Cycling the nation for change

How are you holding up?

I don’t need to tell anyone reading that this is a time of extreme bleakness for the United States and the world. Living here at the moment (Portland, Oregon, no less) I feel as if our entire human civilization stands at a precipice. We are bombarded at every turn with new horrific headlines about injustice, violence against marginalized communities, a plague that keeps harming and killing, and environmental destruction that seems to accelerate at regular intervals.

It’s hard to keep our emotional selves OK at a time like this.

Without a doubt, it is a time to fight for what we believe in and the world we want to live in. Political and direct actions are crucial, and most people I know are engaged in some combination of in-person protests; phone calls, emails, texts, postcards, and/or petitions to politicians and other decision-makers; donations to activist organizations; boycotts of certain companies and extra efforts to financially support others; and using our social media platforms and conversations with friends and family to talk about our values and how we live them. These actions are crucial. Please, let us all continue to take these actions, from now through November and beyond. As Alice Walker famously said, “Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet.”

At the same time, I have always been personally inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s quote, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” While I would argue that the first part is a bit naïve—fighting existing reality is important, especially at times like this—the latter part does really resonate with me, and it feels like a good fit with who I am as a person, and the skills I personally have to bring to the world.

As such, a vision has recently coalesced for me, and I hope you will follow along with me as I work to manifest my own dream in the coming year: taking a year to bicycle around the United States, talking with people about their dreams for themselves and for the greater good.

We need vision. We need vision connected to action. I want to serve as a catalyst for people in this country right now to think about the world they want to live in, and how they would like to contribute to bringing about that world, in concrete ways. I want to offer people emotional and strategic support to help them to bring about their dreams, and I want to network people I meet in my travels, so that they can work together, and we can all be more powerful as a whole than as individuals.

To do this, I would need to step away from my day job—my primary source of income—for at least a year. So, I have launched a Patreon to begin working to replace that income.
I’m hoping you will do a few things for/with me:

1) Take a look at the Patreon, and read my fuller story about my vision there

2) Consider supporting me with a monthly pledge of any amount

3) Consider sharing the Patreon page with like-minded friends or via your social media, to spread the word

4) Think about your own dreams and visions! I may not be able to physically hit the road yet, but we need vision and action now. To anyone reading: I would love to offer you a free (no strings) one-hour phone or video call to talk about your dreams and get you either started or re-energized on bringing them about! (With your permission, I might also blog about some of these dreams, so that others can help to hold the vision and/or offer resources to help.) Message me at maren@dreamintochange.com to schedule a time!

This is our time, people. We need to dream into the world we want to live in, and we need to dedicate our time and energy to bringing it about.

I’m not sure yet what role this blog and the Patreon blog will play in sharing this story as it unfolds. At this point, I will probably share updates on both, so stay tuned. Thank you for your support. May we all bring our dreams into reality!