The Rainbow Family has, in the language of not-for-profit agencies, a succession planning problem. It is absolutely true that no one leads the Family. As is frequently repeated, the Family is the largest non-organized organization in the world. There are no formal meeting, no elections and never a vote on anything. What ever decision needs to be made it is done by consensus. People who are there and who want to participate sit around in a circle and one by one as the feather is passed say what is on their mind. There is no debate, no cross the circle discussion; just everyone listening to both the speakers and to their own hearts. The oldest person and the youngest person have equal status around the council and both are carefully listened to. It is a time intensive process, it can take hours and hours to resolve complex issues or to decide what to do. But it works and the process is one of the glues that holds the Family together.
There are no leaders in the sense that people are elected or appointed to certain roles. As in the kitchen when someone asked what kind of soup is being made and the answer is 'Whatever you want to make", people volunteer for tasks, do them and then frequently move on. But there are people who are more likely to consistently volunteer and have done so for years. People expect them to fulfill those roles. The guys who run the water lines from the springs to the individual kitchens are skilled, knowledgeable and hardworking. There are a number of folks who have created kitchens and have returned year after year to ensure that those kitchens run smoothly; the people who work at CALM (the medical unit that deals with everything from bug bites to baby births, adverse drug reactions to heart attacks) have also done so for years. There is a whole crew of people who have made it their responsibility to look after parking, or to do food runs or perhaps most importantly, to ensure that the site is returned to its pristine beauty.
Many of these people are getting old. Many of them look older than their years. Some have had a hard life, following the dreams of another way of living. It means for many of them that they have not had good medical or dental care. Because many of them have not worked at well paying jobs with benefits, they are now living on some sort of social assistance. As wonderful and as caring and as well visioned as this groups is, they are not going to live forever. For many of them at the Gathering in Washington, it was clearly stated that it might be the last one that they would be able to attend.
There are lots of young and middle age people at the Gathering who work incredibly hard in the kitchens of their choice. I did my MA thesis of why these folks come back year after year to help the Family sustain itself. But their energies seem to be devoted to the kitchens and not the larger Gathering. In spite of the fact that I have spent a number of hours hanging around those who were there in the early days, I have seen no one with them who is younger and starting to assume some of the responsibilities. I suspect there is no one waiting in the wings to assume some of the responsibility because the old timers are not yet prepared to give up their roles as self-appointed elders,or as carriers of the lore and the vision.
For the Family to grow and flourish and become relevant to the 21st century some folks are going to have to let go a little bit and others are going to have to show that they too have a vision of what the world can be like if we are prepared to give our lives towards that process. A pile of folks for the last 40 years have done just that. It is time for some others to step up to the plate and carry just a little bit of the load.
There are no leaders in the sense that people are elected or appointed to certain roles. As in the kitchen when someone asked what kind of soup is being made and the answer is 'Whatever you want to make", people volunteer for tasks, do them and then frequently move on. But there are people who are more likely to consistently volunteer and have done so for years. People expect them to fulfill those roles. The guys who run the water lines from the springs to the individual kitchens are skilled, knowledgeable and hardworking. There are a number of folks who have created kitchens and have returned year after year to ensure that those kitchens run smoothly; the people who work at CALM (the medical unit that deals with everything from bug bites to baby births, adverse drug reactions to heart attacks) have also done so for years. There is a whole crew of people who have made it their responsibility to look after parking, or to do food runs or perhaps most importantly, to ensure that the site is returned to its pristine beauty.
Many of these people are getting old. Many of them look older than their years. Some have had a hard life, following the dreams of another way of living. It means for many of them that they have not had good medical or dental care. Because many of them have not worked at well paying jobs with benefits, they are now living on some sort of social assistance. As wonderful and as caring and as well visioned as this groups is, they are not going to live forever. For many of them at the Gathering in Washington, it was clearly stated that it might be the last one that they would be able to attend.
There are lots of young and middle age people at the Gathering who work incredibly hard in the kitchens of their choice. I did my MA thesis of why these folks come back year after year to help the Family sustain itself. But their energies seem to be devoted to the kitchens and not the larger Gathering. In spite of the fact that I have spent a number of hours hanging around those who were there in the early days, I have seen no one with them who is younger and starting to assume some of the responsibilities. I suspect there is no one waiting in the wings to assume some of the responsibility because the old timers are not yet prepared to give up their roles as self-appointed elders,or as carriers of the lore and the vision.
For the Family to grow and flourish and become relevant to the 21st century some folks are going to have to let go a little bit and others are going to have to show that they too have a vision of what the world can be like if we are prepared to give our lives towards that process. A pile of folks for the last 40 years have done just that. It is time for some others to step up to the plate and carry just a little bit of the load.
No comments:
Post a Comment