From the Idiosyncradeck Tarot, the Tower; from the Mixed Emotions Cards, Hopelessness:
These cards sum up my feelings today as federal grant cuts are hitting our community hard: our local Arts Council will be closing; the Job Corps (that houses and teaches skills to at-risk teens - currently 500) is closing; and our inter-library book loan service (that allows us to borrow books from other libraries in GA that our library doesn't have) will cease. And while Emory hospital is not local, our region has relied on its cutting-edge technology and treatments (which recently saved my husband's life); they lost all of their grants as well. I recently came across this essay by Wheatley, and instead of sitting in a blue funk, I'll share some of her words of wisdom:
I read a quote from Rudolf Bahro that did help: "When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure." Could insecurity, self-doubt, be a good trait? I find it hard to imagine how I can work for the future without feeling grounded in the belief that my actions will make a difference.
Being liberated from results, giving up outcomes, doing what feels right rather than effective. He helps me recall the Buddhist teaching that hopelessness is not the opposite of hope. Fear is. Hope and fear are inescapable partners. Anytime we hope for a certain outcome, and work hard to make it a happen, then we also introduce fear...
In a letter to a friend, Thomas Merton advised: "Do not depend on the hope of results . . .you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. . . .you gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people . . . .In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything."
Holy cow….while realizing that some poorly managed programs waste grant money, most of them do needed community support. Inter-library loans are a lifeblood for me. I am shocked at that and hospital grants being cut. (J)
ReplyDeleteThat's just the tip of the iceberg. So many programs - like Meals on Wheels for the elderly - that people depend on will be cut. I'm just heartsick.
DeleteEven Meals on Wheels! How low do you have to be to cut services like that. What's been going on down there is unconscionable. I hope voters up here learn from it, because we have come perilously close to electing the same sort of government.
ReplyDeleteThe US is like the lesson of the Titanic for other countries. Those who are not vulnerable don't seem to care, but if the sides and bottom of the pot collapse, they'll be nothing to support the top.
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