Weavers to the Rescue?

I came across an interesting new movement recently. It’s called Weave: The Social Fabric Project and it was started by New York Times columnist David Brooks and the Aspen Institute in 2018. The project seeks to mend the broken social trust that has left Americans divided along many lines. Over the past four years, the project has found that the answers already live in every community, where people are healing rifts by showing up for others day after day, building trust and inspiring neighbors to work together to make life better. The Weave Project works to find these weavers, tell their stories, connect them, offer them support and inspire others to weave. I think we are seeing some of this in Uvalde, Texas right now.

According to Weave’s website, “We live in a world where technology can connect us to anyone in a blink of an eye and yet, we rarely look into each other’s eyes. We don’t take the time to really see, know, or trust each other. And we do what humans do when we feel vulnerable and alone: we revert to tribe. It’s friend/enemy, us/them, build walls, hatred, erect barriers.”

“There is a better way to live. Thousands of people across the U.S. are taking time to show up for others…all the way up. They are building connections in their communities and weaving a rich social fabric.”

“Weave supports those who have found a more connected way to live. Weave explores what it means to weave in our schools, our workplaces, and every other part of life. Weave’s mission is to invite everyone to start living like a Weaver and shift our culture from one that values achievement and individual success to one that finds value in deep relationships and community success.”

Weave has even put together a “Relationist Manifesto,” a compact that outlines what it means to be a “Weaver.” The manifesto warns against hyper-individualism, when the balance between self and society is disrupted, directs people toward false and unsatisfying lives, and eventually leads to tribalism. The manifesto encourages relationalism, where lives are made better by making commitments and staying faithful to those commitments, where a way of life replaces a system of ideas. The manifesto celebrates the process of becoming a person. Weave believes the central journey of modern life is moving yourself to service, and to move beyond being an individual to becoming a person. The manifesto embraces the good life, a life that is not free from challenges but is joyful because it is enmeshed in affection and crowned with moral joy. According to Weave, a joyful life can lead to a joyful society, which, in turn, leads to a declaration of interdependence. For a person, a declaration of interdependence is the best and right place to be.

Weave’s ideas aren’t new. The Greeks taught about the virtuous life 3,000 years ago. Albert Schweitzer, the early 20^th century German theologian, talked about similar ideas in his book “Reverence for Life.” Carl Rogers, the mid-20^th century American psychologist, promoted a humanistic approach to life in his book “On Becoming a Person.” But it seems these types of teachings have disappeared behind the curtain. Instead, a serious and threatening form of narcissism has bursted on the world stage, and it seems we are suffering more because of it.

I can’t help but think if our learning organizations were different, we might be different too. I worked in the public school system from 1984 to 2018, during the age of class ranking and high stakes testing. Young learners were pitted against each other more than they were asked to work together. Teachers refused to work with fellow teachers, fearing that their salary might be adjusted if others moved up on the performance pay scale. Schools were suspicious of other schools, fearing that sharing ideas would lower their ranking in the eyes of central administration and school boards. It was a cut-throat environment, and I’m afraid much of what I describe above continues today.

But what if learning organizations started to follow the teachings of Weave? I don’t know if schools can do it at a large scale, but maybe newly formed learning organizations could. What if these learning organizations embraced relationalism and rejected hyper-individualism? What if time was spent helping young men and women become better people? What if those better people were asked to make a better society?

It’s not like we would stop expecting young people to be good readers, writers, and problem-solvers. But building “weavers” would become the primary objective of spending time together – both for the adult learning leaders and the young learners they serve.

Who wants to try?

Til tomorrow. SVB