Dear Friends –
Spring has finally arrived here in New England. The high holidays of Passover and Easter have come to a close and as we approach Ramadan and Diwali, I am sitting here in relief at the unfurling of something new. I’m struck by the wisdom of these holidays that arrive together every spring, like greener grass, daffodils and shorter sleeves to celebrate the daunting power of death and the resilience of life.
The collective trauma of 2020 has left me unsure of re-emergence. I’m halfinated and am not sure of what life could look like when it’s time to live out in the world again. I listened to Aiko Bethea speak about transformative cultures and was struck by her comments about grief that is a natural part of transformation and that narrative is where deep change can come from. As someone interested in the religious traditions and wisdom traditions more broadly, Bethea’s comments align with so many ideas that have helped shape generations of people who have had to navigate and remake this world time and time again.
Among many traditions and ideas, I’m returning to questions as a tool to lean on when we do not know the answers. The Passover tradition of the youngest child bringing the Four Questions at a Seder has always been inspiring in life and work. Now more than ever the poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s sentiment of living the questions seems crucial.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
Below are the questions we here at 21/64 are asking ourselves as we sit at the doorstep of a new world and as this new season arrives. We are unable to live the answers to the questions in our midst, so my hope in sharing is that you too “will live the questions now… into the answer.”
- How can I hold onto some of my new habits and prioritize them as things get busier socially?
- Do I have the courage to talk about the global and political events that took place in the past year with others who see things very differently than me?
- What things will I miss about this time?
- How will it feel to be in the same skin now with new priorities and perspective?
- As things stabilize, what do organizations/donors need to help rebuild their strategies for the long-term?
- How will we adjust to a much more dynamic world again?
- What positive learnings and skills will I want to bring into this new phase?
- What if the world is more prepared and ready for the innovations and adjustments than me?
- The human side of advising clients (privilege, wealth, race, family etc.) is a growing and a necessary need – how will advisors to multigenerational families step in?
- What will we will show up for and what will the significance of being in person be?
May you generate, hold, and live your questions,
Danielle
Danielle Oristian York
Executive Director, 21/64
April 9 2021