The Benefits of a Wider Focus
As a person who was born and grew up in one of the countries on the frontline of climate change (the Philippine Islands are greatly affected), I found it hopeful that Diane was proposing this bold step.
I have thought about how adding another point to the one-point program might reduce the number of people joining RC. I have also thought about the possibility of losing new people by not adding it. My initial deep interest in RC was not because of the one-point program. It was because I saw how RC could be used to help my community and my people. Because of its wider focus, my feelings of “this is just another Western self-help project” were not restimulated.
I have since understood the importance of the one-point program, including the need to fight for myself as an individual. But maybe I am not the only one who was initially drawn into RC because of the wider focus on liberation. It may be true for people in other communities in which individualism is less common, such as other communities of the Global Majority, which are more likely to be on the frontline of climate change.
Deciding to think about and act on the biggest, hardest problem facing humanity (climate change), and to face and discharge all the early distress that gets in the way, has given me more perspective on and attention for the daily challenges in my life. This has been most evident in my paid work, which I have struggled with for many years and which now has become so much fun. I am excited about the work that I do and have new ideas about almost everything. I connect and collaborate with large groups of people and dare to try hard things. People at work notice, and keep encouraging me to take more visible charge of things.
Similar to teaching RC fundamentals, early sexual memories work, and family work, discharging on taking action on climate change has been a fast track to my re-emergence.
San Francisco, California, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion
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