Eco-justice symposium this Saturday
OK to come for part of the day if you can't be there for the whole thing.
Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium explores the links among
three of humanity’s most critical concerns: environmental sustainability,
social justice and spiritual fulfillment.
Where on Earth are we going? And what can we do about it?
Through video clips of some of the world’s most respected thinkers, inspiring
short films, current data, and group interactions, we will explore the
opportunities we have to shape and impact the direction of our world with
everyday choices and actions.
Facilitated by Hollister Knowlton, Quaker Earthcare and Pachamama Alliance.
SATURDAY, MAY 31
1:00pm - 8:00pm (registration begins at 12:30 pm)
208 E Buffalo Street, Ithaca (Annex to Unitarian Church)
Donation: $5 to 25 (sliding scale and/or trade)
Hearty snacks and beverages will be served (including Littletree cider!)
Sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of Ithaca Friends Meeting (Quakers)
Presented in partnership with the Pachamama Alliance, San Francisco, CA
www.pachamama.org
Register online at: www.awakeningthedreamer.org
Or Contact: Carol Mohler at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
607-539-6454 (after 7pm)
from the Awakening the Dreamer website:
According to a majority of the world's experts, there is now overwhelming
evidence that our modern society is headed for a catastrophe. Leading
scientists are telling us that the impact of our industrial system, and the
sudden expansion of humanity's ability to harvest the common bounty of our
planet for short-term gain, may actually be upsetting the balance of our highly
complex and fragile web of life.
Of course, as some point out, there is always a chance that the experts are
wrong, and that human ingenuity will come up with some kind of technological
fix that will avert a global disaster. But with a downside risk so
overwhelming, the potential cost so great, it is grossly irresponsible to keep
doing what we are doing, and not to give this issue the serious attention it
deserves. And yet, it rarely gets a mention in the daily news cycle, and was
never even brought up during our last presidential election.
It is as if we are living inside of a dream, sleepwalking toward oblivion,
while self-serving, shortsighted interests encourage our slumber with managed
news, celebrity culture and other weapons of mass distraction.
It has become clear that our political and commercial institutions are unable
to effectively address this crisis, primarily because they don't realize that
they are looking at an interconnected world through a fragmented lens. The
villain here is not Big Business, the corporate media, the military-industrial
complex, or even those who for personal profit seek to clearcut our forests,
overfish our oceans, pollute our atmosphere or drain our aquifers. The villain
is an outmoded worldview - a way of seeing the world in which such unthinkable
acts appear reasonable, sensible, and even intelligent.
Indigenous people of South America, who still live in their traditional
Earth-honoring ways, refer to our modern worldview as our "dream" and have
urged us, for the sake of all life, to "change the dream of the North." Well,
it appears that changing this collective dream of ours will be a
do-it-yourself-together project. It will be accomplished by committed
individuals working in concert with one another, tens of millions of us, each
willing to think and act in a whole new way.
This is one of the generating principles behind the Awakening the Dreamer,
Changing the Dream Symposium. The Symposium explores the link between three of
humanity's most critical concerns: environmental sustainability, social justice
and spiritual fulfillment. Using video clips from some of the world's most
respected thinkers, along with inspiring short films, leading edge information
and dynamic group interactions, the Symposium allows participants to gain a new
insight into the very nature of our time, and the opportunity we have to shape
and impact the direction of our world with our everyday choices and action.
The aim of the Symposium is not merely to learn more about the world, but to
grapple and come to grips with the very assumptions that underlie the way we
ourselves see the world and our place in it, and with what each of us can do -
both individually and cooperatively - to move the world in this new direction.
If you are ready to be disturbed, inspired and moved to action, if you are
ready to be introduced to a thriving community of like-hearted, deeply
committed cohorts who are actively engaged in awakening from and changing the
dream of our modern industrial culture, we invite you to come to the next
Symposium.
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For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
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