The Dialogues of Catcher and Fox (3 of 3)
Civilization Anonymous
Nearing Christmas, Henry Catcher was out to get coffee down by the French Broad river, in the arts district. As he was turning the corner of the building to enter the shop, he saw a black and white paper flapping from its staple on a telephone pole.
It said: "CIVILIZATION ANONYMOUS - A NEW KIND OF 12-STEP GROUP". Beneath it was the brief description:
We admitted the social order was failing - and our lives were unmanageable.
Came to believe there was help to be found in each other that could restore us to Peace.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of one another as the best way to understanding.
Made a searching and fearless sociopolitical inventory.
Shared with the group and a trusted individual all the ways we cooperate with inequality and corruption.
Were ready to be liberated.
Humbly asked for help from within and without transcending our bondage.
Made a list of all the people and institutions infringing on my freedom and became willing to amend my relationships with them all.
Made direct amends to such people and institutions whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take a sociopolitical inventory and when I was not pursuing equality and freedom promptly admitted it.
Sought a greater clarity of connection with our fellow human beings, and gave ourselves to the process of a new shared vision of life on Earth.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we let the joy of human harmony do its magic.
At the bottom there had been address-and-call tabs, but to Henry's shock, they were all ripped off. As he turned towards the door he saw a middle-aged man stapling up another of the 12-step flyers. As Henry watched, the man looked up proudly at the sheet he had just stapled, then ripped off each and every address-and-call tab, pocketing them. The guy turned around chuckling. By this point, Henry was hardly surprised as he looked into the grinning face of Jack Fox.
HENRY:
Well, we might as well get coffee.
JACK:
Goddamned right! It's cold as hell out here. On our way, tell me what you are working on.
HENRY:
Hard to say, I feel caught between everything. I resonate a lot with your Civilization Anonymous idea, even if it's just art for you now.
I wonder if it would work. In any case, nothing else is working for me right now. I'm just starting to realize how insane our political and social systems are. Most existing volunteer organizations are either explicitly political and in-group, or entirely avoid the socio-political issues.
There needs to be a place where people can sort out their own complicity in our systems, and begin to feel a more healing community where they can sort out how to change things in their own lives. Right now there's no wisdom community existing around these issues.
I wonder if those 12 steps and a community could work. You know in AA they say that an AA group is formed whenever two alcoholics get together and work the steps. I feel like I'm just waking up to the fact that I'm an alcoholic. I don't believe I've had a socio-political awakening. Do you? Maybe if we try this thing and it works we can share it.
JACK:
Yes, I very much feel I’ve taken those 12 steps. Like an alcoholic I continue to work on them.
HENRY:
Ok well how about we get to work on steps 1 through 3. This feels right for me.
JACK:
Are you asking me to sponsor you? I’m not entirely sure if you’re taking this idea too seriously. Or are you interested in a more detached discussion of the steps’ theology? An important distinction to make.
HENRY:
I’m interested in personally trying out these steps and what they might mean in reality. I didn’t ask you to sponsor me just now because I felt you wouldn’t be interested. So I want to to work the steps and ask you about your history with their content as I go along.
JACK:
I get it. Ok. In AA step one is a bottom state of misery. Step one for this is not that. In a way I got to step one in this after the AA steps. For that reason, one does not need a sponsor but merely a companion.
HENRY:
I like that idea. Also less hierarchical. Companion.
[Both walk into the coffee shop. Frost and light fills the windows out with a cheery glow. A holiday wreath bumps up and down against the door in the cold wind, down by the French Broad river.]
THE NEXT ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND AT:
Maps-app Coordinates: HCWX+54P Asheville, NC
Hint: “taking root”
If you are interested in this work and would like to help form an Asheville community of spiritually motivated artists and philosophers disconnected from private economic motive, contact kramerflesmih@yahoo.com