Last night the barricades came down from Zuccotti Park due to some good work by the ACLU and core activists. While I wandered out of some meetings at Charlotte’s Place, I happened upon the first barricades coming down. It was kind of magical to be there, before the word got out, before anyone really knew what was going on. First thing I did was go down to the Tree of Life, to stretch and sit; to say a little “Wow” in silence. When I got deeper into it and heard the first rattles of more feet, the ones streaming from 60 Wall, I started to go from wow to peace. Peace to the cops, the kids, the Occupiers and yes, the 1%.
I get caught up in the flow of things in the here and now, and that’s a good thing. It inspires me to connect people, which is one of my core talents, and that helps things manifest in the world. There’s another flow of course, it’s the one that puts me in the right place, at the right time, to see things that I need or want to see with my own eyes. I’m not sure why it happens that way, maybe it’s so I can be a better writer, or a better old woman some day. It’s hard to say why exactly, but feeling the flow is truly, its own reward. It’s like a secret conversation between me and the universe. We all have that relationship.
From Tree to Paper
Two things drew me into the Occupation, beside the food: the altar at the Tree on the Northwest end of the park and, the OWS Library, on the opposite Northern side. Between books and trees a lot goes on. There’s process and there’s time and space. Lots of hands, lots of little letters, lots of nights standing out in the rain too; from tree to worker to author to reader. It’s kind of amazing to imagine the daisy chain of experience that makes life happen.
Last night the private security of Brookfield closed in to say that books were not allowed as a Library in the park. So, we all picked one up and started to read. In our hands the books became a type of private property, that had some kind of symbolic power. Unfortunately, this power underscored the lack of protection for public space or the Commons, but that’s not fully Brookfield’s fault. It’s all our fault is my guess and Brookfield is just one potent expression of this failure. No matter, we move along and now we fight ourselves to change. So, as the shouts went out and some folks on all sides were about to get nasty I started to read, from the only book I could find that seemed to say something universal and needed. It was a small, tiny in fact, 4″x 4″ or so, little version of FDR’s fireside chats. What could be better? I read the snippets loud and I read them with strength. I tried to pull out anger and pull out fear, just tried to remain clear and open.
Who was Franklin Delano Roosevelt? What kind of man? What kind of spirit and president? I must admit, I forget all the details. All I know is that last night, when I needed him and I was staring at books, none of which looked or read quite right for inspiring others, there he was. There were his words.
The OWS Library: Injured but living
The cameras started to come out soon after that and I beat a pretty quick retreat away from them, as my work was done and the energy shifted. I filed back into the crowd, grabbing a book to be part of the read-in. The librarians found their voice in front of the televisions crews, deservedly so. They are true stewards, one reason this shifting wanderer shows up and still believes in Occupying. I want open space, open government and yes, I want open minds and open hearts. To feed that, we need libraries and we need space, and we need things that teach, from free growing trees, to free moving ideas.
The point of public space, is like the point of synchronicity. It’s not about dictating what comes next but in staying open and in opening a channel for dialogue. People must speak to one another to have a healthy and even magical society. And me, I agitate for magical as much as I do for healthy, and I will always agitate for open learning of history, poetry, science, art and spiritual concepts.
Passersby
The last thing from last night that I need to share is tied back to the Tree of Life. A very nice woman asked me for directions to the 9/11 Memorial. Not being a New Yorker, she even sat right down next to me, to chat. She and her husband were lovely. I asked them if they knew where they were and what was happening around them. She didn’t. We spoke about it. See, that’s the type of dialogue we all missed when the barricades were up. It wasn’t just the feeling of a being caged but the way it alienated passersby from engaging. It created an Us and a Them and that’s exactly what we don’t need in this country, in this world. More importantly to me, as someone who watched people throw themselves from the floors of the Trade Center and watched the buildings themselves go down, for me, I know in my heart that these two episodes in history must not live apart. That pain must be seen in context of this moment and in the same way we loved each other more for a little while back then, we must love each other a little more right now.
Take your inner barricades down.
