Last week we were talking about Holy Boldness, a term I looooove (and many of you do, too!) that I stumbled on while “digging and thinking.”
Quick refresher on Holy Boldness:
“Holy boldness is a stance and a practice that values ecstatic experiences as sources of knowledge and power, and that also assumes a critical consciousness toward oppressive systems and the urgency to confront and to challenge [intersectional oppression] and the matrix of domination that supports it.”
- Joy Bostic, “Mystical Experience, Radical Subjectification, and Activism in the Religious Traditions of African American Women” in Mysticism and Social Transformation. Janet K. Ruffin, ed. Syracuse University Press, 2001.
Remember I was trying to synthesize my explorations of favorite mystics into some sort of … something I could present to my class. What do my fave mystic activists have in common? What made them awesome? What prompted them to social action? What kinds of social action? What’s the deal with birds?
And I was looking especially at three continuums / relationships / diggings-and-thinkings:
What did I find?
A lot but I narrowed it down to 4 big common themes they were into:
1. Freedom. As in liberation.
Real quick, we are not talking about the perverse, radical-individualist “freedom” that “American patriots” talk about. No. This is a more comprehensive vision of freedom. Including:
Freedom from enslavement and exploitation. In the case of abolitionists like John Woolman and Sojourner Truth, they were talking about chattel slavery. And I would argue that these folks would condemn us today for being as willfully blind to enslavement as the many white folks were in the 1700 and 1800s.
I bet they would ask us to think about the global context of our consumerism. The children who make our iPhones and computers. The folks who mine cobalt and other materials needed for technology. And so much more.
Here in the U.S., I bet they would scoff at the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. We know that “Employees working full-time at minimum wage cannot afford basic necessities, such as food, housing, transportation, childcare, and healthcare in any location across the [U.S.].”
And incarceration. The rates of incarceration, the exploitation of incarcerated laborers, violence of incarceration - for everyone involved and for society as a whole.
Freedom from injustice, white supremacy, and oppression. Freedom from the systems that dehumanize both the oppressed and the oppressors.
Note to white folks and especially white Christian nationalists: losing power does not mean you are oppressed. It’s not the same thing, friends. Worrying that you might someday be in a minority of a population is not oppression. It’s an invitation to the party the rest of the world has been at for a long time.
Freedom from deprivation and fear.
This definition of freedom means that we value our children’s safety more than our “right” to own and carry handguns, assault rifles, and other death-dealing devices.
It also means we feed the hungry, house the unsheltered, tend the sick and unwell. All of them. All the time.
Freedom to be in consensual relationships with whom we choose.
Freedom over our own bodies and our healthcare decisions when we are not harming others.
Freedom from greed. Whew. This is a big one.
This means a radical liberation from consumerism. Freedom from the desire to accumulate wealth. Yeah. Like I said. This is a big one. Americans in particular don’t like the sound of it. But it’s important. It’s why Dorothy Day and John Woolman lived in solidarity with the poor.
And it’s why I will argue, over and over, that the “prosperity gospel” is a big load of late-stage-capitalist, consumerist horseshit.)
I’m talking about freedom like Ella Baker was talking about:
“Until the killing of black men, black mother's sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.” - Ella Baker
Pacifism / Nonviolence
This is difficult and unpopular, too.
But the mystics I most love, most love.
And they take that seriously.
Meaning: Thou shalt not kill.
Meaning: Love your neighbor (and your enemy) as yourself.
Meaning:
Opposing war and state-sponsored violence. Every time. No exceptions.
Abolishing cruel prisons. Incarceration perpetrates and perpetuates violence. (Do I think some folks need to be housed someplace where they are not in the community, at least until they are stable and treated? Yes. I can think of a few cases. But this doesn’t mean the prison system we currently have. It certainly doesn’t mean the rates of incarceration we have. And the racism of the incarceration we have. And even if you’re not a prison abolitionist, prison in the U.S. is incredibly cruel. And ineffective at rehabilitating folks. It doesn’t have to be this way.)
Violence - Physical and Systemic. All of it has to go, please. All of it.
Folks think this is a naive or impractical stance. But to that, I ask: What would the world be like if everyone acted the way you do, if everyone believed what you believe? Would the Earth become a planet of peace, compassion, and love? Or would it be a planet torn and divided by violence? State-sanctioned or otherwise?
Community
Another biggie that keeps coming up.
Less controversial. Phew.
Community could be your family, your chosen family, your friends, your spiritual community, your organizations, your neighborhood, any and all of your circles. Community is what holds us:
As a source of love and connection. I mean, sure, I like solo, unprogrammed silent retreats as much as the next Unruly Quaker. But humans need human love and connection. Full stop. My family, my besties, my friends, my Restorative Justice comrades, RCND luncheons, walking my dog around the neighborhood. All of these relationships support and sustain me. And the more, the better. I’d be a wreck without all of them.
As support and economy; the pooling of resources.
One thing I was most amazed by during early Covid times? How generous folks were in sharing what they had. This was oppositesies to what capitalism and consumerism wanted to tell us: hoard supplies, buy what you can, stock up for yourself. I admit it — that was what the devil on my shoulder wanted me to do. Instead, we bought what we needed and folks shared what they had. And what do you know. Toilet paper showed up on our door right before we ran out. Yeast was sent through the mail by friends who had extra. And we shared what we could whenever we could. It was all pretty amazing.
And then, when my whole family got sick with Covid in December 2020, pre-vaccine, we were again amazed by folks’ generosity — so many meals, so much care. Santa’s helpers even ran errands so Christmas stockings could be full. We were humbled. And the experience of community - of sharing - of being given what we needed - it really, truly, it changed me.
As power. Building movements, enacting change, pushing our shoulders against the grind of history — all of this takes community.
Also: it helps to have community to bail you out of jail if you get arrested at a protest. :)
Writing.
A lot of my favorite mystics wrote a lot.
Which might be why the are on the “known” side of the Known — Unknown continuum.
It also made me wonder:
Might writing be a practice that is favored by contemplatives? That contemplatives, by their nature, are likely to engage in?
AND / OR:
Might writing be a practice that creates space FOR contemplation?
Per usual, I vote “both and.”
And I wonder: what do you find helpful in your contemplative practice?
What helps you make sense of the world?
What helps you figure out what’s the deepest part of you?
If our thoughts are like goldfish swimming in their bowl, what practices help you identify with the goldfish bowl, or the water, instead of the fish?
Much love to you. Thank you, as ever, for reading.
XOXO
Love all of this. The vision of a possible future. Imagine how changed the world would be. 😌💯 As I see it, we evolve as you outline it or we fail and bring on the apocalypse within the next hundred years or so. No pressure.
Writing helps one turn vague feelings into coherent ideas that can be communicated. You have to figure out if your feelings are BS or something reflective of a truth needing to be said.