Reading Norma Kawelokū Wong Together
Last year, I read When No Thing Works by Norma Wong and then I read it again. The whole time I read pieces aloud to whoever would listen and then I began sending it to people as a gift (you may in fact have one from me!) It continues to be really meaningful during tough times.
Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams says about When No Thing Works: "This slim volume is an exhortation of the human spirit's potential to unwind intractable challenges of our 'collective acceleration' and a sharp knife that slices through wishful, lazy, or destructive machinations to get there."
To give you a sense of the sharp knife wielded with kindness and wisdom, here's a quote from deep in the book in a chapter about habits.
The habit called process: A deeply seated and learned habit of grownups is process. Process is simply the series of articulated actions or steps taken to move from 'here' to 'there' to achieve a particular end. Having process, knowing process, practicing process are ways for us to have order and certainty, even before we start. Process can be institutions unto themselves. We may default to process in an endless and circuitous doingness to seek order and certainty with many steps before a genuine first step. While creation is a process, there are many ways in which the habit of process keeps us from creating. As a habit, process fills the space with things to do, things to say that are often rehearsed or pro forma.
Say what now? My process(es)– you know I have many– is/are a way to keep order, for sure. But, process might also be keeping me from actually doing, creating, or leaping (as Norma suggests) with my heart into the slipstream of change (crisis, chaos?) that we can't avoid if we want to be resilient and practice leadership in this "timeplace of collapse."
Instead of habits, the book invites us instead to practices such as "the practice of clearing the deck(s)" or "the practice of climbing and standing on the hill" to try to get a view of the horizon.
In February, Norma released a second volume, Who We Are Becoming Matters. I haven't read it yet and I would like you to read it with me, along with When No Thing Works. We'll read on our own, we'll read in a group aloud to each other, and we'll make space to wonder how to practice what she offers in this timeplace.
I want to share this reading practice with others because these are books that ask for action and I believe the best action comes in community. So what do you say? If you're interested, fill out this form and we'll make some plans together.
