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Today I’m sharing an election safety checklist which includes useful links, and questions to ask yourself to help you and your community prepare. Thanks to the Anti-Racism Daily email newsletter for offering this Safety Checklist for November. Caveat: A few of the resources linked at the bottom of the checklist suggest actions I do not condone, except possibly in certain life-threatening emergencies. A pamphlet isn’t license to violate your moral principles. Think for yourself, and always be guided by your own highest moral principles.

The Anti-Racism Daily email newsletter has been an essential resource on my anti-racist journey. You can go here to get more info and to subscribe.

From Nicole Cardoza in today’s edition of the newsletter:

The first part of preparing is to prepare yourself. This is not to center your needs above those more marginalized. This is about ensuring you are resourced enough to do the most. Make your self-care plan.

Then get clarity on what it looks like to protect your community. The checklist offers ways to help from a wide range of perspectives: you can organize politically to defend polling sites, passing out food and water in places with long lines, or offer rides to people in your community. You can organize logistically by offering food, money, and other tangibles to those worried about leaving their homes in the coming weeks. You can also get prepared to participate or defend any protests that may unfold in the weeks ahead. The checklist includes links to upcoming trainings and virtual gatherings you can join – and I recommend subscribing for future events that may be scheduled as things unfold.

If anything, perhaps this plan will bring you and your community some ease and relief as the weeks unfold. But at most, it can save lives. …

Key Takeaways:

• State and local governments, organizers, activists and extremists are worried about election violence over the coming weeks
• Creating a plan is critical for your self-care, but to support and protect the people around you – especially those most marginalized 
• Take some time to prepare now, and keep this election safety checklist in your back pocket for whenever a response to crisis is needed

Here is a U.S. Government website page on household disaster-preparedness planning. (It’s one of the resources mentioned in the safety checklist linked above.)

And my own plan: Offer food, water, shelter, preparedness training, emotional support to community members in every way I can. I aspire to be stability in unstable times.

And remember: Whoever gets voted into office, we still all have to wake up together tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. If we really focus on what matters, the forces that unite us are greater than any artificial thing we can possibly make up to divide us.

The other day for the first time I heard about something called a “fire tornado.” It’s just what it sounds like, and they’ve happened in California and Australia.

Here is a nutshell explanation. And here’s an article about the first-ever one sighted, back in 2003 in Australia. And if you want to see what one looks like, just google images for “fire tornado.” From the number of images, apparently they are not as “rare” as they used to be.

I’m not prone to fire-and-brimstone preaching, but if I were a fire-and-brimstone preacher for climate awareness, I’d surely invoke fire tornadoes as an image.

Here is footage of one forming.

Further Reading:

• “In the West, Lightning Grows as a Cause of Damaging Fires” (John Schwartz and Veronica Penney, NYTimes.com). “Warmer temperatures and drought are expected to reach other parts of the country as warming continues. Recent research suggests that combinations of extreme heat and drought that could make lush forests more prone to fire are occurring together more frequently — not just in the American West, but also in the Northeastern and Southeastern United States, as well. As Craig Allen, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, put it, wildfire could be ‘coming soon to a landscape near you. Wherever you are.'” (This is why I emphasize residential landscaping choices so much on this blog. Re-vegetate landscapes and turn the soil back from sieve or cement to water-absorbing sponge; it’ll help repair the hydrological cycle. This is a key leverage point accessible to everyday people.)

• “After the Fires” (Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, tabletmag.com). “[W]hen you experience a month under wildfire evacuation warning, with a few bags packed, somehow you are reduced to essentials, to the values that support you rather than the possessions that burden you. … Both the pandemic and the wildfires were caused by an imbalance in nature, the pandemic by wildlife habitat destruction, the wildfires by unseasonable dry lightning and warmer, dryer conditions making the land combust. The most basic question is how to return to a place of balance … Will we have to wait centuries before a new civilization is born from the ashes, one that is not built upon violence against nature, extraction, and pollution, but once again recognizes the earth as an organic, interdependent living being to which we belong?” “Will this moment’s challenges—and those unknown still to come—help our civilization move past an obsession with material prosperity?”

(Sound advice from Joan Pancoe, Modern Mystic):

“…[S]ince we all do live in 3D, a plane of relative truth, it is unrealistic to dwell solely in the realm of the Absolute, unless we are fully enlightened beings with no return to lesser states. And how many of us can say that?

“In fact, any spiritual philosophy or teaching that propounds a perspective of reality with no polarities, contradictions or paradoxes is NOT OF THIS EARTH as it now is. So, trying to live solely by these absolute or ultimate truth teachings—whether from Advaita Vedanta (Krisnamurti, Adyashanti, Eckhart Tolle, etc.) or Christian Science (more recently Course in Miracles etc.) is unsustainable as a way of life.

“Accordingly, anyone who is attempting to exist exclusively in an absolute reality with no duality, while in an incarnation in the earth plane where relative truth is the rule, as many die-hard “new-agers” try to do, is going to end up triggering feelings that something is inherently wrong or inadequate within their beings. 

“My solution to this rejection and denial of 3D reality as merely a delusion or samsara or, conversely, to rage and frustration at not having even an illusion of control over the duality of the physical plane, is to utilize a perceptual split-screen to view relative and absolute levels of reality simultaneously.

“This means that, on one side of the screen, I live fully embodied in the world as it is, wholeheartedly playing the game of Life amidst so much Divine orderly chaos. I still have my preferences on the individual personality level and act on these preferences as desired. On the other side of the split-screen, I’m holding the vision of the absolute reality in which we’re all One Being with billions of faces and everything is part of the Tao—with no exceptions.

“The key is to not be so attached to having our preferences met—especially in terms of how the relative reality of the world is playing out now in the Kali Yuga (Dark Ages)—that we cause ourselves undue suffering.

“I view the Earth Game as an infinite perpetual motion machine in which souls incarnate to learn how to grow into cocreators with All That Is, while healing their karma. And, without doubt, the physical plane is definitely the best show in the Universe in this regard.”

(This quote is from the edition of Joan’s email newsletter dated October 2020. The title is “October Surprise Invitation.” To sign up for her newsletter and see her other offerings, visit her website.)

Solid advice from White Eagle, Hopi Indigenous Wisdomkeeper (via a Facebook friend-of-a-friend):

“This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you.

“If you repent of the problem and consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, you will fall into the hole. But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal. Take care of your homes, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual House.

“When you are taking care of yourselves, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis; have the eagle aspect from above and see the whole; see more broadly.
There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is also a spiritual demand — the two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. But without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and lack of meaning. You were prepared to go through this crisis. Take your toolbox and use all the tools available to you.

“Learn about resistance of the indigenous and African peoples; we have always been, and continue to be, exterminated. But we still haven’t stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire, and having fun. Don’t feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time.

“You do not help at all being sad and without energy. You help if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists. Also, when the storm passes, each of you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world.
You need to be well and strong. And for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy, and bright vibration. This has nothing to do with alienation.

“This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you cross this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties.

“This is what is asked of you:

“Allow yourself to take advantage of this time to perform your vision-seeking rituals. What world do you want to build for you? For now, this is what you can do — serenity in the storm. Calm down, pray every day. Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day.

“Good things emanate; what you emanate now is the most important thing. And sing, dance, resist through art, joy, faith, and love.”

(As I said, this quote was shared via a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook. If I find a website, book, or other link for the writer, I’ll post it here.)

One of the main roots of war and other conflict in the world is the tendency of human beings to project evil onto other people. This means seeing the bad in others without being able/willing to see any corresponding tendency in ourselves. “Those other people” get identified in our minds as the bad ones that are causing all the trouble, or at least starting it.

The process of getting in touch with and owning our own “dark side” is sometimes called “shadow work,” and it’s an essential step to co-creating an enlightened society, not to mention experiencing true liberation and happiness on a personal level.

(Important Note: As I see it, “Owning our shadow,” “shadow work,” etc., is in the realm of metaphysical or spiritual work. It does not invalidate, or remove the need for, one’s political or moral beliefs, and actions to counter evil in the world.)

The other day I came across a quote that really nails our current contentious times as they relate to owning our shadow: “So if you’re wondering, dear reader, why those of us in the USA live in a country where one party accuses the other of being full-blown goose-stepping Nazis and the other party insists that the first are Satan-worshiping pedophiles, where compromise has become a swear word and both sides have convinced themselves that all they have to do is come up with the right gimmick and the Shadow they hate so much will pop like a bubble, now you know. The bitter irony, of course, is that they’re both wrong. No matter how many self-proclaimed Frodos drop surrogate Rings into notional equivalents of Mount Doom, the Shadow will not go away, because it’s being projected by the people on both sides who have convinced themselves that they’re fighting it.
He knows … If there’s a solution—other than mutual slaughter, that is—maybe it’s to be found in the first Shadow we discussed, the one who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. (Not, please note, their minds—it’s in the heart, the seat of unbalanced passion and distorted love, where the evil that matters has its root.) That tremendous, mordant, terrifying laugh is only possible for one who has already confronted the unbalanced passion and distorted love in his own heart. If there’s a way forward for us here in the United States, that knowledge might just provide it.” The full article is here. (“What Evil Lurks,” by John Michael Greer at Ecosophia.)

And another goodie, which landed in my email inbox just now: “Having the ability to see something in another person, and automatically bring this observation back to ourselves, is like having a built-in system of checks and balances that enables us to be continually engaged in self-exploration and behavior change. When we see behavior we don’t like, we can make a concerted effort to weed it out of ourselves, and when we see behavior we do like, we can let it inspire us to engage in imitation. Through this process, we read our environment and let it influence us to bring out the best in ourselves.” (This quote comes from an article titled “Checks and Balances,” by Madisyn Taylor at DailyOM.)

Things that can help you own your shadow include therapy, writings (Carl Jung and many others), 12-step programs, and hanging out with other people who get this. Personally, my favorite tools for quickly identifying and dismantling my projections (or any other patterns I identify as being out-of-integrity with my higher self), are the Personal Integrity Minicourse (and other materials from The Avatar Course). The Personal Integrity Minicourse is available as a free download from this page. It’s #6 on the page.

On a topical note: With elections coming up next Tuesday, and a lot of people surely feeling averse to going through the big day/night alone, I offer you my official “Deep Green Election Watch Party recommendation.” And that is: Outdoor small gathering + Zoom combo. A few neighbors walk to your house and come sit in your driveway, or you go sit in theirs (or meet at a neighborhood park); while friends/family located beyond your immediate area connect by Zoom or phone. This covers all the bases: low-footprint, public-health-conscious, and nurturing community.

This post has been in the “Drafts” hopper for a while. Money is a major topic, and it can be hard for people to speak openly about. But I feel we need to. Too many of us don’t know what other people are dealing with. Also, getting a grasp of where our own financial profile falls in the scheme of things is a good reality check for how much we might be inadvertently putting pressure on economies and ecosystems worldwide.

Awhile back, I found online calculators that allowed me to put my financial situation in perspective. One was a worldwide calculator; the other was specifically for the USA. Unfortunately it looks like the first site is no longer working, but I dug up another one for you to use.

Global Wage Calculator: Compare Your Salary (from cnn.com). Lets you calculate where your annual earnings stand in your country, and worldwide. I found out that my annual income of about $12K (before taxes) is about four times what a teacher in Ethiopia makes; twice what a cleaner in Thailand makes; and about the same as what a driver in South Africa makes.

And: Net Worth Percentile Calculator USA

Here are some hypothetical net worth and income scenarios, and the percentile that they signify for a person or household:

• home equity 129k, investments 165k, possessions $500 = top 3.94% in world

• investments 0, possessions a mere 1,000 = still top 68.58% in world!

• a millionaire is top 0.56% in world (i used investments only)

Net Income – world:

7k top 19.54%

13k top 11.62%

15k top 7.91%

• Even a person making just 4k annual income is still in top 26.72% in the world!

• if 10k then top 16.01% in world

Net worth USA https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentile-calculator-united-states/

300k net worth = 71st percentile

1k net worth = 14.5 percentile

Income USA https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

USA avg income 2018 = $55,880; median $39,048; top 10% = $114,068; top 5% = $153,420.

7k income = 10th percentile in USA; 13k income = 16th percentile in USA; 15k = 18th percentile in USA. (These numbers are pre-tax incomes I’ve had in recent years.)

I hope you enjoy the calculators! Did you get any surprises? I’ll be back sometime later with some thoughts on how this is all related to living abundantly but lightly on the earth.

By the way, 10 percent of the world’s people live in extreme poverty — defined by the World Bank as living on $1.90 per day or less.

In closing, I want to leave you with this quote from Bill Mollison, who co-founded the permaculture design movement: “All money arises from the wealth of the natural world (plants, clean air, clean water, stored energy). The accumulation of unused wealth, or wealth that does not lead to the proliferation of life, is a pollution of the same nature as any unused resource. Manure and money have so much in common.” –Bill Mollison in Permaculture, A Designers’ Manual, p 533.

Certain things have taken their toll on me. As an eco activist, I have become accustomed to having my concerns for Earth and her creatures ridiculed as flaky, sappy, hippie, fluffy, not living in the real world. I’ve often seen people roll their eyes or sneer while I was speaking up about environmental concerns at church or a civic meeting.

At one point I noticed, “Wow, being a frequent target of low-grade condescension or outright contempt is stressful! It has taken its toll!”

I recommend everyone do the same. Recognize the things that have carved wounds inside your heart. Not to let them bring you down, but so you can engage in the appropriate self-care you need to persevere in your mission. Whatever your mission is, be it to eradicate racism, help your family and community weather tough economic times, save the planet for future generations, share your spiritual truth, or what have you.

Recognize your hurts, give them their due. It’ll help you stop beating yourself up for being “lazy”; “not doing enough”; etc. to fully, deeply take in the realization that certain things have just flat-out sapped your juice.

And once you’ve taken in that realization, get whatever help you need, be it through reading, a workshop, counseling, church or other spiritual community, solo hike or retreat, writing in a journal, plain old sitting and introspecting — whatever.

And then keep going with your good work! You know it’s good, regardless of what naysayers naysay, or haters hate. (Many haters are just recreational anyway. In the long run they don’t stand a chance against people who are actively working for the good. Not that it still doesn’t sting and demoralize a person to be on the receiving end of hatery.)

In my book DEEP GREEN, I have a chapter called “Get Your Mind In Order” that includes links to some books, courses, videos, and other resources that have been lifesavers for me, as an activist and as a being. (My book is now available free for anyone to read online here on this blog, as well as still being available in print form (contact me, or scroll down this page for the Buy Now button).

Self-care and planetary care are both necessary! Love yourself, love the planet.

LATER, same day: I just now had coffee with a friend, and he told me a story that ended up being relevant to this post. I was telling him about a “Hoarders”-level house-cleaning job I’m in the middle of. (Cleaning being one of the side-things I do to financially support myself to be able to be a full-time sustainability educator/activist. It pays well and I enjoy it.) I was telling my friend that the house was so packed with stuff, I didn’t even know how the residents (who now live in a nursing home) could even get to the bathroom or bedroom.

My friend told me that back in college, he’d keep his textbooks even after the semester was over because he hated the fact that he’d only be able to sell them at a fraction of the price he bought them for. He ended up with massive amounts of heavy books, which he carted around with him for a couple of moves til he wised up and realized it wasn’t worth the headache. So he went ahead and sold them or gave them away.

Where that story is relevant to this post is that some of us end up hanging on to our inner wounds in similar fashion. It’s as if we decide (probably not consciously), “I paid for those, dammit, and I’m going to keep them!”

Those inner scrapes and bangs might even hold some sort of self-righteous appeal, as a weapon we carry around in case we might need it. If you’ve ever done this (as I have in the past, before I learned how not to), you’ll know what I mean.

And now I say, “Those things are heavy! I don’t care how much I paid for ’em, I am happy to let them go for free right now!”

Emotional baggage can (and often does) end up adding to one’s financial overhead and eco-footprint in various ways. Free your mind; free the planet.

Further Exploration:

“Impressions“: One of my favorite talks about dealing with life’s wounds; how we have the power to heal them. The stories are sweet yet powerful. “What happens when things interact? What impressions are left behind? What kind of stories do we create to explain the impressions that life leaves? … The events of life leave tracks in our consciousness … This talk by Harry Palmer, the author of the Avatar® materials, was recorded live at the July 2009 International Avatar Course in Orlando, Florida. (length 33:00)”