Hi Friend,

When confronted with a system/context that feels like it is falling apart/wildly flailing, returning to its origins and trying to see if there is something there that one can draw upon to understand and shift the contemporary moment is immensely helpful.

For example: democracy.

I'm really excited about next week's Fourth of July online conversation about the origins of democracy that I'm co-hosting with Indigenous peacekeeper Kristine Hill and Prof. Montgomery Hill, who teaches Indigenous studies, especially linguistics, at the University of Buffalo, and is a Longhouse Speaker. Both of them have given a lot of thought to their own spiritual/political/cultural tradition as members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and how it relates to the roots of democracy.

It feels particularly important - and in some respects quite challenging - to have this cross-cultural conversation during an election year.

To be honest, I've come to dread and despise the American presidential election cycle. Which, considering that I grew up with a deep love of democracy and spent quite a fair amount of my time in my 20s volunteering and professionally working on campaigns to Get Out The Vote in swing states for presidential elections, is a significant shift. Which has been going on, for me, for at least the last 8 years. Last night's debate didn't help matters.

Before going any further, it is worth saying a few basic things about this particular election season that’s not really about next Thursday’s conversation.

👉 If you are a religious/spiritual leader and you have not started talking with your colleagues about how you are going to engage with this upcoming election cycle, you need to do so now-ish.

I know that for some of you, that's a real no-brainer - you are on it, you have been talking/organizing with your friends and colleagues for months/years/decades and you will continue to do so. And for others... you are not used to finding ways to intersect politics and your (sometimes burgeoning) eco-spirituality. Well. If you want to talk to me about it, including about how to talk about it, just let me know.

👉 We are in the midst of some serious culture-wars. One of my favorite podcasts about this is from BBC Sounds - "Things Fell Apart" by Jon Ronson. Another BBC Sounds podcast I found really helpful was "The Coming Storm" - it digs into QAnon conspiracy theories and the lead-up to the Jan 6 plot (including some fascinating references to the great European Witchunts). And both of those podcasts are really just scratching the surface of the complex dynamics at play.

👉 This conversation is not just about America. I don't just mean 'what happens in America influences the world' - which it certainly does. I mean that the bigger trends are happening all over the place, and for a lot of the same historical reasons and contemporary trends.

In this context, there are a lot of dualities and either/or thinking.

And there is a lot of 'settler' thinking - assumptions that we have to stay in the system that got us here because that's what we are used to, and we need to make sure someone doesn't 'take it away from us' or 'make things worse.'

Most people don't even realize the extent to which our contemporary conversations about the future of democracy are deeply, deeply settler-colonial conversations. That's cuz they don't realize the truth about democracy's past. (And I'm not talking here about inequality and inequity - that's frequently discussed.)

💫💫💫

Krissy, Prof Hill, and myself did a version of this conversation last year and it was really amazing. It feels a bit different this year... not least because the overarching anxiety about the future of America and the world is really, really high.

This conversation is not about contemporary politics. We are not going to get into the current candidates and how appalling they are (or are not, depending on your perspective).

We are engaging with something that's way more radical.

Re-imagining the origins of democracy is not about 'who wins what'. I'm talking about how we are imagining democracy itself.

And sometimes, in moments like this, imagining something different but potentially positive can feel hard. It feels much easier to imagine (further/another) apocalypse. More doom and gloom.

I'm pretty good at doom and gloom, so, I get how easy it is to 'go there'.

Which is not what this conversation is about, either.

There are not a lot of spaces right now that are offering something special for Fourth of July that actually engages with these histories.

There are not a lot of spaces that are talking about democracy in a global way that is not focused on election cycles. Especially ones that highlight these particular histories, histories long held by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and other communities.

There are not a lot of spaces that embrace nuance, complexity, and getting to deeper truths about where we come from... that are keeping that 'envelope of possibility' open.

This is one such space.

Please do join us.

And if you really want to be part of this conversation but you are totally booked on the Fourth of July, please let me know.