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How to Build Bridges During Polarized Times
BY MARK FORMAN
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
July 5, 2017

Regardless of your political or cultural orientation, it’s hard to overlook the fact that our country is in the midst of almost unprecedented polarization. Heather Johnson has been wrestling with that challenge. As the executive director of the Whidbey Institute, she says, “It’s difficult to maintain equilibrium with the intensity of vitriol at every level of society.” Johnson addresses this polarization by striving to hold a larger perspective. For her, the question is: “How do we grow our capacity to respond? How do we mature ourselves to become people who can see and understand things differently?”

A graduate of Pacific Integral’s Generating Transformative Change leadership program, Johnson also has a bachelor’s degree in finance. This breadth of background and skills is well-suited to a position that demands pragmatic, as well as visionary, talents. In fact, even as she applies herself to the tough work of leading an organization that aspires to nurture community at a time when so many of us seem to be talking past one another, a major part of her focus is on a capital campaign that seeks to add significant new housing to the institute and support other key initiatives.

Later this month, on July 22, a groundbreaking ceremony will officially kick off the first phase of the housing portion of the campaign. That’s the pragmatic part of Johnson’s contribution to the stewardship of the institute. The visionary component, though, is guided by her desire to shift the frames through which we navigate our social conflict. She says she’d like to encourage people to “step back from saying ‘we’re failing to do this right’ and rather to ask ‘what are possible deeper purposes for all of this?’”

Heather Johnson speaking at the Whidbey Institute (Photo courtesy of the Whidbey Institute)

She adds, “I don’t proclaim to know what those purposes are. I do know that we have a lot of learning, a lot of growth to do. And we’re being presented—in really big ways—with the deep chasms between who we are as human beings now and who we’re being called to become.”

Johnson believes that we’re being asked to recognize that our development as human beings is ongoing: “Growing up” is an endless process. And that there is a simplicity on the other side of the complexity we feel ourselves swimming in; a simplicity that lives at the core of our inheritance of global wisdom traditions.

Through technology and the proliferation of media outlets, we inhabit worlds that are more and more insular. Because they’re filled with like-minded people, they can feed polarization. “There is a subtle pattern arising when ‘like-minded’ people come together, learn together, and find solace with one another,” Johnson says. “It can grow into a crusade mindset or the belief that the answer to the problem is to indoctrinate the other into the right shared ideology.”

Johnson participates in a creative exercise during a Salish Sea Bioneers Conference at the Whidbey Institute. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Institute)

As executive director of an organization committed to catalyzing positive change, Johnson is sensitive to the potential traps that can lie in that work. One of her goals is to invite people beyond a mindset of “If they’d be different, we’d be OK, and the job—the positive change work—is for us, with our ‘right’ idea, to go and indoctrinate them with our right idea.”

At the heart of the Whidbey Institute campus is Thomas Berry Hall. Though the institute’s work is not about Berry’s teachings in particular, his work holds an important anchor for its focus. Thomas Berry was a Catholic priest, a cultural historian, and ecotheologian. One of his quotes has been a particular inspiration for Johnson: “The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.”

To Johnson, the approach of indoctrinating others with the right idea represents a “collection-of-objects” mindset. As she puts it, “If we are trying to change the world in a positive way through engaging with others as objects to fix, we’re inherently in our own way.” This is a concern she expressed as early as August 2015, when she moved from program and associate director to executive director.

Johnson brings a group together by ringing the Chinook Bell in the Thomas Berry Hall Courtyard. (Photo by Mercia Moseley)

In an open letter to the Whidbey Institute community, she wrote about constructs, defining them as: “The meaning-making structures in which we are steeped—cultural, racial, religious, familial, generational—which allow us to see the world and our place in it in unique ways.” Although constructs are important for those reasons, she pointed to the risk that they “can also make us blind to perspectives beyond our own. We are all, to some degree, in over our heads, doing our best to navigate being human in a changing world.”

Johnson’s letter from two years ago has even greater relevance today. As she engages with people in a world that has become even more polarized since then, she sums up the challenges in an elegantly simple way. “It’s about how do we do this together, how do we actually recognize that, on this planet, we are all in this together—that it’s a reality, and then: How do we behave that way?”

Sarah Sullivan, left, carries her child alongside Johnson during a community event at the Whidbey Institute. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Institute)

Tips for building bridges
- Try on their perspective. When you feel yourself reacting to another, as difficult as it may be, try to imagine what it is like to live as them. What is it like to wake up as them in the morning? To live your days walking around in their reality? To face the challenges they face? To have the opportunities they have?
- Listen for what others hold important. Behind the specifics of what others are expressing, be curious: What are the values that inform their position? What do they care about? And why?
- Focus on what you share. What do you both hold dear? What motivates care and commitment in each of you?
- Make a choice to build relationship. Particularly in this time, it can feel much more important to be right than to build relationship. Taking these steps asks us to make a choice to not turn the other into an object that needs to be corrected or protected against, but to see another as a human being, a person, with inherent dignity.
Recommended Reading
- “Breaking Through Gridlock: The Power of Conversation in a Polarized World” by Jason Jay and Gabriel Grant
- “Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict” by the Arbinger Institute
- “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” by Jonathan Haidt
Mark Forman is a filmmaker and writer who moved to Whidbey Island with his wife Kathleen Secrest in 2015. Mark’s favorite projects include: “The King of the Hobos,” a film portrait of Steam Train Maury Graham, which aired on PBS at the beginning of Mark’s career; a promotional video for La Romita School of Art in the Umbrian region of Italy filmed in 2008; and a fund-raising video that he and Kathleen produced this fall as a donation to the Whidbey Institute.

Read the other stories published this week
- Minding the Sky: Coming to Fruition
- Sailing Back In Time: Recalling Whidbey’s Maritime Heritage
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July 5, 2017
Common People Doing Uncommon Work for the Common Good
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
March 22, 2017

International social artist Tannur Ali performs. A powerful line from one of her poems: “Our babies weren’t made in vain.” (Photo by David Welton)

There are people who see problems in their communities and say, “Somebody should DO something about that!” And then there are people who roll up their sleeves and come up with solutions. The sixth annual Thriving Communities gathering at the Whidbey Institute last week was a celebration of problem-solvers who prove that community needs are best met by community members themselves.

The theme this year was “Communities Poised on the Edge” and featured films and speakers addressing issues such as affordable housing, food security, local investing, diversity, mentoring new mothers, supporting people in their healing, and aging in place. In between presentations, guests were treated to performances by Tannur Ali, a powerful and distinctive social artistry poet who founded iLogic (Institute for the Love of Genius in Communities).

Thriving Communities’ new films highlighted the Organic Farm School, Mother Mentors, and Healing Circles on South Whidbey, along with Portland entrepreneur, Franklin Jones’ B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery, a robust sustainable delivery service that has found a growing niche.

Judy Feldman, executive director of the Organic Farm School, talked about the need to teach farmers how to survive and thrive. She recalled when the program was on the edge: when grants ran out and land used for the classroom was no longer available. Thriving Communities’ Jerry Millhon connected her with Ron Sher, founder and CEO of Sher Partners, a family real estate and investment firm known for Third Place Books. Sher happens to own land in the Maxwelton Valley that became the home of the Organic Farm School.

“After each wall we hit, I asked if we were still relevant,” Feldman said. “Thanks to Ron and Eva, and to Jerry, who did a video on us, now we have a phenomenal place and an eight-month-long program.”

https://vimeo.com/207933014

Thriving Communities is shepherded by Jerry Millhon, former director of the Whidbey Institute. A beloved elvish-like grandfather figure, Millhon connects those who have needs with those who can help.

“The thing that we do best is find people (usually women) in communities that see a need and fill that need with the work they do,” says Millhon. “The story that is important is how they have used community capital (not financial capital) to bring a passion into fruition. And that is the story that opens up others to copy that in other communities. We think there are about 45 to 50 community members who have copied some aspect of the work and rooted it in their own community.”

Jerry Millhon, right, left his post as executive director at the Whidbey Institute to shepherd Thriving Communities. (Photo courtesy of the Whidbey Institute)

In addition to the Organic Farm School, the following organizations presented.

Healing Circles in Langley was created by Diana and Kelly Lindsay and is associated with Commonweal Cancer Help Program, a national leader in cancer support. It provides low- to no-cost service that offers a safe sanctuary, social support, classes and conversation on a variety of topics from care for caregivers to a book group devoted to reading “A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as if It Were Your Last,” by Stephen and Ondrea Levine. “We are a lab whose idea is spreading across the country,” Diana Lindsay says.

Mother Mentors of Whidbey Island was founded in 2009 by Kristin Lasher, a grandmother who saw the need for mothers to find ways out of isolation and connect with other moms and their children. Providing mentoring for moms and Playscape programs for children, the program has expanded to Oak Harbor. “Parents can have adult conversations, get their basic needs of support met, and learn the basic knowledge of parenting,” says Kate Grossman McVay, executive director for Mother Mentors.

Other presenters included:
- Rhea Miller, of the Lopez Community Land Trust, and Bonnie Myer, of Thriving Communities in the San Francisco Bay area, who spoke about affordable housing.
- Lynn Willeford, of South Whidbey at Home, and Rob Queisser, of Circle of Life Caregiver Cooperative in Bellingham, who spoke about aging in place.
Lynn Willeford, front, a ‘serial starter-upper’ talked about her latest project, South Whidbey at Home. She sits with Pam Schell, of the Inn at Langley, who is active in providing support for community non-profits. (Photo by David Welton)
- Judy Alexander, of 2020 in Port Townsend, and Katie Raines, of GRuB in Olympia, who spoke about food security.
- Steve Shapiro, of Whidbey Island Local Lending (WILL), who spoke about local investing.
- Andrea Caupain, of Centerstone in Seattle, and Victoria Santos, of Young Women Empowered, also in Seattle, who spoke about the challenges and opportunities in communities of diversity.
Katie Raines, executive director of Olympia’s GRuB, talks about the community-creating, farm and food program. (Photo by David Welton)
- Mauri Ingram, of Whatcom Community Foundation, who spoke about community development.
- Caroline Cumming and director Heather Dew Oaksen, who showed the film “Minor Differences.”
- Social inventor Jeff Golden, who discussed Immense Possibilities, a series of videos that focus on what works.
- Mary Omollo, who spoke about women’s empowerment.
Year by year, the Thriving Communities gathering yields more videos and stories about inspirational organizations that bring healing and resilience to their communities. It showcases the best in us — inspiring the rest of us.

Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley Library until last June when she retired. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island, where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with her superhero friend Fred Bixby.

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March 22, 2017
Blog as Classroom—Retired Professor Urges Us to Look Deeply into Nature
BY JUDY FELDMAN
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
September 21, 2016

If you aren’t listening closely, a conversation with Johnny Palka, neurobiologist, retired professor, former board member of the Whidbey Institute and numerous other Whidbey Island non-profits, might lead to you believe he’s a bundle of walking contradictions.
- He loves living in the Pacific Northwest, but he lives half the time in Minnesota.
- He was drawn to become a neurobiologist to understand the building blocks of life. And, yet, as he dug below the surface of the parts, he developed a passion for the interconnectedness that makes everything work.
- He taught at the University of Washington for 35 years. There he made a practice of tightly following his syllabus for each course out of respect for his students. At the same time, he regularly tasked them with reading emerging original research that became accessible along an unplanned timeline; he wanted them to embrace new information as part of their learning experience.
- Though a biologist, he wrote an intensely researched book about his home country of Slovakia. (Johnny is a two-time refugee, arriving in the United States in 1941 after escaping from Hitler, and again in 1949 after escaping from Stalin.) In this book he explored Slovakia’s social, cultural and political history while telling a deeply personal story about his own family and the major contributions they made to Slovak history. (The American edition came out in 2012. You can find out about it at http://www.jpalka.com.)
A Rhododrendron in the aptly-named Rhododendron State Park on Whidbey (photo by Johnny Palka)

Now Johnny is returning to biology and writing a blog called Nature’s Depths (http://www.naturesdepths.com). The goal of the blog is to inspire people to use personal experience coupled with scientific understanding to connect ever more deeply with the fullness of the natural world. This blog might turn into another book— but maybe not.

If you listen to Palka over the course of a full conversation, you begin to see that the seemingly antithetical pairs reflect how his approach to understanding life is deeply integrated, and why a blog is part of his reality for the time being.

“My career as a neurobiologist and a professor led me to believe that a thoughtful focus on the building blocks of nature, and on their functions, can lead individuals to an awareness of connections,” he said. “I want to communicate the interplay between reductionism (a study of parts) and holism (a study of systems). But most of all, I want my photos and writing to offer a bridge—a means for a non-scientific audience to actively experience the science of the world in which they live.

“When I launched Nature’s Depths last November, my plan was to do a post every two weeks for a year and then assess whether to try to convert the collected pieces into a book,” Palka continued. “At this point, more than halfway through the timeline, I’m still thinking about it. There might be a book if a publisher is interested in it. Otherwise I am finding that writing a blog is very satisfying, and the feedback has been very encouraging.”

The wording of his posts consistently reflects his philosophy:

“Each living being is an individual at the same time that it is a member of a species, a population, and an ecosystem.”

A Wilbert Swamp Lantern found in South Whidbey State Park (photo by Johnny Palka)

“Flowers are what they are. Humanity breeds many varieties of flowers to make them…more affecting to us, but they are nature’s creation, not our own. It seems only right that we should examine them closely on their own terms.”

“How is it that the shoot of a plant typically grows upward, the root grows downward, and the branches grow sideways?”

Examples of topics he has addressed include: what is the origin of the colors of flowers, leaves and the blue sky; how photosynthesis transforms the energy of sunlight into sugars; why trees in northern climates don’t freeze to death in bitter winters; and even such broad questions as what is life.

Palka’s word choices accentuate his approach. If you read multiple posts that he’s written, including those in the archives, you’ll see a pattern of very open language. He asks his readers to “visualize.” He walks them through explanations of complex biological processes and then asks them to reflect on their own experiences in nature. His writing is not spiritual in focus, but it might have you examining your understanding of life and spirit.

Possibly, as yet another example of a contradiction that is not one, he sets a gentle, yet rigorous tone of observation and research before judgment. He asks humans to not anthropomorphize plants but, instead, to look deeply at them as a way to appreciate the attributes we share and the many differences between us, as a way to recognize and respect the full spectrum of life.

Johnny Palka (photo courtesy of the author)

Palka’s blog is such a consistent reflection of the man that, as you read it, you can hear him speaking to you. You can imagine sitting across from him; his chin is tucked slightly down toward his chest so his eyes look up at you, as if you’re positioned higher than him—classic body language to put you at ease. And yet the resulting gaze implores you to set aside your assumptions, observe and THINK.

We, here on Whidbey, are surrounded, more noticeably than most, by a gorgeous and relatively healthy ecosystem. In offering us his blog, Johnny Palka reminds us that we are not only a beneficiary of that ecosystem. We are an inseparable part of it.

Judy Feldman, E.D. of the Organic Farm School, is an observer of systems, a weaver of complexity, and a huge fan of farms and farmers.She also enjoys looking for beauty in unexpected places.

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September 21, 2016
Drinking in the View

BY SHARON BETCHER
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
May 18, 2016

On the island, water can seem mesmerizingly ubiquitous. We drink in the view from every possible angle. But drinking in the aqueous view can deceive us. Despite the water that stretches to the horizon in every direction, we actually have a limited supply of fresh drinking water, and that supply is intimately related to our habits—from where we build our homes to how our excretes percolate through the soil and reenter the groundwater. Because residents like to inch up to the Island’s shores to get the best view, and because seas are rising due to climate change, our aquifers are increasingly threatened by saltwater intrusion.

Sunrise over the Saratoga Passage (photo by Susan Scott)

What is the source of our drinking water?

The lead-tainted, public water crisis in Flint, Michigan has made drinking water a pervasive concern—even here on Whidbey Island. Increasingly, citizens want to know where their drinking water comes from.

On the north end of Whidbey Island, water is piped over from the Skagit River to serve residents of Oak Harbor and Naval-Air Station Whidbey Island. Potable water for residents of the north end is vulnerable to aging infrastructure (and a lack of monies for its replacement) as well as cataclysmic events, like “the Big One,” which could suddenly disrupt the supply. Deception Pass Bridge will, in fact, be closed for a stretch in the fall in order to service the water pipes attached to the bridge’s underbelly.

Islanders of South and Central Whidbey—whether residents of a village, like Langley, or individuals drawing from one of the 6,000 private wells—share a common, naturally occurring reservoir. While hydrologists speak of multiple aquifers, in fact these aquifers fit together like cells in a contact lens floating on a bed of seawater. Critically, this is “a sole source” aquifer. That means our drinking (“potable”) water supply is replenished (“recharged”) by a single source—namely, rain, assuming its ability to percolate through the soils before running back to the shorelines. In other words, Central and South islanders have no access to fresh water apart from this combined, multi-cellular aquifer. This natural reservoir—limited in terms of what can be pumped out before seawater rushes in, and vulnerable to the demands that each of us bring to it—is what makes Whidbey Island habitable.

Rain is the “sole source” for replenishing aquifers on Whidbey. (Photo by Susan Scott)

Is our drinking water supply vulnerable?

Ninety percent of the wells on the southern end of the island are sunk in the sea level aquifer. As we enter the age of climate change, this places the potable water supplies of Island County—especially given our many miles of shorelines—at risk. Island County is one of two coastal communities of Western Washington considered particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise and has been included in a federally-funded coastal resilience project backed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Even apart from climate change, monitoring the balance between freshwater recharge and water usage is, on the island, the first order of business. On Whidbey, domestic use constitutes the major freshwater draw, and up to 50 percent of that draw may be for landscape use. If the pressure in an aquifer is lowered by pumping more water for surface use than percolates back into the aquifer, the aquifer may, because of the vacuum created, infill with seawater.

Illustration of a well relative to Sea Level (from website: https://althealai.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/groundwater/ )

That our drinking water has but one source of replenishment already hints at a second vulnerability: the rains must find their way back through the soils before running off into the Sound. Human interruption of this slow drip-drop of rains through the diversity of soils—the construction of hard surfaces like roadways, the removal of trees that hold back water, the in-filling of wetlands that serve as a natural filtration system—impedes the recharge of the aquifer. While Island County is served by the Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC), a panel of 12 citizens from across the county, the intersection of the dynamics of water with property rights is a thorny nexus for us as citizens and thus for the County.

Wetlands as critical filters for water seeping back into the aquifer. (Photo by Jamie Whitaker)

Another aspect of the water cycle is the management of human waste. Seventy-two percent of Whidbey Island residents utilize septic systems for waste disposal. These on-site systems depend on soil filtration to purify water. All such systems allow nitrates into groundwater. (A buildup of nitrates in the human body adversely affects the ability of blood cells to carry oxygen.) When a septic system remains unmanaged—an undetected crack in a storage tank, an overfull tank—the situation worsens.

While major cities are designing septic systems to deal with the pharmaceuticals we humans move through our bodies, drainage fields cannot modulate excreted drugs, which eventually find their way into Puget Sound and affect marine life. Might we think towards a regional water district that could include more refined management of our effluents?

Citizenship Habits and Your Watershed

Every one of us may, after Flint, admit to a wish to return to innocence. And it’s tempting to believe we live on an island utopia. In fact, if we want to maintain this island as a sanctuary that includes humans, we each need to accept the responsibility to know about our water—its source, its vulnerabilities, and how our habits affect it. John Lovie, one of South Whidbey’s representatives to Island County’s WRAC, urges each of us to:

1. Know the source of your drinking water.

a. If you are part of a community-based water system, like Sun Vista/Sunlight Beach HOA, go to your public meeting. Prepare for your meeting by going to the state Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP), which maintains an on-line map of all public water system wells (https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/SWAP/index.html). Next, physically get that wellhead in your sights. Now observe, what’s uphill from your well? That knowledge will give you some sense of potential contaminants. Then ask, Where is sea level compared to the depth of your well?
b. If you are on a private well, know the depth of your well and the age of your pump. To find the depth of most private wells, go to the state’s well log website: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/waterresources/map/WCLSWebMap/WellConstructionMapSearch.aspx. To find the depth of your well compared to sea level, first find the approximate elevation of your property on GoogleEarth. This elevation minus the depth of your well gives you the elevation of the bottom of your well.

2. Know your water quality.

a. If you are part of a public water system, look up your water quality report at the Washington State Department of Health website: https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/portal/odw/si/FindWaterSystem.aspx.
b. If you are on a private well, test your water annually. Testing kits may be picked up at B&W Pumps (behind the Texaco) in Freeland and Island County Health Department in Coupeville. Make sure your annual water quality test includes readings of chloride, total coliform, nitrate, manganese, arsenic and iron.

3. Inventory your habits.

a. Think about how you use water and what may, even unexpectedly, enter the water because of your use—antimicrobials from hand-sanitizers or soaps, for example.
b. Consider how these substances affect our drinking water supply and, eventually, our marine life.
c. Xeriscaping your yard could help reduce drawdown on our aquifer.
d. Check the infrastructure of your septic tanks and the integrity of your drainfields. Have that septic tank pumped regularly.

Can we share?

In a world reduced to the private and the individual, the care of our water—here on Whidbey as in the state of Washington—draws us back to “the commons.” Our state has retained the legal precedence for treating water as a “common pool resource.” Despite the fact, then, that “my” potable water comes from a “private” well, water remains ours—not mine.

“Story of Water,” art installation by Melissa Koch. (Photo by Michael Stadler)

The future likely holds increased threats to our water supply—from climate change, pollutants and population growth. Sharing this limited reserve means strengthening the muscles of civil conversation and stewardship.

The state holds water in trust on our behalf; that fact implies that we the people can be trusted to operate as members of the commons. It requires us to converse with those with whom we might not agree. It requires us to think beyond “my rights” about a resource that grants life to all. As Lovie sees it, “Water is a proverbial dry run for the type of negotiations we as citizens have ahead of us, given the fact that our geography, with our climate, is changing.”

Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson (far left) speaks with attendees at “Whose in Charge of Your Drinking Water?,” a conversation hosted by Thriving Communities at the Whidbey Institute on March 16, 2016. (Photo by Jerry C. Milhon)

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Thriving Communities initiative of the Whidbey Institute, Clinton, initiated a public conversation about Whidbey Island’s drinking water and the realignment of our civic sensibilities on March 16, 2016. A second event—once again open to all—will be held in mid- to late May. For notice of this upcoming meeting, visit the Thriving Communities website at http://thrivingcommunities.org/.

Thanks to John Lovie for his assistance in preparing this article.

An academic theologian and philosopher by background, Sharon Betcher is now an independent scholar, writer and wannabe farmer living on south Whidbey. As a writer, she won the 2012 Short Story Smash and took first place in the memoir category of the Whidbey Island Writers Association’s 2012 contest. In March 2015, Betcher presented at the annual Women of Whidbey (WOW) Stories Conference.

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CLICK HERE to read more WLM stories and blogs. Have a great story idea? Let us know at info@whidbeylifemagazine.org.

WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. Linking is permitted. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, email info@whidbeylifemagazine.org.

May 18, 2016
Laying Down the Welcome Mat: A Report from the Thriving Communities Conference at The Whidbey Institute

BY DIANNA MACLEOD
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
March 25, 2015

“What is home to you?”

That was the question asked of the 85 people gathered at the Whidbey Institute for a three-day conference on Shelter that began on Thursday, March 19.

If there’s a more soulful place to ask this most fundamental of questions than the Thomas Berry Hall at the Institute, it’s hard to imagine it. The hall, with its soaring roof, skylight to the heavens, stone hearth and artfully designed windows that draw the eye into the forest beyond, seems designed to both engender feelings of home and prompt ideas about connection and community. The massive image of earth that hangs over the hearth reminds us of the magnificence and vulnerability of our planet—a planet on which large numbers of people lack a home.

“The four pillars of the conference, and of a resilient community, are dignity, respect, trust and a sense of belonging,” said conference organizer Jerry Millhon. In pursuit of an accelerated way for organizations to find each other and collaborate, Millhon and his team (Aimie Vallat and Noah Dassel) spent an entire year scouting out small, innovative grassroots projects in both urban and rural settings and making short videos about them.

Architect Ross Chapin presenting his plan for community development of a 40-acre parcel in Langley on Whidbey Island (photo by Eric Neurath)

Like everything that comes out of The Whidbey Institute, the videos have heart—lots of it. In seven minutes or less, project founders, staff, and beneficiaries explain their solutions to housing in terms guaranteed to move you. (These same folks were in attendance to answer questions and confer with others, putting the “confer” back in “conference.”) The videos aren’t just talking heads; they’re chock full of spaces and structures: clustered groups of neighboring houses with shared open areas (Langley architect Ross Chapin’s “pocket neighborhoods”), cottages that replace tents for the homeless (Quixote Village), private and common rooms that provide a safe haven for teens (Cocoon House), repaired houses for the aging and disabled (Hearts and Hammers), affordable houses designed with land stewardship in mind (Lopez Community Land Trust), healthy building technologies that go beyond conventional green building standards (Thriving Communities EcoVillages).

Indeed, behind each and every project can be found exactly who and what the conference promises: common people doing uncommon work for the common good.

Attendee Donald King, a Seattle architect, was impressed by the stories of hope, justice and equality. “These folks are looking at housing issues through a different lens. We need a different lens, because large challenges require a holistic strategy.” King, who echoed Chapin’s goal of “creating small scale community in a large scale world” hopes to learn from others working on the challenges of housing insecurity in order to avoid repeating the failures of the past.

Lars Henrikson, an employee of Seattle City Light’s conservation programs, has a long-standing interest in the kinds of buildings that contribute to making communities sustainable. “Something is calling me to work in that area after retirement, but I don’t know what just yet.” Henrikson finds the openness and fluidity of the conference just right for engaging with fresh ideas and entertaining new possibilities.

Chaitanya Burgess sharing her experience being a homeless teenager and finding assistance through Cocoon House in Everett (photo by Eric Neurath)

As executive director of Cocoon House, Snohomish County’s emergency shelter for at-risk youth, Cassie Franklin appreciates the diversity of the organizations participating in Thriving Communities. Although Cocoon House was established in 1991, Franklin still looks for ways to become a better leader and for ideas to bring to her county’s Homeless Policy Task Force.

Tonya Burgess, 25, first entered Cocoon’s transitional housing at the age of 14. She had lived on the streets, in the woods and in various shelters before finding a home at Cocoon. Although she “aged out” of Cocoon when she turned 17, she remains close to the staff and is currently a member of the board. “At this conference, I hope to wake up the spirit of community in every person, old or young. I hope I can find a way to inspire new generations to listen to this call before they’re the ones in need,” Burgess said.

From left to right: conference organizer Jerry Millhon, Georgia poet Tannur Ali, Chicago architect Antonio Guitierrez (photo by Eric Neurath)

How to provide housing that honors the cultural heritage of the Black community in the Central District of Seattle while using a business model? That’s the question that preoccupies Thomas Bangasser of the Union Street Business Association. Bangasser’s grandfather began buying property in 1941 within one square block at the intersection of 23^rd and East Union, and Bangasser himself grew up there. “The racism inherent in large lending institutions has prevented the district from flourishing as it might have,” he said. Bangasser hopes the conference will give him new leads and connections to others with useful insights and similar goals.

“Community has become more important since I’ve retired,” commented Nancy Hager of Bend, Oregon. “At my age, I’m asking myself what I want, and how do I want to be challenged, for the next 20 years.” Hager is considering a new place to settle, finds “pre-packaged” retirement communities sterile and unappealing, and seeks a situation where she can retain her creativity and independence while interacting with others around her. “Here at the conference I’m finding an exciting network of people who are trying to rebalance the inequities of the world.”

Saviour Knowledge presents the plans of the Union Street Business Association to help revitalize Seattle’s Central District (photo by Eric Neurath)

Architect Antonio Gutierrez coordinates housing, fights for tenants’ rights and stops foreclosures in the Chicago neighborhood of Albany Park. He was inspired by the video stories, by the people featured in them and by what has been accomplished. Gutierrez feels the topic of Shelter is of widespread concern. “Across the nation similar conversations are occurring among people of different backgrounds, races, classes, cultures, languages…creating a chain of actions and reactions that will create better communities for future generations.” The challenges he faces—zoning ordinances, limited volunteer labor due to potential liability, access to land—are typical in an urban setting. Gutierrez is determined to translate the lessons of the conference to his neighborhood. “Solidarity is happening, and happening organically,” he observed.

Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson has attended every one of the four Thriving Communities conferences (previous themes include food, local economies and health). “It’s always inspiring,” Price Johnson commented. “This one on Shelter is especially timely because of the County’s Comprehensive Plan update—our effort to look ahead 20 years at the sheltering needs of our community. Do we have the right support from the county regulations to support the ways we want to live?” She encouraged Island County residents to visit the County’s website to express their vision for the future.

Admittedly, the challenge of providing shelter to those who need it is a daunting one. But Millhon and the Institute staff, modeling the conference on the kind of communities they seek to encourage, built in plenty of spirit-lifting activities: song, spoken word performance, dialogue, idea forums, tasty and healthy food, outdoor fires to celebrate the equinox, visual reporting (drawing concepts as they emerge), and harmonic incantations.

Over lunch, participants discuss reclaiming abandoned homes. (photo by Eric Neurath)

As if to reflect the swirl of ideas and alliances, chairs—comfortable chairs, no less—were rearranged into endless configurations to form ever-shifting “nodes of connection.”

And at the very end of the conference, a word—both pledge and farewell among the members of this thriving but temporary community—was uttered. Together. Three times. Across a standing circle. A word much like “OM.”

But slightly altered for the occasion.

HOME.

HOME.

HOME.

Videos shown at the conference can be viewed at www.whidbeyinstitute.org/shelter.

Whidbey Institute’s “Thriving Communities” website for 2015 is located at http://whidbeyinstitute.org/event/thriving-communities-2015/.

Featured photo at the top: Artist Anne Jesse translates themes of the conference to dynamic visuals using a technique known as “live graphic recording.” (photo by Eric Neurath)

Dianna MacLeod has lived in intentional community for most of her adult life. Her own shelter is currently being constructed in modular form as a learning project by students in the homebuilding program at Seattle Central Community College. She travels frequently from the island to visit her house as it evolves beneath the large and sheltering roof of the Wood Technology Center.

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March 25, 2015