the School of Lost Borders
 Summer 2020 Newsletter
"The Call" (2000) by Emerald North

Solidarity Statement

In this time when a health pandemic sits as the backdrop to a mighty upsurge of action and awareness around the centuries of violent oppression of Black, Brown, Indigenous and other People of Color -- our hearts and minds are with the grief and anger for the ongoing suffering of marginalized and oppressed people. The call to dismantle the systems of oppression this country was founded upon has echoed for generations, and our hope is that the time has finally come for structural change.
 
As a predominately white organization, we at the School of Lost Borders have been in deep conversation, feeling into the pain and complexity of all that is arising now, and sitting with the difficult mirror of complicity this moment is holding up. For billions of people, dealing with oppression from unjust systems is nothing new. However, understanding and challenging these systems is often new for those of us most advantaged by them. Many of us are now beginning to acknowledge and respond to past feedback we have previously been unable or unwilling to receive, and are learning to understand things we have been conditioned to ignore. Dismantling white supremacy is a huge task, and it needs the critical contributions of white people. This requires humility, surrender and a willingness to change -- three things our work at SOLB has long taught.
 
As guides and as an organization we are committed to exploring and understanding how we can do our own small, but necessary part in the great work of laying down white supremacy and other systems of oppression. We recognize along with so many others that we are centuries late in this task. And we know that doing our part means more than words in a newsletter; it requires action, individually and organizationally. We are creating a team to move this work forward in both the School and in our lives. 

We are committed to sitting with the discomfort this inevitably brings, and to truly listen to those who have not been heard or honored for far too long. This commitment also includes our continued walk in solidarity with the land and Indigenous people. We cannot ignore how abuse of the land and First Peoples is not separate from the culture that perpetuates racism and systemic inequity. Even sitting with all this pain, we are heartened by the internal dialogue here at the school. We are listening deeply for how our work can best move in solidarity with the movement for racial justice, how the land and ceremony can be more accessible to marginalized people, and how our organization can welcome and reflect more diverse voices and leadership.
 
We will continue joining with the many voices calling for justice, balance, care, inclusion, belonging, and peace in this moment of transformation. May we do collectively what we have helped so many to do individually over the years: Let die the structures and ways of being that do not serve life, and courageously embrace the next layers of truth, care, and interrelationship that await our deeper living.
 
We invite you to help keep the momentum of the movement going by donating to:

  • Black Lives Matter blacklivesmatter.com
  • Movement for Black Lives m4bl.org supporting local Black led grassroots organizations
  • Equal Justice Initiative eji.org committed to ending mass incarceration, challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights
  • Or a local BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) led effort in your area

In solidarity,  

All of us at the School of Lost Borders

"Canyon 4" (2003) by Emerald North
a Report from the School's
Coronavirus Response Council
When the world turned upside down back in early March, we at Lost Borders – like so many organizations – found ourselves staring at a wave of questions and considerations that was well outside of anything we’d had to face before. I’m sure each of you can relate in your own ways. In response, SOLB created a Coronavirus Response Council (“the CRC”) to attempt some sense-making out of the rapidly changing information.

The CRC has met weekly since, working with guides to determine whether programs that were scheduled could be run safely and developing safety protocols for how to run programs again in the future. Sadly, all scheduled programs in March through June were cancelled. We felt much grief with each cancellation. We also felt strongly that each cancellation was the right call. The decision-making process has involved protecting the safety of participants as well as the communities we operate in, considerations for responsible travel, personal comfort levels of guides, and compliance with federal, state and county ordinances (to name just a few!). 
 
Much of our focus the past two months has been developing a set of backcountry protocols that would allow our desert ceremony to remain intact, while continuing that strong call to create a safe container for those coming to join us. These protocols are now posted on our website – check them out!

We now have much more clarity about what it would take to safely run a program, and so we are on the verge of offering several. Ruth Wharton and Pedro McMillan will co-lead a shortened, three-week version of the month-long training in Colorado starting July 18 th . And then Betsy Perluss and Scott Eberle will co-guide the summer vision in California beginning July 27 th . Both programs are already full with a waiting list.  Visit our website for the latest information about programs to come:


Our commitment to the safety vow has long been the container that allows everything we do at SLB to flourish and thrive. We join now with all of humanity in expanding this call to care for the safety, health and well-being of the collective. Of course, it is a call far broader than this moment of global pandemic; the safety and well-being of so many people, communities, species and ecosystems was already imperiled before the world was turned upside down at the beginning of this year. As made clear in the Solidarity Statement that begins this newsletter, our prayers within the School align themselves with the preexisting and resounding calls for social and environmental justice that define our times. May the care we take in response to this unusual moment extend well beyond the pandemic alone. 
"Circle 1" (2018) by Emerald North
Keeping “the Ceremony” Alive

The very heartbeat of the School’s work is “the ceremony”: taking people out into the backcountry and offering guidance and support for a solo fast.  We have already had to cancel a number of these programs - these "ceremonies" - and going forward, we will be restricted in the how and when of doing this work.   Each of our guides has had to do their own coming to terms with what it means to be a wilderness guide during a pandemic such as this.   

In this, and coming newsletters, we will feature different guides answering this question:  

How do we keep “the ceremony” alive during a time like this?
Meredith Little
An Initiation : First we must have the courage and clarity to set our intention toward who we know ourselves to be, then we must die to all that no longer works, that only hold us back from who we are becoming … and then we must take a pause. A pause to listen, to grieve the losses, to dream the dreams, to let go of old assumptions and walk in the infinite possibilities of the new ones. We remember who we do this for … our people, our loved ones, the vulnerable, the land, the health of a global world who we are interdependent with. And then we decide. We return. There is no magic formula or magic ceremony that will transform our world and our place in it without our permission and our hard work. We decide. Because we care. There spirit meets us.
Pedro McMillan
Never one for too much technology, the Coronavirus has forced a reckoning with the computer screen. It has opened my eyes to the immense power of being together and far away at the same time. I was recently approached by a participant from one of the Queer Quests we offered last year to bring the group back together on zoom to celebrate the year anniversary of their ceremony. We decided to offer three calls, the first to hear how everyone has incorporated their gifts over the year, the second to talk about their intention moving forward and the third after everyone has had a chance to go out on the land, to really sit with where they are now. Everyone signed up right away! Though we've had just the first call, it's clear this will be a template for me as a guide to offer a series of gatherings after a program to support everyone's incorporation, which is something I've always wanted to do! This unexpected blessing is blending the technology and wisdom of the land with the human technology connecting us in this time of pandemic. What a gift!
Emerald North
To keep the ceremony alive is to never let it die in the first place. The ceremony is an always and everything place in my heart and psyche. It is an awareness of personal interaction with the world within and outside of me. It is the intersection of these.  It is as dark and angry as I go and as bright as my spirit can muster. Even in these days of covid 19, the ceremony opens daily a doorway to creative change. The liminal space that has been forced upon us is liminal none the same. It is an invitation to create within uncertainty a backdrop of stable grounded love. Daily walks under the open sky and home landscape keep me sure of my place here. A human in love and pain. The shattering of our non justice system by George Floyd’s death and the rioting rage that has taken the hearts of so many is also a doorway, a liminal space, a ceremony. May new ways of acting emerge. The ceremony is not separate from our day to day lives. It is the ground upon which our lives can be built.

"Greeters" (2018) by Emerald North
A NOTE ABOUT LOST INCOME FOR OUR GUIDES

How does each School guide balance the call to offer this ceremony with other ways of supporting themselves financially?

There are as many answers to this question as there are guides at the School.

For some, other income is sufficient to stay afloat despite the cancellation of programs. But for a few of us, cancellations mean a loss of income that has been important for financial survival. The School is looking for ways to support these guides who are are struggling. We will use some of our own internal resources, while also considering the option of an external fund-raising drive.

In that spirit, this issue of the newsletter features artwork by Emerald North, one of our senior guides. All the paintings here -- and other artwork, both paintings and ceramic plates -- are for sale at Emerald's website:


Consider supporting Em in this unique way.

School of Lost Borders / 760-938-3333 / school@lostborders.org www.schooloflostborders.org