[OccupySheffield] The Revolution is Love

[Peter Garbutt]

Perhaps not so much by coincidence but by reaching the same conclusions because our situation demands them, I had a similar experience over the Christmas break. Walking along a Suffolk beach, looking out to sea, I thought how alike that view was, no matter which beach you were standing on; and how connected the views. That led to the thought that everything on the planet IS interconnected, and that actions that harm any of it harm all of us; and therefore, that the real meaning of love is to recognise that interconnectedness and to act accordingly.
Two songs, decades apart, came to mind: from "Catch Bull at Four", by Cat Stevens, "The Boy with the Moon and Star on his Head", the last line goes "I'll tell you everything I've learned - And love is all, he said"; and, from "The Future", by Leonard Cohen, one of the lines in "Anthem" is "Everyone to love will come, but like a refugee". In the light of my experiences, the meaning suddenly came into sharp focus.
These aren't new thoughts. In some ways, they're not even new to me. The clarity they have given me is new, though. I'm not a religious person, and I'm clear that these ideas don't rest on any notion of faith or even of transcendence (unless by transcendence you mean "thinking beyond me"). They are based in science and in politics.
and so,
love,
Peter

Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 08:51:42 +0000
From: anna at shsh.co.uk
To: squares at lists.takethesquare.net; occupysheffield at email-lists.org
Subject: [OccupySheffield] The Revolution is Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRtc-k6dhgs
This beautiful trailer for a new video called The Revolution is Love was posted on Occupy Cafe.org with this contribution by Susan Livingstone:

Some of the Transition Towns are experimenting with community-based 
economic systems and finding that they have the potential to render the 
entire notion of exchange obsolete.  Mostly this happens because people 
are sharing their gifts with their communities rather than "working for 
the man every night and day."  It's not about this economic model or that
 economic model - it's more about decentralizing our economy by 
acknowledging, supporting, making visible, or replicating local 
initiatives that are already in place (like clumps of imaginal butterfly
 cells scattered throughout the muck of what used to be the caterpillar)
 such as farmers markets, flea markets, community gardens, alternative 
currencies, buyers cooperatives, and "maker" and service collectives of 
all sorts.  The acceptance of a unified economy was sold to the sheeple 
based on the convenience of a single currency for "all debts public and 
private" and the efficiency of debt-driven competition and growth.  If 
we want to reclaim our birthright of community-level interdependence and
 trust, let's throw off the shackles of our wage slavery and enjoy the 
GIFT of life instead of "earning a living" and devaluing the gift into a
 right or entitlement.  That's the world I want to live in!


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