We will All Become Pilgrims: 2022 Newsletter Summary
By Paul Engler
Whenever I write my newsletter, I am afraid a subtle or not-so-subtle repetition will be noticed—I fear I write the same thing over and over again! Generally the theme has something to do with change, uncertainty, and transformation. In Christianity, this is called the Paschal mystery, the cycle of life, passion, death and resurrection, but the pattern is widespread, appearing in culture after culture in different forms throughout time. Richard Rohr calls it the wisdom pattern: order, disorder, reorder. The task assigned to us by life, he says, is to let go, to learn to let go of the first order, to allow and rest in the disorder, and to finally open ourselves to a new order—over and over again. My friend Carlos and the Ayni Institute talk about this as the “seasons” in our personal lives, in our organizations, and in our movements.
The same terrain can be explored through the concept of liminality. And in my Center Update, I write about the theory and practice of liminality through pilgrimages throughout many cultures, but specifically through my experience being a pilgrim on the Camino de Santigo on my recent trip to Spain. In 2022, the season of our house was one of greater stability, emerging from the winter of Coronavirus, which you can read about in our House Journal.
When it comes to where we are at within the social movements that flourished under Trump’s shocking rise to power—our season is still winter. After Trump’s fall and the election of Biden, we’re in a place where there has been a retraction in the once-flourishing social movements that I’ve followed closely and written about in many past articles. This has been a season of demobilization. Some of the largest moments of protest in US history happened in the last five years—around George Floyd’s murder, and the Women’s March. The anti-Trump resistance created all this spectacular activity, which has now, inevitably, contracted. There is also a popular understanding of midterm election backlash based on the fact that, almost without exception in the last 80 years, after the presidential election, there is an oppositional wave, and the President’s party loses seats in Congress in the midterms. This year was noteworthy just because the backlash was not as extreme as people have come to expect, even though the Democrats lost seats in the House and no longer have a majority in Congress.
This year, I also felt that many individuals like myself have been going through a personal winter, and especially many people embedded in social justice movements. So I thought I would write about one of the great lessons of liminality: rites of passage—what it means to embrace change, and become a pilgrim. It seems like where the whole world is at right now. We will all become pilgrims in the coming years.
Thanks for being our supporters for our journey as pilgrims. As I mention in my update, what makes pilgrims’ journeys possible is the support they receive from the broader culture. Other people open up their houses, feed them, and give them the space to be pilgrims. We all need that space at certain times in our lives. We all need liminality. For we all will become pilgrims. Buen Camino.
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We will All Become Pilgrims: 2022 Newsletter Summary
December 19th, 2022
By Paul Engler Whenever I write my newsletter, I am afraid a subtle or not-so-subtle repetition will be noticed—I fear I write the same thing over and over again! Generally the theme has something to do with change, uncertainty, and … Continue reading
Liminality is a Recipe for Navigating Winter: Becoming a Pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago
December 19th, 2022
Whether you’re in a midlife, quarter life, or general life crisis, the proverbial crap hits the wall. You break up with your girlfriend, your community starts falling apart, your movement dies, your organization goes bankrupt, you lose the political campaign. … Continue reading
December 19th, 2022
I’m happy to report that our community has stabilized at the Center for the Working Poor house. We haven’t had one person leave in the past year! A welcome contrast to 2021, when we had so many people come and … Continue reading
December 15th, 2021
There is a big debate among economists about a curious phenomenon unfolding right now called “The Great Resignation”. We have an immense labor shortage because people are not returning to work as the experts expected (common after a recession). There … Continue reading
2021 Center Update: Ring the Bell of Hope… Again, and Again
December 15th, 2021
This fall, in one of my first trips to visit my coworkers from the Ayni Institute in Boston, I stopped by New York City to visit one of my closest friends, Eric Stoner. And I was sitting on his couch, … Continue reading
December 15th, 2021
The Center for the Working Poor was founded in 2006, but we didn’t move into our large Victorian house until 2007. Therefore, we have been in the house for 14 years now; and throughout this time, only Paul Engler has … Continue reading
The Story of Community Counseling
December 15th, 2021
Over the last year, we have started beta groups for a new model of mutual aid counseling, called Community Counseling that has engaged dozens in weekly small group counseling practice and training. In November, I went to Boston to lead … Continue reading
2020 Center Update: Surrender and Become Attentive
December 17th, 2020
“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die …” — Ecclesiastes 3:1 “Surrender to what is dying, and become attentive to what is emerging.” — … Continue reading