3.8 Songs of the Kindness Economy

Actually the script I brought in to reference when recording, plus the lyrics and chords for the seven original songs.

Welcome to Something Different This Way Comes. I’m Heather McLeod

Theme

Today I have a set for you, seven songs to summarize season three. The theme of this season is Imagining the Kindness Economy. There were four conversations with generous, imaginative women. And three rants I call them, just me and my library of hope, pulling together what I’m thinking and why with the references fueling those thoughts. Then this musical wrap touching on all seven by playing you all seven of those original songs

Season four is planned for the fall. New episodes every Tuesday in October and November. But in the meantime - things will be happening. There might be a bonus edition in a couple of weeks (my fingers are crossed). And there will be a recording gathered at a podcast party I am throwing next month - a gathering of guests you can hear on past episodes of this podcast and the people they choose to invite.I am gathering us together for a feast with a side order of brainstorms about feeding our courage, and changing the world for the better. That will be a treat it will take me some time to edit together but I will send it out to you this coming summer

In the meantime, this is a review and a summary of this season in song because for each episode, I wrote a song, to sum it up and let it all sink in. If you missed any of the episodes this season, maybe this one will help you decide which ones you want to go back for.

I started the season with Joni Mitchell’s Shadows and Light, then had the audacity to pair that classic with this newborn ditty:

The Stories we Tell by Heather McLeod

(A) The stories we tell
Can feed (G) heaven or hell
They can (F) teach, they can sell
(Cmaj) Connect or (E) divide
On (A)  Stories we ride

(E) This is my prayer
Let our (A) stories be true
Let them (E) help me and you
(D) Let (E) them be (A) true

Let them inspire
Let them (E) stoke the good fires
(D) Let (E) them in- (A)spire

The stories we tell
Can feed (G) heaven or hell
They can (F) teach, they can sell
(Cmaj) Connect or (E) divide
On (A)  Stories we ride

This is my prayer
Let our (E) stories engage
Feed the (A) peace, not the rage
(D) Let (E) them en- (A)gage

Let them expand
Stretch our (E) hearts and our hands
(D) Let (E) them ex- (A)pand

The stories we tell
Can feed (G) heaven or hell
They can (F) teach, they can sell
(Cmaj) Connect or (E) divide
On (A)  Stories we ride
(E) on Stories we ride
On (A) Stories we ride

The stories we tell - composed and performed and recorded while sitting cross legged in a blanket tent on the bottom bunk in my boys room with the furnace occasionally rumbling its counterpoint. My hips complain for days after I record this podcast. They feel a little old for this set-up. 

Anyway

I am a storyteller. I have told stories as a news reporter, a format I hate and am ill suited for. I have told stories as a songwriter, where texture, tone and rhythm speak louder than lyrics. I have told stories as a radio documentary journalist, braiding in hard-won found-sounds and carefully choosing the few words I give to set the scenes, to help draw my listeners into the space and help them see the people I am documenting. I have told stories as a radio host, which reminds me of improvisational jazz, you go in with a carefully crafted kick off and conclusion - that’s your lead sheet and in between the intro and the extro -  that’s the improv. It is closely listen, carefully respond and engage a response in return.  A very in-the-moment storytelling skill. I have told stories as a film score composer, which is all about texture and rhythm and tone,  not a word to be heard most of the time, but storytelling nonetheless. I have even told stories with paint and pencil and pastels, those few times I have dared to stretch into the visual arts. Stories told in framing choices, what is focus and what background, In colour and palette, shadow and light. I tell stories in how I organize my Sunday School classroom, in how I decorate my home, in how I dress and where I go to get a portrait picture for my work.

We are all storytellers.

And we are story learners.

Even as we consciously focus and ignore the stories around us, they touch us, shaping our sense of social standards and expectations which are really powerful influences on us. In fact, I think often our decisions have more to do with the tone and texture, the pattern and rhythm of the stories around us than the words we consciously drink in and weigh.

Storytelling is powerful stuff. It packs a punch well above its weight. And in this age of information, we are saturated in storytelling, stories that impact us profoundly. Stories that feed both our kindness, and our economy.

So- I kicked off this season with my thoughts on storytelling, imagining how stories could be superheroes in the Kindness Economy. How we could do storytelling better. Why we need to. Stories in the Kindness Economy was the starting line and the foundation stone of this season.

 The next aspect of our economy I imagined kinder and more economic, less wasteful and more generous - was food. Imagining us shifted from food systems that deplete the planet,  to food systems that nourish this planet as well as us humans. Agriculture that builds both soil and community, that captures carbon, that diversifies species, that restores ecosystems, that regenerates natural systems. To realize that kind of a shift, we first need to believe in it, and imagine it. Here in our everyday lives. In our home. In Thunder Bay.

Episode two I dared a solo version of the great collaborative song Rise Up by the Parachute club. It just kept bubbling up in my heart. And I thank you for your forgiveness of how little of that communal dance party of a song I could convey to you with just my one voice.

All this to say - from Episode two - Eating Well in the Kindness Economy

Here is my song 1, 2, 3 Grow, Keep & Share

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Me for you, you for me
Grow keep & share,
Plenty food everywhere
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Grow Keep & Share

Nothing wasted, nothing wanted
There’s a role that you can play
Grab your courage, never daunted
Growing plenty everyday.

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Me for you, you for me
Grow keep & share,
Plenty food everywhere
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Grow Keep & Share

Waste not and we’ll have more
Save the seeds, feed the land
Waste not and food we’ll store
Seed the wild, many hands

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Me for you, you for me
Grow keep & share,
Plenty food everywhere
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Grow Keep & Share

Stories and Food.  It felt good to get those thoughts off my chest  to kick off Imagining the Kindness Economy this Season. Thank you for listening.

Then I brought you my first guest of the season: Cindy Crowe. Cindy Crowe is a learner, a teacher, a visionary and a the very soul of kindness. She welcomed me to her home, where her cats tucked themselves right up against our hearts and sometimes the microphone, their purrs often audible even on tape. And we talked about the kindness looks like in action. In Thunder Bay. In our every day. The courage of it.

It was an inspiration of a conversation. And it inspired me to write this song for Cindy Crowe and her work with the Blue Sky Community Healing Centre. This is Drawing Circles

Drawing Circles, standing strong
Cindy Circles, standing strong
Reconciling and beguiling
Respect, love and kindness
Respect, love and kindness
Reconciler standing strong

You are home (circles, circles), 
where you want to be (circles, circles)
You are safe (circles, circles)
and you inspire me (circles, circles)

Lead by example (circles, circles)
Lend a hand (circles, circles)
Everyone equal (circles, circles)
Cherish the land (circles, circles) 

Drawing circles, standing strong
Cindy circles, Standing Strong
Reconciling and beguiling
Respect, love and kindness
Respect, love and kindness
Reconciler standing strong
Reconciler standing strong

Greet a stranger (circles, circles), 
see a brother (circles, circles)
Choose to be kind (circles, circles)
And love one another (circle, circles)

Love a stranger (circles, circles), 
find a brother (circles, circles)
Focus on how we (circles, circles)
gift one another (circles, circles) 

Drawing circles, standing strong
Cindy circles, Standing Strong
Reconciling and beguiling
Respect, love and kindness
Respect, love and kindness
Reconciler standing strong
Reconciler standing strong

That was Drawing Circles from episode three, inspired by my first guest of the season, Cindy Crowe of Blue Sky Community Healing centre

My next guest was Thora Cartlidge who is a Municipal Planner, an expert in Sustainable Community Development and Natural Resource Protection. Our conversation wandered many places. We dug most deeply into two communities: the historical neighbourhood of Thunder Bay’s East End and the long-planned development of the suburb known as Parkdale. We talked about how important it is that we heal our social crises before we can expect better urban spaces to do what they are designed to do. We need housing, we need income security, we need truly comprehensive health care and then, with those basics covered, we have such opportunity to build better, to steward our urban land and water more mindfully and wisely.

The song I wrote for my episode with Thora Cartlidge is

The “i” song by Heather McLeod

Imagine, innovate, invest, integrate, intercept

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From episode 4, green growing city with Thora Cartlidge

That was the “i” song

Episode five was another rant, me and my many references. Bounding between science and precedents from my library of hope I share my thoughts about first kindness. Why it takes courage, how much it gives us. Then I tackled Economy. Both economy as a synonym for thriftiness, for not wasting and as the system of coordination, collaboration and exchange that we build ourselves as a species.

If you listen to only one other episode from this season, I hope you listen to that one. It is so full of cool stuff you might want to dig into deeper. Check out www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca for those references. As well as my whole three-season-deep library of Hope.

And while you are there, consider contributing to the show. Something Different This Way Comes is a passion project. The buck starts and stops with me, I write and research and am the only person accountable for this podcast. And the only sponsors are listeners, like you. If you find this podcast good company, or entertainment, or a place to discover references to explore further - whatever your reason for listening, if you think my work is worth something to you, I urge you to donate to the difference, to pay me for my work and help me pay the cost of doing this work. There is a link to my GoFundMe page on the landing page at www… All I’m asking is the price of a coffee or package of seeds, once a month.That would be such a boon and an encouragement.

And I thank every one who has sponsored the podcast. Sincerely.

Now here is the song I wrote you for episode five which I titled: Kindness. Economy. - Good & Messy. It is actually a song I wrote a couple of decades ago that was sung my protesters at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City back in 2001. I changed the verses - but felt the chorus has stood that test of time

Profit the Children, profit the land
Profit the justice you hold in your hand
Profit peace, beauty and joy
Profit the children, profit the land

Such capacity, everywhere
Trust a stranger, dare to play it fair
Drop defences, open the gates
Welcome every hand before its too late

Own the goal, set the stage
Saving the world takes more than a living wage
Expectations - raise them high
Build that future that calls you and I

Honest questions, open ears
Dream up solutions, speaking without fear
Conversations open hearts
Building communities that give us each a part

That was Profit the Children from episode 5 this season: Kindness. Economy. Good & Messy. I also sing some Neil Young in that episode. Banging on my poor old nylon string guitar in lieu of Neil’s electric with whammy bar and distortion pedals. I have a link to his video for the song in that episode’s page - which I recommend if you really want to enjoy the power of that song

The next two episodes & the next two songs are rooted in conversations again

For episode six I drove from my home in Kivikoski at the northern edge of Thunder Bay just a little farther north to the historically Finnish town of Lappe and talked to Judi Vinni, co-founder and head honcho of Willow Springs Creative Centre.

She wrote a poem to bring to our conversation - which is so cool - as was the conversation, so thoughtful and do-able and kind. And here is the song I then wrote for Judi. This is

Dig In   by Heather McLeod

Judi under the (E) apple tree
Gathering (G) children happily
(A) Making, doing (E) solving, teaching
(G) Laughing, growing and (A) opening
(E) Judi growing (G) old with her (A) apple tree

Welcome (E) stranger
Come (G) sit at our table
Come (D) grow your own garden
And (A) join me in mine
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dig (A) in

Welcome (E) neighbour
Come (G) chat at our table
Let’s (D) share work & plenty
We’ll (A) help & we’ll comfort 
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) help one a- (A) nother
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dig (A) in

Get (E) Creative
(G) Welcome my heart find the
(D) courage to try cele- (A) brate & unwind
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dare (A)
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dig (A) in

That was Dig In from episode six this season featuring Judi Vinni of Willow Springs Creative Centre

At that brings us to the final conversation this season. With Curniss McGoldrick. Who imagines us changing our cities so our very streets and neighbourhoods feel like a breath, a deep, calming, relaxing breath. So that is what I called her song - Breath or breath - as you wish

(a, G, C, E)
Breath (a, G, C, E)
Take a deep breath (a, G, C, E)
A breath (a, G, C, E)
You’re home (a, G, C, E)

(a min) You’re home
(G) You’re safe
(C maj) You’re known
(E) You’re home

Let’s (a) build this city
(G) one space, one place
(C maj) at a time
(E) Your home

Chorus

You’re (a min) home - show up
(G) You’re safe - speak up
(C maj) You’re known - give it a try
(E) You’re home - give us your why

Let’s (a) make this City
For (G) us and ours
Our (C maj) people’s place
Our (E) Home

Chorus 

That was breath from last week’s episode of Something Different This Way Comes featuring my conversation with Curniss McGoldrick at the Habit coffeehouse and bakeshop. Which talked about neighbourhood design, but also about instigating change, about the power and importance of uncomfortable conversations and imagines us sharing our spaces and our work more and differently. It was a surprise and a joy. I hope you listen!

And I thank you for listening to this set of seven songs, season three in song. I invite you to watch for my wrap party special which I hope to put out at the end of June and maybe, hopefully, a special episode even before then. There will be no episode next week, the last Tuesday of May. But there will be more of Something Different This Way Comes before season four next fall

Theme

I’m Heather McLeod

Thank you for joining me

I’m be back with more, in October