The Divine Spark - News from the Sunnyside

This is it!
After this episode, there will be two weeks left until our friend Pastor Neil heads into retirement.

Enjoy the gems. 
It's been one hell of a ride. 

As Pastor Neil heads into retirement in June,
Kenny and Pastor Neil will examine his journey that brought him to the present and his gems of optimism for the road ahead. 

As Pastor Neil heads into retirement in June,
Kenny and Pastor Neil will examine his journey that brought him to the present and his gems of optimism for the road ahead.

Questions of the week:
-What is a "built in forgetter?"
-What are consistent strategies you used to solve problems?
-What is the advice you'd give to upcoming leaders from the experience you've had?
-How do you differentiate a person from being a leader and a person that just wants to be part of the action?
-When does a leader get to take it easy?
-What would you want to see as a leader of a political movement?

Gems of the week:
- "A 'built in forgetter' is a critical survival mechanism. If we carried the burden of all our troubles & sorrows all the time, it would break us, so we've been given this miraculous gift of getting up every morning anew."
-"[Strategies to solve problems are] go with a goal or formulate a goal if there isn't one,
simplify the situation, listen to everybody before making any decision..."
-"[The advice I'd give upcoming leaders are]
1st - set aside grandiosity,  the best leaders are servants;
2nd - you have to have some kind of goal or vision, you have to know where you want to end up; 
3rd - do it because you know HOW to do it; be honest with yourself;
4th - be prepared to have a target on your back;
5th - get training;
6th - practice.
-"...part of it involves knowing how to cut your losses,; not trying to be a leader for everything;
be the leader with the people who are sympatico with you."
-"I learned it's ok to let people mess up, because its not about being a perfectionist. If there is a way to say beforehand - 'hey do you feel supported & if you don't can you vocalize that and communicate what's on your mind, and how we can provide better support.'
That has been effective..."
-"I learned  why people accept the leadership of others, most people don't want to be leaders. They just don't want to expend the energy, be that vulnerable, put themselves out that much, don't want to be responsible when things go wrong. Even some that say they do, they just want to get close the action but that's not the same thing."
-"The leader is the only person in the room who is actually willing to take responsibility when things go wrong. Period. That's it. You will find that such persons are few and far between
and most people are no where to be found. When things go left, the leader is the one who not only accepts responsibility but has the ideas, the courage, the willingness to step up front and deal with the problem and make a good outcome. The person who can do that again and again and again...that's somebody who is leading."
-"Practice spending time alone where there is no body around to make demands on you
because people will once they realize once they can. Once they realize that you are effective as a leader, they will make more and more demands. They just know you can do it. It's really that simple."
-"To know that in my life I had to lead and feeling at times I had no one to talk to, or no one could relate, or whatever story I told myself or whatever reality was there...now with therapy
at least I can tell myself, I know that I have someone that provides an outlet where I can just let go."
-"[For a leader in a political movement] I'd  want to see someone that has real ideas that are achievable; the ability to express those ideas clearly and forcefully; express themselves in a way that is appealing to a lot of people; I'd be convinced that this person is doing this because he/she is called to do it, they feel compelled or called to lead."
-"[We tend to think about] how we can have these projections SHOULD happen, when things COULD'VE happen in the past or future. Sometimes things happen at the time they're supposed to happen. It's that sense of divine timing."

As Pastor Neil heads into retirement in June,
Kenny and Pastor Neil will examine his journey that brought him to the present and his gems of optimism for the road ahead.

Questions of the week:
-"You speak about stepping away from the noise and the chance to speak... truth as it comes to you, how do you keep yourself open to that?"
-"[What about ] those times when there has been that blockage that has not allowed you to be present, what are techniques you've used?
-"What is it to live the life of the spirit? What does that entail?"
-"Are there techniques that you used to tap into the spirit within you?"
-"How do you keep yourself in tune with the spirit now that you are going to retire?"

Gems of the week:
-"When I had turned 40, I had not achieved any of my goals, I wasn't a rock and roll star or top tier academic or any of those things. I basically felt like my life was over, all achievement side of my life was over. It has been a transcendent gift to have had this opportunity in my 60s to lead...it's just been a redemption for me."
-"...my father and grandfather are paying attention saying "look man whatever you did or didn't accomplish in Sunnyside, you had the chance to... say what you feel, what you believe, and express that spirit you have been given."
-"All it's really about is showing up. It's such a huge part of life. Go on and confront it, show up.  At least you stepped in the ring."
-"First thing is conscience. Your conscience is the... spirit inside. We all hear that voice. We get adept at ignoring it. The goal is to live by conscience alone. That is an act of faith. I would also say that you will find as you begin to focus more on...how you interact the world, you're not going to be kind all the time. The goal is to be morally consistent. All those things are about opening us up..."
-"God enters the broken heart. Only the broken heart can open wide enough to let God in. We have to become willing to allow ourselves to be broken-hearted."
-"God resides in our subconscious. The subconscious, at some certain point, touches the divine. What we want to do go a little past that so that we are be in touch with what William James calls the further shore...on the further shore, there is something more. Being in touch with that something more is the work of a lifetime."
-"Doing that is changing the way that we experience the world in our selves so we're not letting things getting filtered through our preconceptions & biases & all the things we do or don't know."
-"We forget how easy it is to connect with the... spirit. We assume it's going to be hard but God is there all the time, reaching out and trying to connect with us. Everybody has it in them. You know when they're doing right and doing wrong. Every time we do it right, our heart opens up a little wider."
-"What I envision [when I retire] ...is another new life. It's kind of poetic that it starts at the beginning of a decade. I intend to do the other side of the spiritual-
spend some time by myself...Doing stuff without any pressure of deadline or production..."
-"The other side of the spiritual life is being in the community and being of service
in a truly caring way and understanding all the implications of that. The other side is self-development."
-"[Karl] Marx envisioned a society where everybody would have the opportunity to develop their gifts freely. What a vision."
-"Moral consistency is when you apply the same standard of ethics to yourself and to others."


Honorable Mentions:
- Desmond Margetson!
Above is a NY Times piece about Desmond Margetson, Pastor Neil's pops.

"I firmly believe that we can achieve almost whatever we want to achieve.

First, we have to decide to do it.

A lot of us fail in that first step. We don't really want to commit. We want to spin a wheel - should I pick this career? Or that goal? Or this, this, no let me do some of this and some of that!

They don't want to commit!"

Be clear with your intentions. Create the discipline to manifest them. Go.



 

"I've had it good.
I've had a great life.
I didn't get as far as I wanted to. 
Ya know."

"It's not done."

"I did everything I wanted to do."

"Of course, that's what life should be."

"Yeah and you know somebody said, somebody I really respect... said 'the important thing is to collect experience[s]. Collecting money and objects is pointless. It's collecting experiences, that's life." 

"100%. That's it right there because you can be anywhere and have these thoughts about your experiences - travel experiences, love experiences. You have a story. That to me is life. That's the abundance of life when you're able to hit a point where you've done everything."

"Even if I failed, I failed up. That's what I have in my head now. I just fail up. I'm not scared to fail because I know this path that I've been in, I just been failing up." 

"Every time I thought it was rock bottom - 'welp, i cant get lower than this!' [I told myself] all I can do is go up."

"That's how i view failures. I do want to succeed in my tasks. I'm also conscious that failing might be just the lesson as well.  It just doesn't define me." 

Rest in Power DMX.
Rest in Power George Floyd.

"As a Minnesota resident who's grandparents who were also raised here you would think that I'd be celebrating but instead I am going to rest and restore.
See we have to fix the root of the problem in which ever lane best suits us.
Mine is mental health and healing justice.

I affirm you that its ok to be excited but still know a lot of work needs to be done. It's also ok to be sad for all the others who have yet to receive justice.

Rest and recharge liberators. You deserve that."
-@thebrettina

"Stay positive.
It's really about pushing the ball a bit further up the hill.
Onward and upward.
Spring is here.
It's a gorgeous day outside.
Get outside, appreciate nature."
-Pastor Neil

As the country waits on the verdict in Minneapolis, this mini-episode clip comes to mind.  
No matter what happens, we ask  - what does a redeemed world look like to you?

“What’s important to me is leaving behind the message of what change can look like. Not just fighting for it, what does the redeemed world look like? If we win, what world are we going to make?"

“The truest revolution is within you." 

First of all, Rest in Power Daunte Wright. 

"The society and the culture is bankrupt.
We need to find a new way. "

As Pastor Neil heads into retirement in June,
Kenny and Pastor Neil will examine his journey that brought him to the present and his gems of optimism for the road ahead.

Questions of the week:
-What's the music that spoke to you during your teen years?
-What do you think about the theory "culture of poverty"?
-What is a productive way to do the work in communities being from the outside?
-Who were those historical figures when you were a child that you looked up to?
-Where there any historical figures that you read about that made you question [things]?

Gems of the week:
-"On a spiritual level, [it's] about breaking through the barrier of the self."
-"Communication in the deepest sense is a breaching of the wall that holds each of us hostage behind our own eyes."
-"[The professor was a white guy.]  [I told him] "this is not something like you understand." He said "I've worked in Latin America and worked with poor people."
I said "Look I don't think you can say - you have been personally damaged by the system,
you are a person who benefits from the system. I'm a person who has to confront the system in a different way and has in fact been assaulted in various ways - personal and political. I don't think you're qualified to argue with me about this."
-"[It] never works with those folks that come into any community with pre-conceptions to  "what is going to be helpful."  Even their efforts to solicit suggestions from others, from the people they want to help, doesn't work either because ultimately they are being condescending. Because in their hearts they do feel superior. They may deny to your face, they may deny it to their own mirror's reflection. The fact of the matter is
that they believe themselves in being superior. That will never allow them to actually give somebody else the opportunity to do something for themselves."
-"We spoke about it - so many things would be done effectively if there was no credit to give. You just do it."
-"More so than that what I loved about Malcolm [X] is that he wrote about
self-empowerment. There was that theme there. You don't need to beg. The point is to be empowered and have a sustainable living."
-"He's part of a national organizing group - Industrial Areas Foundation - they go to a community...they get people in the community & organize around leaders. The [leaders] pick specific issues that are significant to that community. Strategy involves giving people a taste of victory. You go over something small such as a speed bump near a school. If you get that, it's something you can celebrate. You try to cultivate leaders."
-"The organizer really really tries to stay in the backburner. His or her name is never used in any publicity releases. You really have to self effacing to do the work. There is something pretty spiritual about that. That takes a special type of person to make that his/her career."
-"It was something I believed in because I knew it was right not because I felt indoctrinated. I never rebelled against progressive ideas because I know they're right."
-"The struggle ends when the gratitude begins."

Honorable Mentions:
Tom Rush
Jimi Hendrix - Freedom
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
2pac - Changes
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Walter Isaacson
Woody Guthrie