Hate to Love, and a few updates
Charles Eisenstein has been keeping in touch ahead of his coming speaking engagements, including our Economics of Happiness Conference! Here is an email he sent out to friends with some updates:
"Hey everyone,
I want to tell you about a conversation I recorded with Joanna Harcourt-Smith for my podcast. You may have already heard it since we put it up a week ago. She has an incredible life story that has brought her deep wisdom through great pain. She is one of the most joyful people I know.
Aside from that, my energy has been absorbed in the final push to finish the first draft of my book before I head off to Orcas Island in a few days to speak at the Imagine Festival. (Consider coming if you live in the Pacific Northwest. It's a small festival with a wonderful loving vibe.)
I wish I could tell you the title of the book, but it keeps changing. When people ask what it is about, I hesitate to tell them "climate change" even though that is the central topic, because then people think they know what it will say. But it is totally off the spectrum. Here is a tiny excerpt:
"What you will see as I deconstruct the conventional spectrum of opinion on climate change is that the dynamics of the debate obscure something more important than which side is right. As with many polarizing issues, it is the hidden assumptions, shared by both sides and questioned by neither, that are most significant and most potent in taking us into new territory."
I suspect that it will be disturbing or possibly infuriating to people on the conventional spectrum, whether they are skeptics, mainstream climate activists, or catastrophists (is that even a word?) Also it is a step back into engaging more in current issues and policies, as in Sacred Economics, whereas The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible was more personal, psychological, or spiritual. So I feel a little apologetic toward those who found such nourishment in the latter book and want more. Still, the new book has some of that too. As you know, the personal and the political, the social and the ecological, the spiritual and the material are inseparable.
Several months of editing and rewriting remain, and then it goes through the publishing pipeline. If all goes smoothly it will come out next May. Thanks to everyone who has supported me on Patreon and through other gifts to write this book -- nearly two years now. I'm really looking forward to finishing it so I can reengage with other issues. Lord knows there is a lot to engage with these days! That statement above regarding polarizing issues applies to most political questions, and I'm going to invoke it quite often in coming years."
--- Charles
If you want to read more from Charles, start at his website: charleseisenstein.net