments about the “bread” category. Is just any bread good enough, or must the wheat for the bread be grown in healthy soil? If “the worker” came from another country, what is she entitled to? And is access to health care really a basic need?

With so much confusion over bread, it’s no wonder the roses get lost. To move toward a culture that embraces both, we need to live that way ourselves, creating real-life examples of this paradigm. Among our region’s abundant examples are the holistic health care venues in Stone Ridge, Kingston, Woodstock, and Phoenicia. On a monthly or quarterly basis, holistic practitioners and administrative volunteers gather in a community space to provide healing sessions in a wide variety of modalities. Donations and exchanges are welcomed, but no one is turned away.

The Rondout Valley Holistic Health Community hosts Community Holistic Healthcare Days in Stone Ridge; clinics in the other locations are operated by the organization Health Care is a Human Right, under the auspices of Family of Woodstock. These groups go farther than saying that health care is as vital as bread—they demonstrate it.

What’s more, they go beyond the basics. The RVHHC’s vision statement affirms they’ll create “a healing environment of compassion, caring, and beauty.” Nancy Eos, a physician on their organizing council, says, “In our Health Care Days we embody the vibrant health that every client can create for themselves. Every time the healing teams get together, our energies begin to vibrate, to hum together in resonance, and that humming crescendos throughout the event. Then magical things start happening.”

As a client at both organizations’ venues, I’ve experienced that magic. I made several visits as I healed from cancer and treatment, as well as from an unrelated surgery the same year. Every time, simply walking into the environment created by the volunteers was like entering my vision of a future world. There were beauty, music, a warm and joyful welcome, and opportunities to take part in fun mini healing sessions while waiting on line...It felt like a party!

Though I barely had money for the gas to get there, the volunteers handed me excellent health care—both the bread and the roses—as if on a silver platter. As though I were absolutely entitled to it. Something deep inside me relaxed and tears came, as I felt a sense of my own worthiness mirrored by others.

This is the kind of health care we need, and our region is taking the lead. What a powerful answer to the call for bread and roses.

Rondout Valley Holistic Health Community www.rvhhc.org info@rvhhc.org Health Care is a Human Right healthcareisahumanright.com hchrny@gmail.com 845-481-3186 Sherill Hatch blogs at fulljoy.us, offers life coaching, and facilitates the support group Stone Soup: Living Sustainably on a Shoestring.

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