Living a Committed Life: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself by Lynne Twist & Mary Earle Chase

Author:Lynne Twist & Mary Earle Chase
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

VAN JONES: WATERING THE SEEDS

Several of the stories I have shared are of people who turned breakdowns into breakthroughs—like John and Ocean Robbins in chapter 6. In chapter 4, you met Van Jones, who managed to wrestle a breakthrough out of a breakdown with the First Step Act prison reform legislation. I return to Van with another story that happened a bit earlier in his life and illustrates the candor and courage it takes to water the seeds of breakthrough.

I came to know Van when he headed the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, where he was instrumental in promoting prison and policing reform. When our Pachamama Alliance team was creating the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium, we declared that the purpose of this educational course was to “bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.” We white folks knew a good bit about sustainability and spirituality, but not so much about social justice. Van was already connecting the dots between the environmental movement and the social justice movement, and he generously responded to our request to become our teacher and mentor. He became one of our primary speakers in the Awakening the Dreamer program videos—wise, eloquent, and extremely inspiring.

About this time, he authored a book called The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, which proposed a “green new deal” that would address the United States’ ecological and economic crises by creating thousands of low-and medium-skilled jobs that would help conserve energy and create a “green wave that lifts all boats.” It was the first environmental book written by an African American to make the New York Times bestsellers list.

By 2009, Van had become one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, and newly elected President Barack Obama brought him to the White House to become special adviser for green jobs, enterprise, and innovation. It was his dream job, but almost immediately, Van was criticized by the conservative media. Glenn Beck of Fox News launched an all-out attack on Van as a communist and a radical who hated Republicans and believed that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job. It was a vicious smear campaign with no grounding in truth, but given the tense political climate, Van felt compelled to resign his position.

After a decade of success, he was suddenly adrift, ostracized by people and organizations who had previously courted him. He was shattered. Of his breakdown, Van says, “I was clinically depressed for a year after that. I thought my life was over. Up to that time, my life had been a fight, but I had been able to win pretty much every round—going from the edge of a small town in rural west Tennessee to getting into Yale Law School to setting up my own organization—it was all hard, but it kept having these happy endings. And then suddenly, a massive defeat. All of my achievements, my proof points, were external, and I had to put myself back together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.