WS 290G
Tree Talking & Street Truths
Justice learning in all aspects is most profoundly felt in those serendipitous moments when someone from a place we had never really thought about before opens our minds and understanding more expansively. Think about the tree climber working hidden from us high up in the trees that dot our landscapes. Have we ever wondered what they experience as they dangle precariously from a branch in their relation to the tree itself, or what they see as they observe the streets below? What about the people who every day are working in shelters or more directly on the streets with people whose lives are too easily only framed as “homeless” and “addicts”. Do we ever consider the workplaces of the tree climber or the frontline worker on the streets or the drag performer who lives and experiences the oppressive forces of gender, race, and sexuality containment but pushes against all of that regardless? How in the balance of risk and safety do the tree climber, the frontline street worker, the drag performer see the world and live in it? We can only answer those questions if we open ourselves to those meetings and longer less dismissive conversations of discovery. And in those moments learn how to take what we’re gifted from new directions into the whole spectrum of our thinking lives. And that is what we’ll do together for 12 weeks in conversations and in readings from the edge.
Justice learning in all aspects is most profoundly felt in those serendipitous moments when someone from a place we had never really thought about before opens our minds and understanding more expansively. Think about the tree climber working hidden from us high up in the trees that dot our landscapes. Have we ever wondered what they experience as they dangle precariously from a branch in their relation to the tree itself, or what they see as they observe the streets below? What about the people who every day are working in shelters or more directly on the streets with people whose lives are too easily only framed as “homeless” and “addicts”. Do we ever consider the workplaces of the tree climber or the frontline worker on the streets or the drag performer who lives and experiences the oppressive forces of gender, race, and sexuality containment but pushes against all of that regardless? How in the balance of risk and safety do the tree climber, the frontline street worker, the drag performer see the world and live in it? We can only answer those questions if we open ourselves to those meetings and longer less dismissive conversations of discovery. And in those moments learn how to take what we’re gifted from new directions into the whole spectrum of our thinking lives. And that is what we’ll do together for 12 weeks in conversations and in readings from the edge.
Justice learning in all aspects is most profoundly felt in those serendipitous moments when someone from a place we had never really thought about before opens our minds and understanding more expansively. Think about the tree climber working hidden from us high up in the trees that dot our landscapes. Have we ever wondered what they experience as they dangle precariously from a branch in their relation to the tree itself, or what they see as they observe the streets below? What about the people who every day are working in shelters or more directly on the streets with people whose lives are too easily only framed as “homeless” and “addicts”. Do we ever consider the workplaces of the tree climber or the frontline worker on the streets or the drag performer who lives and experiences the oppressive forces of gender, race, and sexuality containment but pushes against all of that regardless? How in the balance of risk and safety do the tree climber, the frontline street worker, the drag performer see the world and live in it? We can only answer those questions if we open ourselves to those meetings and longer less dismissive conversations of discovery. And in those moments learn how to take what we’re gifted from new directions into the whole spectrum of our thinking lives. And that is what we’ll do together for 12 weeks in conversations and in readings from the edge.
