"A Thoughtcasting Breakfast"
... with Margaret Lulic
Wednesday, September 11th, 2002

What, exactly, is thoughtcasting? A wonderful example is how this unique woman reacted to September 11. She sent out, to everyone she could, the following message, to be read and passed on to as many as they could:

May (I) (WE) (OUR WORLD) BE -
And she went on with her work of making the world a better and more orderly, focused, purposeful place. This woman spends less time crying over spilled milk than a Coca Cola executive. Her answer to the awful picture of death, hate, violence which we all find so overpowering? Do what you can, where you can, with courage and purpose.

Margaret Lulic told this story: It was one of "those mornings"- she had a lot of work to do, a new puppy, the dishwasher overflowed, she's explaining the problem to the repairman, and all of a sudden the puppy, tied in the backyard, begins to yelp with obvious pain and desperation. She raced out, to find a stranger in the backyard, with his hands closed around the puppy's neck! She ripped the dog from the man's arms and they yelled at each other. Her little girl and some friends came home and made a beeline for the house. Later she found out the man was new to the neighborhood and that others had had trouble, too. That night she composed a strong threatening letter to the neighbor she had never met, castigating his reprehensible behavior and promising the wrath of the law, etc. ... at which point her little daughter piped up: uh-huh, and mommy, next time I see him, I'm going to kick him!

She and her husband realized with shock how unaware they had been of what they were teaching their daughter. This was not who they were or what they wanted to model. She tore up the letter and tossed it, making sure their daughter was once again watching and involved as they went down a new path. The next draft was firm but conciliatory, simply asking that he call, or come talk, if he is sure it is her dog (among the ten on the block) that was the problem. At the end, she added, "I don't think we can ever have world peace if neighbors can't get along."

A few days later, after no response, she took a deep breath and approached the man. He looked away from her pretending to be very busy, but finally said: "I thought of bringing cookies but you probably would have thought that I poisoned them." That broke the ice. "I never got a letter like that in my life, I showed it to everyone I know" he continued. He wrinkled his face quizzically, and said, "are you from that hippie generation?"

"Well, yes I guess so," Margaret admitted noticing for the first time the age difference. "No one I know talks about world peace. That really surprised me. I'll do what you asked in the note." the man said. "I wouldn't say we ever became best friends but we were at peace. Others had some trouble with him but we didn't and as the years have passed, the trouble has disappeared." said Margaret .

Like Margaret Meade, this Margaret reminds us to never underestimate the power of human intention and determination. "Heartmath" - a newly measured concept, says the magnetic resonance of the human heart can go out ten feet, energy like the concentric rings of a pebble in the water. Larry Dossey has established the healing power of prayer in rigorous medical studies. "Our thoughts, our feelings our intentions are cast out into the world, and have an effect on people and things around us - whatever they may be" she proclaims. "We can make a difference at the ROOT level, but only if you SEND IT OUT do you raise the level of consciousness." Expanding on the importance of intentionality, she referred to Victor Frankl, the holocaust survivor, who concluded you could survive anything if you could assign meaning to it, somehow. She reminded us that two of the most painful experiences, as measured, are giving birth and passing kidney stones, yet they are not perceived nor endured in the same way at all, since one has an obvious and pleasant purpose, the other is simply to be endured.

"Every day, you wake up and choose how to live the day, you assign meaning to your life" she says. All the violence and hostility - at work, in neighborhoods, and abroad, - is interconnected at invisible levels, and we have to communicate to those levels." She explains further that most violence arises from fear, and fear arises in the "reptilian " brain which words don't speak to - only acts. A terrified child is calmed by hugging, arms, warmth - words have no effect. Why would it be different with adults?

Where are we at right now with fear, she asked? The parishioners examined themselves carefully - there is anger at work , one said, we are working understaffed, cutting costs, others chimed in- we are unemployed, our savings are shot. We realized the extent to which we have become numbed to 9/11 - and realized it is doubtless due to media saturation. In the same moment, we all realized we were being manipulated by media and government towards a daily drumbeat toward war. We talked about how divided we were becoming as a people, on what our country can or should do. While one firefighter's child laying a wreath is poignant, hundreds of hours of airtime on it numbs you just as surely as 3 hours at a mall, shopping for someone who has everything already. So it goes.

"Remember mental aikido" Margaret says, roll with it, tell your story, don't hold things back. A punch only hurts if you stand and take it, if you roll with it, it won't take you out". "The micro is always in the macros and vice versa "- do what you can, where you can. Look at the healing process in South Africa - it started with letting people tell their stories.


and
Chuck Collins is a 14 year parishioner, a lawyer who has worked with organized labor for 28 years. Chuck claims he is not violent about anything except when he can't find even one pair of matching socks in the morning.
Margaret then sent out a thoughtcast - she is struggling with collecting stories for a book about peace as an option - and how to get the concept out in time for the election. The little groups of parishioners exploded with ideas and suggestions, and then you see this Margaret at full tilt. She is intent, focused, calm, and does everything on purpose. If you speak to her, it as if you are the only person in the world for that 10 seconds. If you have an idea, your name is in her book like that, she does not edit or criticize, she casts and retrieves. If Jesus wanted fishers of men, she is a fisher of ideas and feelings, of energy. And as any fisherman can tell you, "ya don't catch nothin' if your line ain't in the water". Margaret Lulic is always casting.

Margaret has authored several books, including "Who We Could Be at Work" and has a website in which various "thoughtcasters" broadcast their thoughts via audio. Check it out at www.thoughtcasting.com.

Back