Page 7 - C.A.L.L. #37 - Winter 2013/2014

KALEIDOSCOPE

Certainly, one can volunteer in an area hundreds of acts one could undertake.
he or she is passionate about, so on the By focusing on one of these acts as
surface it seems to be a compatible complete evidence of care, we take a
thing, and often it is. There’s a very narrow view. Put another way, it
downside, though. Volunteerism can isn’t evidence of a lifestyle of care so
serve a similar role in the work world much as an act of care.
that recycling sometimes plays in the We all want to look good. In pursuit of
world of eco-activism. How many times this, we often publicly cultivate certain
have you heard someone say, “Oh yeah, acts, certain places in our lives where
I care about the environment, I we are living our values (or, sometimes,

recycle!” This is the case of one good living the values we think others want us
act being used as a smokescreen to to live), and then privately let ourselves
mask an otherwise unconscious life. In off the hook from looking at all the
the overall arena of environmental other areas.
responsibility, there are literally
Yalla Bye, Joel Dorkam

WORK is LOVE in ACTION

Since the age of 16, I have lived outside of the Hutterite Colony in which I was
raised. I’ve adapted to a radically different culture, one referred to by Nelson
th
Algren in his description of Chicago back in the early 20 century …“making money is
the only aim one can set oneself in a city wherein the dollar is the spiritual
denominator as well as the financial one. ” …. For it isn’t so much a city as it is a

vast way station where three and a half million [now 8 million] bipeds swarm with
the single cry, “One side or a leg off, I’m getting’ mine!” It’s every man for
himself in this hired air.
This year, inspired by the latest BBC documentary, How to get to Heaven with
Hutterites, I framed my question: Do Hutterites have anything to teach the
world? Eager to have a discussion about the communal values Hutterites have
preserved for nearly 500 years, I wrote my proposal for a session at the
International Communal Studies Association conference held at Findhorn, Scotland,
June 2013. I described my communal upbringing as a place that was”… a real,

indestructible, flesh and blood colony; a place where for better or worse, through
sickness and health, without reservation, people willingly practice what they believe
and proceed in every aspect of their life to create the ‘Kingdom of Heaven on Earth’.”
What a surprise for me when I returned from Findhorn to read the words: ‘Creating
Heaven on Earth’ on a brochure describing Findhorn.

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