Blessed Unrest

“There is vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique… You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open… [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

– Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille, Dance to the Piper

The words above serve as opening to Paul Hawken’s most recent book, Blessed Unrest, which I had a chance to read at home over Winter break. Paul Hawken is a leading writer and environmentalist (The Ecology of Commerce; Natural Capitalism) who wrote this book in an attempt to put together a story about what is going right in our world, a story he indicates has been underappreciated for too long. What is impressive about this story is the breadth of its scope and the data set that gave life to it: an unprecedented compilation of information on more than 110,000 environmental and social justice organizations in 240+ countries around the world, out of what Hawken estimates to be a total of 1 to 2 million such organizations currently active.

Hawken’s main focus is on what he calls “the movement”: a growing social movement that does not follow a single leader or ideology but does share a set of values centered in sustaining and creating life on the planet.