Transformation: On Being, Knowing, and Doing the Metamorphosis

Name of facilitator: Timothy DenHerder-Thomas
E-mail: timothydht@gmail.com
Course description:
“Teacher seeks students. Must have an earnest desire to save the world” – from Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.
We find ourselves in an era of striking global change, with repercussions echoing across our local and personal contexts. Human society is changing – in ways that are both brilliant and frightening: we are living in transformation. How do we effectively live the metamorphosis? How do we approach change? This class invites anyone with “an earnest desire to save the world” to join in a guided exploration of what we’re trying to do and how we do it.
Transformation is at its heart taking what we have always had and making it into something very different – a change with effects that ripple across scales. You already have what you need to work change across the world – effectively living the transformation is simply honing our ability to harness our own skills and the vast range of opportunities around us. This class intends to be an opportunity for self-and-collective-discovery that unites practical hands on skills with new frames and thought processes for how to work.
Requirements: 1. Attend class meetings consistently and engage fully in them.
2. Access (library, ask a friend, Amazon, etc.) and read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn by 9/25
3. Read other brief articles noted in the syllabus (sent electronically)
4. Live it! Think it! Do it! The syllabus lists some options, but you have your life ahead of you ...
Class Time: Thursdays 7-9 pm
Class Dates: 9/11, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 10/23, 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20
Place: Macalester campus, Old Main 002
Class size: Minimum 10 Maximum 25
What experience do you bring to this class? As the facilitator, I bring a rich experience in change-making and a background in the emergence of the new and rising “climate movement” (we’re still working on more effectively communicating the breadth and depth of both the “climate” and “movement” aspects of the phrase) that unites solutions to the climate and energy crisis with sweeping community redesign, economic transformation, ecological alignment, and profound justice. I am currently taking a semester off from Macalester to focus on organizing and building the infrastructure for this “movement” as its efforts move to the national and global stage. I have spent my life so far transforming the way I live, think, and act. I don’t claim expertise, especially since collective intelligence is remarkably powerful, but I have worked with hundreds of people to define personal, interpersonal, and organizational approaches to – as a close friend put it – “morph the system while winning within it.” Like most transformative processes, I’m not exactly sure where this class will end up or how we’ll get there, but I have a pretty good sense of what we’re ‘going-forward-towards’. You probably do too: let’s work together.