Prose Tile:  Live Well, 6" x 4" one of a kind wall sculpture by Tammy Vitale $22.

I post the above as a reminder to myself as a marker in the dark.

After wandering around on the blogosphere yesterday (it was one of those very unfocused days, with desparate things occuring just far enough apart that I couldn't focus before or in between), it occurs to me (and this is the first time), that most folks don't have a clue what "community-based organizer" means.  Do we clean closets?  Do we organizer garages?  No.  We do not.  We organize people.  We go into the community and talk to everyone, and then we collect like minded folks who have an issue, introduce them to each other, and talk about what they'd like to do about their issue.  Not what we, the organizer would like to do, but what they would like to do.  Organizers are accountable to the folks they organizer and to the organization for which they work.  Sometimes it is a very dicey line to keep everyone/everything going in a forward direction.  Most often it is a journey of spirals – same place, different vantage point.  Much of the time you are on the back of the spiral and don't have a clue where it's all going, but you trust that you've brought everyone to the table and they will find a way.  It is the best practice for leading a nation that I can think of.

Want to learn more (I hope you do.  Knowledge is power:  take that Sarah Palin, who herself probably hasn't a clue what community-based organizing means), here are two of the big league trainers for community based organizers (I trained with a guy who trained with Sol Alinsky who founded Industrial Areas Foundation.  I am much more inclined toward Midwest Academy, founded by Heather Boothe, with whom I have also met and had an intense conversation – it's what organizers do.  We collect groups, people and experiences).

Both of these organizations talk about Power, but to get to power, one must become empowered.  And contrary to the talk I hear on TV, I know for a fact that one person cannot empower another.  Empowerment comes only from within.  What an organizaer can do is hold a safe space where people can find their own voices and learn that their own acts do have a result.  Not responsible to anyone?  Not accountable to anyone?   But enough of that.

If you're tired of politics, try this, found on Charles County Cafe.

On another note, the The Wylde Women Award has made it to India!  And it's a recipe blog – go read and get hungry!  The Award made it to a bunch of food blogs – not good to read unless fully stuffed.

Finally, I am opening at Heron's Way Gallery this very evening.  Here are some photos of the show, including the only pictures of the glass torso that I have.

ok – I'm having a problem with links.  I'm going to save this and then come back and see if I can make them all work.

thought for the day:   … a classic Connector [i.e. an organizer]…wasn't one person with ties to many other people.  He [sic] was one person with ties to many groups, which is a small but critical distinction.  …if you wanted to bring about a fundmental change in people's belief and behavior, a change that would persist and serve as an example ot others, you needed to create a community around them, where those new beliefs could be practiced and expressed and nurtured.  Malcollm Gladwell, The tipping Point:  How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference