Self-isolation due to Covid 19 has given me many, many—too many—hours to reflect upon my life and my legacy. At the age of 83, it does seem like a good time to be doing this.
As I look back, it is without a doubt that my greatest legacy is my three loving and accomplished daughters, Allison, Andrea and Amy. Each day they touch lives in a most positive and uplifting way. I am so proud of them. They fill my life with joy.
That part of my reflection is easy, seeing where else I may have had impact is more difficult. I can see my regrets very clearly. Two in particular jump out at me. In 1977, while I was Executive Director of a nonprofit that worked with women in jail and on probation. I saw the harm done to women and children when the abusive husband/father drove them to seek shelter elsewhere. It made no sense to me that they had to leave their home and the children had to leave their schools and friends. So, I wrote a grant to take the abuser out of the home and leave the rest of the family to live their lives in peace.
I could see the sense in this approach but unfortunately, funders did not. I even had the support of the Sheriff’s Department, judges, and a half-way program for male offenders so that the abusers could live elsewhere and continue to work. My women’s program would work with the spouse to assure there was financial support and options for her and the children. My hope was that once the abuser was out of the home, he could find the strength to change his ways or not and his spouse could make the decision to stay in the relationship or not.
Another regret is Earth Scouts. I started a national nonprofit to bring the international Earth Charter’s principles for social, economic and environmental justice into communities around the U.S. In Tampa, we launched different initiatives that used the Earth Charter as the ethical framework including in businesses and school programs. We also launched the Earth Scouts, a program for girls and boys 3 to 13 years of age with badges based on Earth Charter principles. We received grant funds to hire a middle school science teacher, who had decided to homeschool her children, to develop an Earth Charter guide for parents who wished to start a group.
Earth Scouts was a big success with home schooling parents and interest was spreading to others. We had groups started in 37 cities. We decided it was time to trademark Earth Scouts so we could have accountability for groups that formed with the name. Then, the Boy Scouts of America wrote us a cease and desist letter saying we were not allowed to use the word “Scouts”. I and my board president wanted to fight them. I could see images of David and Goliath in the press. However, an attorney on the board just did not want the fight and dissuaded the others to get involved in a battle with Boy Scouts of America. We tried to adjust by changing the name to Earth Champs but the wind went out of our sails and the struggle for funds became difficult. Damn!
It appears that once I have gotten my major regrets out of my system, I can concentrate on the positive. Co-authors Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard in The Making of a Democratic Economy: Building Prosperity for the Many, Not Just the Few describe Radical Hope. The seed for powerful change is “radical hope, formed in desperate circumstances”, a click of the mind in a single individual that brings a new way of seeing. Systems theorist Donella Meadows observed that there are many ways to shift system behavior—creating taxes, regulating bad behavior, adding incentives, bringing lawsuits, designing new structures, shifting who holds power. “Yet, the most effective place to intervene,” she wrote,”is at the level of mindset.”
It has become clear to me that I am a bringer of Radical Hope. I did that with clients in my private practice as a psychotherapist and as a community builder locally and nationally when I inspired people with the Earth Charter and a vision for a caring, peaceful and sustainable world. Today, we bring Radical Hope through our nonprofit Cultural Innovations in Action. Through video, film and social media, we document solutions for systemic change that are restructuring our economy and our society to be equitable, just and caring for all of us.
Finding a way to describe my legacy has helped me to realize that even if I have not been able to make every initiative that I have dreamed up a reality, I still am fulfilling my purpose. I intend to keep on doing it.