The Summer of My PD Tropism!
This poem and sweet image were on Parker Palmer’s facebook page last week. As with much he writes or shares – it moved me deeply – and the reference to tropism intrigued me. After some research and reflection I realized that it captures my lived experience. Tropism is the turning of an organism in a certain direction in response to an external stimulus. The reaction is involuntary and can happen as a negative or positive response to signals from the environment. For better or worse I am highly influenced by others and the events around me – and tend to turn my energy in their direction.
My tropism is particularly strong when I get overwhelmed and a lot is happening – I turn and turn and get dizzy. Throughout this last year there has been A LOT happening: the vitriol in America politics just keeps getting worse, the unbearable tragedy at our border continues to unfold, violence against our women and mother earth progresses, crises in the Catholic Church (clergy sex abuse, young people fleeing fast, polarization between conservative/liberals, absence of female leadership) abound, Islamaphobia is rising, global chaos threatens us, and toping it off wasa confusing and difficult professional evaluation process here at Carondelet – this ALL had me turning upside and down – right and left: tropism got the better of me!
My tropism is particularly strong when I get overwhelmed and a lot is happening – I turn and turn and get dizzy. Throughout this last year there has been A LOT happening: the vitriol in America politics just keeps getting worse, the unbearable tragedy at our border continues to unfold, violence against our women and mother earth progresses, crises in the Catholic Church (clergy sex abuse, young people fleeing fast, polarization between conservative/liberals, absence of female leadership) abound, Islamaphobia is rising, global chaos threatens us, and toping it off wasa confusing and difficult professional evaluation process here at Carondelet – this ALL had me turning upside and down – right and left: tropism got the better of me!
So – in an effort to be proactive and productive – to make the most of this tropism moving me and forcing me to face these issues and problems – I signed up for a boat load of summer professional development workshops and conferences. And – happy dance!!! – registration fees were waived for everything I attended – ask and you shall receive!
My first workshop (my first move) was sponsored by the Sophia Institute. Called Encountering God’s Love in the Sacraments, it took place at St. Stephen’s Church in Walnut Creek. (I have a thumb drive with all Sophia Institute resources if anyone is interested.) The style of this workshop was old school – static – traditional PD stuff. We sat and listened to presentations delivered by a theology professor and staff member; looked at detailed power points; and answered questions about their resources. It did little to edify or challenge me, although I did like their use of art to explore the sacraments – and have used it in my Symbols and Ethics classes.
Next move was to a Facing History and Ourselves (FHA)) workshop called Community Matters: Facing History’s Approach to Advisory @ Arise High School in Oakland. If you have not been to a FHAO workshop you are missing out – the FHFO pedagogical Scope and Sequence and Advisory rational are well worth your time if you have some. This workshop had us moving around the room completing challenges and sharing with one another. It had us switching our student, teacher, and human being hats/roles all the time. We explored ways to build understanding and empathy with our students, break down stereotypes, help students find and build their own voices, and connect on a deeper level with one another. The official day ended with an circle experience where teachers completed the sentence: “if you really knew me, you would know that … “. One of the teachers completed the sentence with “I was on the BART train the night that Oscar Grant was killed.”
After that I TURNED towards a two day conference at the Hoover Institute at Stanford called Accelerating Peace: Interfaith Action in Global Peacemaking put on by the United Religions Initiative (Conference Agenda) was AMAZING! It “brought peacebuilders from around the world together to discuss challenges to peace, both in their local communities and on an international level, and to realize action-oriented solutions benefitting all of humanity.”
Here is who I got to see and hear:
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H.E. Adama Dieng, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide
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Former US Secretary of Defense General James Mattis – He was awesome!
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Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, Secretary-General of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (GIWA), a URI Cooperation Circle and President of the Divine Shakti Foundation
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Valarie Kaur, Founder and Director of the Revolutionary Love Project (💜 her)
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Rev. William Swing, President and Founding Trustee of URI; Former Episcopal Bishop of California
I met a Pakistani priest, James Channan, whom I am now friends with – James just won the National Peace Award from the president of Pakistan . I met a beautiful new friend who I bonded with when they gave us 15 minutes for coffee and extended it for hours. Kate runs a phenomenal organization called Contemplative Life – an online hub “connecting people and communities with transformative practices”. I got to hang out with Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists (and more). I got to discuss politics and economics, society and culture, and inter-religious dialogue. I made local connections – with people from the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County – and hopefully some of its members will be visiting CHS soon as guest speakers.
I then moved in the direction of an evening workshop called the Catholic Educators Summit: LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Catholic Schools at USF (LGBTQIA+ Schedule) – Edie came with me and it was a blast. Dr. Jane Bleasdale, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for Catholic Educational Leadership at USF, was kind, compassionate, wise and intelligent. She set the context for the conference and spoke via Skype with Kent Hickey, President of Seattle Prep, about how Catholic schools might move from tolerance to inclusion in terms of LGBTQ faculty and staff. When it comes to our LGBTQ friends, family, and faculty, I feel that the Church could really use a cocktail of reality and compassion – so I was happy to swim in the waters with those who are working for change.
The crown jewel in the summer of my PD tropism was a three day conference put on Facing History and Ourselves called Immigration in a Changing World: Identity, Citizenship, and Belonging @ the Brandeis School of San Francisco. (Schedule & Overview) This was exceptional – cutting edge – a game changer! I loved learning the history of immigration through creative hands-on activities – there was so much I didn’t know about the 1790 Act, the 1917 and 1924 Immigration Acts. I learned about border history and contemporary border policy by Professor Bill Hing of USF – who was AWESOME! Here is a podcast “Good Law-Bad Law” from August of Prof Hing discussing decriminalization of the border. I’m designing a mini-unit on immigration for my Symbols and Ethics class and am happy to share it (when I finish it 😟) and as well as all the resources I got from FHAO on the issues of immigration and racism.
So – that was my summer of PD … my summer of trying to “learn tropism towards the difficult” and trying to “prune back regret to let faith grow” as Kim Stafford put it in the poem above. I didn’t dedicate all my energy to professional development. There were also personal and family issues that moved me and called for my attention. So … I signed up for several online courses which were profoundly valuable, including
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2019 Compassion Course Online with Thom Bond, the Founder and Director of Education of The New York Center for Nonviolent Communication
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The 28-Day Mindfulness Challenge by Sean Fargo, Founder of Mindfulness Exercises
It seems like a lot and it was – but I needed it. As much as I love teaching, I need to be taught!!! I need information, inspiration, formation, connection. I need to be fed. And I felt full and more grounded when school started.
