“How to face the mess we are in without going crazy.”
Joanna Macy
Tuesday 14th March Dydd Mawrth 14eg Mawrth
19.00-20.00 19.00-20.00
Bydd Alice yn cynnig cipolwg diddorol ar ddylanwadau ei waith chwedleua hi.
Alice will give an engaging taster of the influences on her storytelling.
“Between 2011 and 2019, I taught maths to electronic engineering students in Yorkshire. This, and needing a smartphone, sparkled my interest for the life cycle of electronics components (not a pretty stories) and in the ethics of engineering. I wondered whether I could make anything ‘better’. Around the same time, I came across a book called ‘Active Hope’ by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. What arrested me was the subtitle: ‘How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy’. Exactly what I needed! The book introduced me to the practices of the Work That Reconnects, developed by activist and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy. The aim of this work is to bring us into a new relationship with the world we live in and to empower us to take part in what Joanna calls ‘the Great Turning’, a move towards healing and life-sustaining practices. The theoretical grounding is in systems theory, Buddhist thinking and Deep Ecology, but in order for it to work, it needs to be experienced, mainly through group activities and rituals. What I offer during this session is to share one of Joanna Macy’s story (she’s a fascinating character); introduce the Spiral of the Work that Reconnects (with your participation); and share a couple of examples of how I have personally been empowered to act by using this work (one was a blog: www.ethicsinstem.blogspot.co.uk, the other has to do with storytelling). At the end of the meeting, I’d be really keen to hear your reactions and see whether anyone would be interested in a deeper week-end dive onto the Work That Reconnects.”