Refueling Detroit

For six years, I was the spiritual leader of a big church in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. I lived in Detroit for a total of ten years; I feel I got to know the place.

Of the thousands of people who attended the church, and others I got to know while living in Detroit, most worked in some capacity, directly or indirectly, for the automobile companies. It's basically a one-industry town, as everyone knows.

My main impression of Detroit was of trapped light. Just beneath the surface - and it was a hard surface, no mistake about it - was the spirit of ingenuity and creativity that characterizes the best of America everywhere. But a corporate aristocracy runs that place, not only financially but socially. Their attachment to an old-paradigm capitalist bottom line of short-term economic gain for corporate shareholders no matter what, has kept the rank and file workers under an iron thumb for years But that doesn't mean the rank and file has been happy.

People in Detroit are as hip as people anywhere else. The rot of unsustainable thought and behavior didn't permeate the car companies; it only permeated their leadership. Beneath the level of corporate offices at the Ren Center -- at technology, engineering, scientific and manufacturing labs throughout the area - people have been chomping at the bit to transition to a more sustainable, green model of development....if only someone would give them that mandate.

Detroit is a microcosm of the country; it has all it takes to go in a different direction, once leadership lays down that gauntlet. President Obama has talked about how moving the economy is like turning around a big ship, not a small speedboat. But when you add the element of released creativity through the intention to do the right thing for a change, energies are released that fall somewhere in between the ship and the speedboat.

Top leadership of an organization does more than call the shots; it invokes invisible forces. It determines in ways both large and small whether people who work for the organization want to get up and go to work in the morning, or whether they wish they could crawl back under the covers and sleep the day away. For all America's talk about whether people have jobs or not, there is a conversation every bit as relevant to our recovery from this economic crisis: whether or not people have jobs that touch their spirits and make them want to work.

With the shift that Obama's task force is demanding of the car companies now, there is an opportunity to remove the iron hand that has sat on top of Detroiters for so many decades, and release them to their creative best. What I hope he will not do is import a bunch of greens from the West Coast, arriving to show Detroiters how to do what they know how to do and would have done decades ago if someone had simply let them.

What people want more than anything -- whether they live in South Africa or Kansas, Cairo or Detroit -- is to feel that their lives are part of a meaningful endeavor. Changing the civilization of this planet -- from an institutional nexus that disregards the needs of the earth and its inhabitants in favor of the inflated needs of an economic system now proven bankrupt both morally and financially -- is a meaningful adventure that both awakens the soul and answers to the deepest craving of the human heart.

What's happening to the car companies is what's happening to the world: not doing the right thing simply won't work anymore. Just moving our attention to that-- in this case, to developing energy and transportation based on sustainable, clean and renewable sources -- will so ignite the creativity and enthusiasm of people in Detroit and around the world, that the transition will in some ways be easier than people think. Institutions move slowly, yes, but the kind of shift we're talking about here is more than institutional or operational: it's spiritual. It gives the genuine thrill that only something aligned with the highest aspirations of the human race can provide, offering people the opportunity to participate in something truly important to the ages. In that intention -- to create new possibilities not only for the car companies, but for the very way we live our lives, treat the earth and treat each other -- lies the potential for a quantum explosion of new opportunities. Detroit can be turned into world headquarters for the development of clean energy and sustainable transportation, releasing light that has been trapped for a very long time. When and if that happens, it will more than shift Detroit; it will help to shift the world.

Comments

[Wrmspr]

As usual, Marianne penetrates to the core of the issue. Great blog. Richard Baskin

[PlugINCarsRule]

There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources. Create cheap clean energy, new badly needed green jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.The high cost of fuel this past year seriously damaged our economy and society. The cost of fuel effects every facet of consumer goods from production to shipping costs. It costs the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to charge and drive an electric car. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and SUV's instead had plug-in electric drive trains the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota.We have so much available to us such as wind and solar. Let's spend some of those bail out billions and get busy harnessing this energy. Create cheap clean energy, badly needed new jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What a win-win situation that would be for our nation at large! There is a really good new book out by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com

[Kalena]

Thanks, Marianne, for your continued presence and voice.Here's to this...and all the other 'quantum explosions' which will surely be ignited in this great shift. This country, indeed the world, is ready to shine.

[bloggabix]

Marianne:

What a beautiful, intelligent and well written article. I completely agree with the sentiment " It gives the genuine thrill that only something aligned with the highest aspirations of the human race can provide, offering people the opportunity to participate in something truly important to the ages. In that intention -- to create new possibilities not only for the car companies, but for the very way we live our lives, treat the earth and treat each other -- lies the potential for a quantum explosion of new opportunities. "

The Transcendental Meditation program has the capability of creating such possibilities in the field of business (in all fields for that matter). It develops the total brain of both the executive and the worker, and has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, allowing the prefrontal cortex (CEO of the brain) area of the brain to function more effectively. This allows self-confidence and self-esteem to grow, and enhances purposeful, flexible thinking; non-impulsive, proactive behavior; and, produces farsighted decision making. These are many of the qualities we need to prosper and evolve in these challenging times.

I urge you to learn more about Transcendental Meditation at www.TMbusiness.org.

Keep up the great work!