Growth of the RC Community, and Care of the Environment
At the World Conference, Tim1 talked about growth of the RC Community. He said that each year we know more about RC, and are smarter and have better relationships, so “Why aren’t we growing faster?” and “What will let us solve this problem better than we have?” He said that it tends to be the newest members of the Community who introduce people to RC, “as if they don’t know any better” (humor). I left the conference determined to keep discharging and thinking about growth of the RC Community and our new goal for the environment.
BUILDING THE RC COMMUNITY
I enjoy teaching RC and currently teach a group of people targeted by racism. This has been a great experience, and people in the class are joining my Area.2
I also led two support groups the week after the World Conference. I talked about the growth of our Community and asked the people in the groups, who had from one to thirty years’ experience in RC, what came up for them in telling people about this process we love. Many of them expressed worry that the people they knew would not “fit” in RC and needed to do more to “look better” and “get ready.” Others felt they did not know people they could invite, or felt they did not know what to say to interest people, or had felt discouraged if someone they referred did not stay. Two of the newest Co-Counselors had already told their families about RC and had invited them to an introductory RC talk I was to give the following week. They each brought their immediate families, a total of seven people, to the talk, and several of their family members were interested in learning more about RC.
When talking to people about RC, I find it useful not to tell them that it will be “helpful” to them or that they could “use” it or that they “need” it. I let people know how useful it is for me personally while being careful not to tell them “everything I know” or to try to “sell them” on the idea. I just say one or two things, unless they show an interest in more. I may invite them to hear me or someone else give an introductory talk. And if possible I come to the talk with them. It is useful for the people we care about to know that RC ideas are important to us, and for us to give them space to think about them, without any hint of how they would be better if they used them.
When people ask me what job I do, and I say I’m a staff counselor at Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, they always ask, “What is that?” Those of us attending the United Nations conference in Durban in 20013 practiced short responses to that type of question, and I find it helps to keep a short response in my mind. I have been asked by medical staff, a physical therapist, people at the gym or on the plane or bus, schoolmates I haven’t seen for a while, relatives, and a shoe salesman, among others. One of my most interesting short talks on RC was with the doctor and nurse while I was having a colonoscopy without anesthesia.
THE ENVIRONMENT
As I discharge about our new goal on the environment, I feel that it would be especially useful to have more and more people thinking well about all people, more and more people aware of oppression and the importance of treating people well, and more and more people using their intelligence to think about the environment. To that end, it would be important to teach RC to more and more people (to grow our Communities), so that we have more and more people thinking rationally and thus fewer irrational policies that affect our environment being enacted.
I love the discharge and re-evaluation process. I want everyone in the world to know about it and have the chance to use it. I can vividly recall my thought twenty years ago, a few hours after experiencing my first session: “This process will save the lives of me and my people.” I just knew that, and I still know that. What an incredible, joyful, wonderful opportunity we have to teach people a process that benefits humankind.
As I discharge about our new goal on the environment, I feel that it would be especially useful to have more and more people thinking well about all people, more and more people aware of oppression and the importance of treating people well, and more and more people using their intelligence to think about the environment. To that end, it would be important to teach RC to more and more people (to grow our Communities), so that we have more and more people thinking rationally and thus fewer irrational policies that affect our environment being enacted.
I love the discharge and re-evaluation process. I want everyone in the world to know about it and have the chance to use it. I can vividly recall my thought twenty years ago, a few hours after experiencing my first session: “This process will save the lives of me and my people.” I just knew that, and I still know that. What an incredible, joyful, wonderful opportunity we have to teach people a process that benefits humankind.
Marion Ouphouet
Seattle, Washington, USA
1 Tim Jackins
2 An Area is a local RC Community.
3 A group of Co-Counselors went as a United to End Racism delegation to the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, in Durban, South Africa.