The Deep Times Editorial Board’s Emergent Strategy

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by Rebecca Selove

recorded by author

I have been grateful for my involvement with the editorial board of the Deep Times journal since its first issue in 2016. Our meetings begin with “checking in,” when we update one another on recent activities in our lives. We get to know each other through what we choose to share, and this enables us to come together for our meeting with a broadened sense of each individual who is in the Zoom room. I think of this as part of how we attune to one another and cohere as a group, along with our shared understanding of and experiences with the Work That Reconnects.  

…we share a sense of delight in the emergence of the theme for each issue when we trust in the process of dancing with possibilities…

Over the years, our process of identifying a theme for each upcoming issue has often taken place over several meetings, after our check ins. We’ve considered current events in the world as well as recent events in our respective circles of influence, sometimes listing several potential ideas for themes, or perhaps one that we reconsider over several meetings. I think we share a sense of delight in the emergence of The Theme for each issue when we trust in the process of dancing with possibilities until we come to consensus on one topic.

As we talked about the theme for this first issue of 2023, I thought about Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown. Her conceptualization of the process of advocating for social change involves a trust in interdependence and shared wisdom, and in processes that are nonlinear. Emergent strategy also represents ways of thinking about the universe as an integrated whole. In reading brown’s book, I was reminded of physicist-philosopher David Bohm’s concept of “implicate order.” Bohm wrote that human beings are increasingly experiencing fragmentation at the individual and societal level, reflected in and exacerbated by the ways we subdivide human beings into separate nations and racial groups, and knowledge into separate disciplines. He argued that the idea that these separate groups or fragments exist independently, while sometimes convenient and at times functional, is an illusion that is contributing to horrific problems and suffering in our world.  He offered a view of reality in which these elements are connected within what he referred to as “unbroken wholeness…the implicate order.” (1980, p. 20)

…we can rely on the evolution and interconnectedness of the universe as we advocate for our Earth and its beings.

brown and Bohm express in their own ways a faith that is expressed in Joanna Macy’s writings – that we can rely on the evolution and interconnectedness of the universe as we advocate for our Earth and its beings. I see this faith as showing up when we are selecting each Deep Times issue’s theme. In going back and forth from the way we were working in the editorial board to brown’s book, I saw parallels in the editorial board’s processes, ways the Work That Reconnects influences our perceptions and guides our actions, and emergent strategy. 

In this essay I want to focus on the influences of multiple writers to celebrate the confluence of wisdom I see as reflecting the idea of emergent strategy. I offer appreciation for three ways this wisdom shows up in the activities of our editorial board and facilitators of the Work That Reconnects, and supports our efforts to facilitate The Great Turning.

First is a sense of the potency of the potential we can claim as part of our evolutionary history and our awareness of other present and future elements and beings.

First is a sense of the potency of the potential we can claim as part of our evolutionary history and our awareness of other present and future elements and beings. Activities in Macy and Johnstone’s (2012) Active Hope help us experience a “wider sense of self” (pp. 85-103) that grounds us in our past, present, and future connections to expansive realms. When we and workshop participants take time to feel these broader connections in our bodies, and talk with each other about our experience, we reinforce and expand our confidence and courage for going forth with this wider sense of our strength. brown describes the justification for this perspective and its impact in this way: “Emergence is our inheritance as part of the universe, it is how we change. Emergent strategy is how we intentionally change in ways that grow capacity to embody the just and liberated world we long for.” (p. 3) This parallels Macy & Johnstone’s  view of “ancestors as allies” (p. 151) and the depth of “meaning and purpose” (p. 160) that comes from viewing our contemporary situations in the context of the evolution of our planet.

I am sometimes dazzled by the coalescence of ideas that emerge and then merge to become what seems to be the perfect theme for the next issue.

As our editorial team sits with uncertainty about the theme for the next issue, it seems to me that we work from this position of power and faith. Our check-ins at the beginning of each of our meetings, our affirmation of our caring and appreciation for those in the current group as well as those who have contributed in previous years, all helps our members collectively and individually expand our creative capacity at the same time as we are synchronizing our vision. As brown describes it, these are some of the “relatively simple interactions” in which we can “practice complexity and grow the future through.” (p. 20) I am sometimes dazzled by the coalescence of ideas that emerge and then merge to become what seems to be the perfect theme for the next issue.  

This deep and urgent river of desire drives us to come together, editors and poets, artists and writers, to express a range of feelings and ideas.

The second dimension that I have observed in our process of discerning a theme for each issue is the beauty of the surprise that emerges from our time with each other and with each issue’s contributors. We are all coming from our common grounding in the intellectual framework of the spiral, the emotional connection of our relationships with each other, and our shared sensitivity to the deep times perspective always implicit in our work. In brown’s language, “At this point, we have all of the information we need to create a change, it isn’t just a matter of facts. It’s a matter of longing, of having the will to imagine and implement something else. We are living in the ancestral imagination of others, with their longing for safety and abundance….” (p. 21) This deep and urgent river of desire drives us to come together, editors and poets, artists and writers, to express a range of feelings and ideas. There is a coherence because we are all led by love for Earth, concern about degradation and injustice, and hope for a new way for humans to behave and live. When we haven’t yet decided on a theme, we can be playful about possibilities, confident that an idea will emerge and fit into the space reserved for Molly (our editorial team’s leader) to convey the thread that holds together all that is in the issue. 

Emergent strategy, according to brown, is seen in “plans of action, personal processes and collective organizing tools that account for constant change and rely on the strength of our relationships for adaptation.” (p. 23)  I think of it as what happens when we have sufficient structure for our process, such as the steps our committee members take as we review what people offer for possible publication. Underlying these dynamics there can be what David Bohm called “a different kind of consciousness…a participatory consciousness.” (1996, p. 26) At its most sublime, “It is the harmony of the individual and the collective, in which the whole constantly moves toward coherence.” (1996, p. 27) 

…we members of the editorial board acknowledge and appreciate the eloquent, evocative, inspiring offerings that come to us from and for facilitators around the globe.

There is a third way in which I think emergent strategy applies to our editorial board’s process, and to the way the Work That Reconnects changes people who participate in its activities. This is the emphasis on gratitude. brown contends that “There is always enough time for the right work…There is a conversation in the room that only these people in this moment can have…What you pay attention to grows….” (pp. 41-42) These sentiments convey a sense of appreciation for the present moment, the opportunities we have here and now. Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013) describes the impact of cultivating gratitude on generative and regenerative cycles between people and in their relationships with the more-than-human world. She asserts that “Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity… we all know the power of gratitude to incite a cycle of reciprocity.” (p. 115) When we are deliberate, we members of the editorial board acknowledge and appreciate the eloquent, evocative, inspiring offerings that come to us from and for facilitators around the globe. brown notes that “Conversation is a crucial way to explore what we believe and to make new understandings and ideas possible.” (p. 168) I think this describes how we arrive at the theme we offer to the next iteration of contributors. 

I think the journal themes emerge, in large part, because of the web that connects us in time and space to all else, helping to “shift the way we see and feel the world and each other.” (brown, 201), p. 191) Yes, our meeting structure and familiar processes support our work, as they themselves reflect an enduring, underlying orderliness within which potency, beauty, and gratitude can be sensed. These qualities are available to us when we bring our whole loving selves into the work of facilitation. As brown notes, “When we are engaged in acts of love, we humans are at our best and most resilient” (p. 9); in my experience, this is the ocean within which the wave with the theme for the next issue appears. 

References: 

Bohm, D. (1980) Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge Classics, New York, NY. 
Bohm, D. (1996) On Dialogue. Nichol, L. Ed. Routledge, New York, NY.
Kimmerer, R. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions. Minneapolis, MN. 
Macy, J., & Johnstone, C. (2012). Active hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy. New World Library.
Maree Brown, A. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press, Chico, CA. 
Nichol, L., Ed. (2004). On dialogue. Routledge, New York.


Recorded by Erin Holtz

Rebecca’s connection to Earth evolved as a child on her family’s West Virginia dairy farm and expanded when she encountered Joanna’s Macy’s writing in the mid-1980’s. Rebecca has incorporated ideas from The Work That Reconnects and ecopsychology in her work as a clinical psychologist in diverse community settings. Her current professional work focuses on public health research to address health equity in underserved communities. She enjoys being part of the Deep Times Journal editorial staff, walking in woods, planting and harvesting food on her family’s Tennessee farm, and preparing meals for friends.

One thought on “The Deep Times Editorial Board’s Emergent Strategy

  1. What wonderful writing, Rebecca! Besides being grateful to you for bringing back some wonderful memories of the magic that would sometimes arise in the editorial team meetings, I also appreciate your scholarly presentation. You reference authors whom I very much admire.
    Thank you for this article and your commitment to WTR!

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