What a wonder it will be if The World We Want, New Dimensions in Philanthropy and Social Change helps enliven a conversation among citizens of all walks of life, all around the planet. It seems like a big expectation for one book. Luckily the conversation is already under way, here and elsewhere.
Why did Peter Karoff and I put our efforts into a book, anyway, instead of concentrating on a more interactive medium, a blog like this, with its democratic participation and often inspiring ideas? Well, the book enabled us to delve into the animas, motivations, fears and ambitions of more than 40 people (none sequestered and only a few, privileged) who are changing the world. It allowed us to use their own words to form a fairly vivid picture of how vision, insight and exhilarating work are burying old assumptions about what the world might yet become. It’s a struggle, their work, and not all of them are optimistic about where we (the planet and its creatures) are headed.
We wrote this book because the topic is so critical to so many people. Our goal, mine at least, I shouldn’t speak for Peter, has been to light a few fires and get a few more people worked up. And engaged in the promising dynamics of this flat old world, where bold new ideas are conceived, reshaped and redistributed thanks to new kinds of connections, communications and collaborations. But this explanation sounds a bit stilted, a bit general. The thrill has been in the details. Why did you, Jim O’Connell, (the street doctor who heads up Boston’s Healthcare for the Homeless --not sequestered not, privileged) coax that young speechless man out from a miserable life under the off ramp if he was only to return?
Back to why it’s a book. In editing “The Civically Engaged Reader,” Elizabeth Lynn and Adam Davis used Walt Whitman’s words— Books are to be call’d for, and supplied, on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half sleep, but, in the highest sense, an exercise, a gymnasts struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself, must be on the alert, must himself of herself construct indeed ( or is that in deed?) the poem, argument, history metaphysical essay—the text furnishing the hints, the clue the start or framework.” Giving readers a chance to reflect on the world they want and the role they might play may be insufficient, but give us that it’s a reasonable place to start.
This book is common ground, neutral space for all kinds of community conversations that could build around it, but Jack Murrah, who we interviewed for his role in bringing Chattanooga back from the brink warned us that stimulating community dialogue that leads to action is a hard road. We decided, at least for now, simply to put the book out there. But it’s for all of us, physical and virtual.
The virtual and online networks have great capacity for conversation, but the sense of community in which action can be taken is more elusive. I suppose I’m passing the baton back to you all. And working up the courage to join in more often, at least when the references are not beyond me. But before I start referencing what’s not in the book, as you suggested Phil, why not start with the 254 pages of material that’s inside the cover?
I hope The World We Want will be widely read and discussed, not for the revenue to TPI, small change as you probably know, but for its message. Launching a book requires a long term strategy, I'm told. The World We Want, while published, has not been launched. It seems odd, but we will not be digging into it much until next summer. Parts of it may go online after that. For now I just wanted to thank you all (in too many words—ooops, sorry), to call back to Phil’s “ollyollyexenfree” and acknowledge Jim, Gerry, Harry, Ted, Brian, Tom and many others who care so deeply and contribute from (so deeply?) the dumpster and other digs. -Jane
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