Category: Be the Best Citizen You Can Be

Notice what surprises you

 

A real, live magic-wand-toting fairy godmother came up the escalator at the Edmonton International Airport on Thursday, her slightly chubby body in a sparkly, puffy, baby-blue bustier dress. I was startled when I saw her face under the  large bouffant blond wig – I expected her to be 28, not 68.

My surprise took me by surprise. Why on earth would I imagine a fairy godmother as 28?  I tried to think of the images I have in mind, from childhood, and all I could come up with were mostly frumpy looking, heavy old women. I searched images on the internet and realized that…

My fairy godmother was wearing Cinderella’s dress!

179 - Cinderella and FGM
Source: disney.com

As I explore my response to this, I see that her age isn’t what bothers me, for most fairy godmothers are older, but that she was wearing Cinderella’s costume. It was as though Cinderella was 40 years older, adamantly reliving that wonderful night with blond hair that screamed bad wig and squeezing into the magic dress. After many good deeds, she has been granted a wand of her own to pay her godmotherliness forward. She is out in the world following her passion, doing good work.

Does it really matter what she looks like?

That bias is my own. I can choose to feel betrayed by a much older woman who has taken Cinderella’s part, or I can choose to be amazed by her persistence to live the Cinderella dream. I alone let what other look like change what I think of them, and I have to keep an eye on that, notice my bias and how it colours how I see others around me.

What I learned: Notice what surprises you and learn a lot about yourself. You reveal your bias.  

What surprised you today, and what made it surprising?

 

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This post is part of Chapter 9 – Be the Best Citizen You Can Be. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

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Citizens are city makers

 

I am learning about what I am writing while I am writing. While I sit here, I shape what I write and in return my writing is shaping me and what I write next. Its the same endless loop, on a grander scale, at work in our cities too.

Last week, as I wrapped up my exploration of Chapter 8 – The City Making Exchange last week, I sent off my latest newsletter, The Nest City News, declaring that you are a city maker. The 4 principles and 6 practices for city making that emerged on the Nest City Blog last week found a new home and audience. And the words “you are a city maker” stood out loud and clear, for readers and for me too.  How I think of this chapter has simplified to these words: you are a city maker.

As I head into my exploration of Chapter 9 – Enduring Civic Practice, I realize that my working title for this chapter needs to adjust too. If you are a city maker, then any discussion of civic practice is truly about this: be the best citizen you can be.

Everyone of us have a hand in the creation and recreation of our cities. The posts that follow offer some ideas and practices to help you be the best citizen you can be – for your self and your city. To start, off the top of your head,

What do you do to be the best citizen you can be? 

 

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This post is part of Chapter 9 – Be the Best Citizen You Can Be. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

_____ _____ _____

Understand the underground

 

A few words of Ben Okri’s Mental Fight stand out as I explore what it means to be best citizen I can be:

It is all in the air - poem, Okri

Cities are about connecting people and the ways we think, make and do together. This is how cities are formed, how they energize us, by giving us opportunities to follow our passions. In turn we energize the cities.

The quality of how we relate to self,  each other and our cities themselves in this city-making endeavour is essential. Everywhere, at all times, we need to listen to – notice – all the things forming, in the air and underground. This is a citizenship practice, of stopping to notice what and how we each show up to dance, and our relationship with the dancers and the changing dance floor itself.

The underground is the implicit, internal inner workings of the city that are hard to discern. Not the traditional, physical “underground” we think of as the network of pipes that serve the city, but the connections and conduits within, among and between us citizens in our social habitat.

If we want our cities to be different for us, then we must be different. For our cities to be different, we need to explore the underground within us, within citizens. Our underpinnings need to be tended to. We have to connect our souls before our work together, the very work that creates cities, will be different and result in different cities.

This is, ultimately both a personal and collective ‘mental fight’ to see, and understand, the underground.

What do you do to understand the underground in your self and your city?

 

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This post is part of Chapter 9 – Enduring Civic Practice. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

_____ _____ _____

Sleep is necessary

 

It is important to be awake to the world around us, and, perhaps counter-intuitively, it is equally important to sleep. This is the conclusion I reached in a very quick conversation last week with my community of practice about how essential it is to stop what causes harm and build on the things that are helping people (and other beings) survive and thrive.

At the time, it occurred to me that it is equally important to sleep and at this very moment of being awake, I am writing to figure out what this means for me. (One of my practices to figure out what I am thinking and feeling and seeing is to write. Its one of the ways that I endeavour to be ‘awake’ while I am awake.)

Two big thoughts stand out for me:

***

Sleep is necessary.

AND

We do not all need to be awake.

***

To start, some definitions. First ‘awake’, from Merriam Webster:

  1. to cease sleeping
  2. to become aroused or active again
  3. to become conscious or aware of something

Definitions of ‘asleep’ from Merriam Webster:

  1. being in a state of sleep
  2. dead
  3. lacking sensation: numb
  4. inactive, dormant
  5. not alert: indifferent

There are levels of awake/sleep in these definitions. Our bodies first need sleep to biologically function. A second level of awake is around being activated to stimuli, and a third is around consciousness and awareness. If “awakeness” takes place at all three levels, its opposite, sleep, is mirrored in all three levels. Biologically, I can be asleep or awake. When biologically awake, I can be actively engaging with my surroundings, or I can be inactive. When actively awake I can be deeply aware and conscious, or not.

The second and third levels of awakeness depend on the first, the third on the first and second. Being biologically awake means I need sleep, and being actively awake depends on being biologically awake. Being consciously awake depends on being actively awake. So where does sleep come in?

The discussion that got me started on this thread was about how all of humanity needs to be awake (second and third levels of awake) to the challenges the world faces and the denial – ie the sleep – we seem to enjoy.

If sleep serves a biological function, what is its metaphorical function to being an active and aware citizen? Do we all need to be awake all of the time? No.

A negative view of sleep is that I am missing out, or simply unaware of what is happening around me, and unable to take necessary action, all of which can take place with all three levels of sleep. An appreciative view of sleep is that it allows me to more fully see when I am awake, and to more fully take in the world and more wisely take action as well. Further, what if I trust that I will see what I am meant to see, when I am ready to see it? Further again, what if I trust that others will see what they are meant to see when they are ready to see it?

The desire to always be awake, or to compel all of humanity to always be awake is unreasonable and unhealthy. The real danger is oversleeping, to the point where we miss way too much, feel lethargic, confused and misjudge.

Here’s what we need to trust, while allowing ourselves to sleep: the work to be done isn’t for each of us to do, but for each of us to take a part. If I trust that as I pursue my passions, there are others pursuing theirs and cumulatively we are changing the world . We are not compelled to all stay awake and all take the same actions.

In our diversification of passions, we give ourselves the opportunity to sleep, digest, adjust, process and learn. Stay awake for what calls you and trust that others are looking after the other things. As they should trust in you.

Take time to sleep – it will serve you, and all of us, well.

Who’s awake and working hard on things so you can sleep?

 

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This post is part of Chapter 9 – Enduring Civic Practice. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

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Civic practice starts with questions

 

nestworks all in small.057
The Nestworks

How we show up, acknowledging that life is a journey at every scale, is a critical part of city making. Part of that journey is trusting that much of what comes us in life is not what we could have known. In the poem that has helped me shake out the structure of Nest City, John O’Donohue’s ‘Time for Necessary Decision’, these words stand out:

Feel the deeper knowing in us sure

Of all that is about to be born beyond

Access to deeper knowing is through having a willingness to learn and grow, a critical capacity to build and create the city habitats we need for our emergent journey. More specifically,this capacity is about a willingness for intentional learning, but this doesn’t mean choosing what I want to learn, but being intentionally open to what I need to learn. We do know know what is in the depths of each and all of us. We just know there is learning to be done, endlessly.

The 4 principles and 6 practices that end Chapter 8 – The City Making Exchange for now, form a solid foundation on which to begin exploring Chapter 9 – Enduring Civic Practice, the relationship between our individual and journeys and emergence. Questions play a big role in this exploration of civic practice. Here are a few I am holding as I write today:

  1. What does it take to be brave enough to invite ‘deeper knowing’?
  2. What does it mean to feel ‘the deeper knowing’?
  3. How much ‘deeper knowing’ can I accommodate in my being?
  4. If tension is an evolutionary driver of cities, what is my relationship with tension?
  5. As we emerge to new destinations, how do I explore my relationship with the thresholds I face?
  6. What are my personal practices to look after self, others and our places?
  7. How can I trust what I do not know?

Here’s the question at the heart of this next series of posts:

What do you do to find deeper knowing in your life and work?

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This post is part of Chapter 9 – Enduring Civic Practice. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

______ ______ ______

 

Awake

 

Questions are at the heart of an enduring civic practice. Especially the question on when the conditions are right to sleep or be awake. Here’s what I caught in this week’s discussion with my community of practice:

Awake - poem

 

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This post is part of Chapter 9 – Enduring Civic Practice. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

______ ______ ______

A spring of paradox

 

As part of how I relate to my city, I participate in a community of practice with fellow citizens. We explore what it means – and what it takes – to be a citizen offering our full potential to the world. Each  of us, in our way, is helping shape our city with our work in every moment every day.

Here is my harvest from our gathering last night. We were exploring Parker Palmer’s work on seasons.

A spring of paradox - poem

 

sprouts
Sprouts in Edmonton, April 17, 2013

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This post is part of Chapter 8 – The City Making Exchange. Here are some plot helpers of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities, the book I am sharing here while I search for a publisher:

_____ _____ _____

Be a part of feedback loops in your city

We only know how well our city is doing when we have feedback loops, giving us data on our city’s performance.  I have been exploring to date the relationship between our economic life – and our ability to create diverse, new work – and our city habitat.  The only way to fully comprehend the relationship between our work and the cities we build (our habitat) is through feedback systems.

A couple of simple feedback loops have popped up in my city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this week about the city we are building.  The topics: a growth coordination strategy and design guidelines for our new neighbourhoods.

The City of Edmonton released this week a draft Growth Coordination Strategy, highlighting the  necessary steps to coordinate the city’s population growth to ensure environmental, social and fiscal sustainability.  This is an effort to consider more information as we make decisions about how to build our city.   The local news media have covered this story, providing feedback to the wider population: Edmonton Journal, Metro News,  Even City Councilor Don Iveson has information for constituents on his web site.  Little bits and pieces were on the radio this morning, and a bit on twitter under the #yeg hashtag.  It’s emerging as a public conversation about what we are building, who pays for it and what it costs.

In the meantime, Edmonton is developing design guidelines for Edmonton’s new neighbourhoods.  The City is asking the public what they think are the building blocks of great new neighbourhoods.  At the beginning of this project, the City is offering a way for the public to reflect on the city we are building.  Everyone can see the collection of photos people are posting on flickr or pinterest.  Everyone can see the twitter feed using the hashtag #yegDNN.  There is even a blog for the project.  Most importantly, citizens are discussing in IdeaShare the city we are building and what they want from it.  (Here is a link for more information on this project.)

The work of creating Edmonton to day did not rely only on planners and engineers.  Politicians make critical decisions about infrastructure.  Business owners and leaders make decisions about where to locate their business.  Builders and land developers choose what to build.  Citizens make decisions every day that impact the physical shape a city takes, and certainly the spirit of a city.  NGOs also make key decisions that affect how a city takes its shape.  So how do a couple of reports in City Hall serve the role of feedback loops?

City Hall prepares reports, which is one form of feedback. It also creates opportunities for citizens to discuss and reflect on our city.  Even if you don’t read the document, the media coverage is helping us collectively reflect on what we build, where we build it, why we build it and what it costs. If you are a citizen of Edmonton, I invite you to take a look at the Growth Coordination Strategy.  More importantly, they will be asking for citizen feedback.

In the case of the design guidelines for new neighbourhoods, the IdeaShare is a fantastic way for citizens to see what we collectively think about the city we are building for ourselves.  If you are looking for ideas, you might want to check out Edmonton’s promising practices that have been documented.  There is no report yet for this project, but you have an opportunity to help it take its shape.  More importantly, you can reflect and be part of shaping our city habitat here in Edmonton.

In future posts, I will be articulating more intense feedback loops.  In the meantime, look for ways to provide and be a feedback loop.  Be a part of the city’s feedback system.  That work will certainly create city habitats that serve us well.

 

 

Whack-a-mole

A fantastic image came to mind in conversation with a colleague this afternoon: the whack-a-mole game at fairs and carnivals.  This is also a common phenomenon in the world where I feel like I am one of the moles.  Chances are, if I come up with an idea someone is there to whack me on the head with a mallet.  After a while, I might choose not to offer myself and my ideas.  I have a choice to make.

I wonder who I am wacking with my mallet?

Mark’s wicked 10 year old wisdom

A 10 year old friend of mine has nailed down the simplest way to grow as a person.  I am fascinated by how simple this is – and how hard.

Mark made some errors on the soccer field last week, got put on the bench and got a “talking to” by the coach.  Mark felt really bad and hurt – he made mistakes, which made him feel bad, and his coach told him in no uncertain terms that he had screwed up.

Mark and his mom had a challenging conversation about this.  Here is Mark’s wicked wisdom:

1.     If I do something right, I want to hear about it.  I want to know what I am doing right.

2.     If I do something wrong, I want to hear about it.  I want to learn how to play the game better.

3.     It is really hard to hear that I am doing something wrong but I want to hear it anyway.

4.     At times, coaches are not so good at delivering a message.  I have to look past that because I want to hear what s/he has to say.