US-India Writing Station

Career Visions of People Remaking Our Small Planet: Issue #5

Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:

Tell us about yourself.

What makes you who you are?
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RalphDranow I've been compelled to learn from my mistakes in life, which means that often pain has been a stimulus for me to grow and change. After a divorce 16 years ago, I realized that my life had been too narrow, that I needed to take more risks and widen my consciousness. So I began writing poetry (previously, I'd written only prose), joined a men's group, studied tai chi, and started meditating and reading books on Buddhism. Currently, I am working with a therapist who is helping me be more present to, and aware of, my feelings and bodily sensations.

Having had parents who were political activists concerned with social justice instilled similar concerns in me.

Writing poetry has been an important way for me to reclaim my essential self, to overcome my sense of separation and instead to feel my connection with all other living beings.

Also, my second marriage, to Naomi Rose, has been a great opportunity for me to learn and grow, to see where I am off the mark and to work on coming closer, with Naomi's love, support, and wisdom.

And my work with the Faithful Fools has been inspiring; to be associated with people with generous hearts and spirits who are committed to creating more community and love in the world has been a great blessing.

Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:

What was your vision

of society that brought you

to the work you do?
____________________________

RalphDranow I had a vision of learning to be more open-hearted and compassionate to myself and others so that I could feel more fulfillment in my life and help alleviate the suffering of others and create more joy in the world.


Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:

What do you think we

should remember as we remake

the world through the work we do?
____________________________


RalphDranow To be patient and compassionate with ourselves as well as others, to take good care of ourselves so we are able to give fully to others.


Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:

Has your vision

changed as you have

participated in the

remaking of the world?
____________________________


RalphDranow I am more hopeful as I see that people like the Faithful Fools, people with wisdom, open hearts, and commitment to social change, can make a difference in the world.


Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:


What challenges do you

perceive in achieving your

vision of society?
____________________________

RalphDranow There would have to be a transformation of consciousness throughout the world, a movement from fear, greed, and hatred to compassion, generosity, and self-awareness. This will not be easy, as it will require a paradigm shift from fear to love, from our habitual conditioning to a more essential, open-hearted place.


Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:

What needs to be done

to overcome these challenges?
____________________________

RalphDranow It would involve working on ourselves individually, as well as education and social action on local and wider levels. Individually, I've worked on myself to become more open-hearted, present, and self-aware, more able to give to myself and others. And I'm volunteering for an organization called the Faithful Fools, a street ministry in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The Fools are working to build community across conventional social barriers and to dispel myths about the homeless. Street retreats, in which people with homes walk the streets, eat in soup kitchens, sleep outdoors or in shelters, are a powerful tool for education and self-reflection. The Fools help empower low-income people in the Tenderloin through advocacy and counseling, as well as supporting the creative arts so that Tenderloin writers and artists have a forum for self-expression.


Q____________________________

New River Free Press International:

What pointers would you give

young people of the 9/11 generation

as they work in public service

assignments?
____________________________


RalphDranow It is important to be as conscious and self-aware as we can so that the public service work we do has a truly beneficial effect on other people.

Additional information about Ralph Dranow's books can be found at Naomi Rose's website essentialwriting.com:

Naomi Rose’s Website - Naomi Rose is a writer, editor, and book developer who created and teaches the “Writing from the Deeper Self” approach to writing. Her current book projects are The Blessings Ledger: The Union of Money and Compassion, and The Book that Changes Your Life Is the One You Write Yourself. She lives in Oakland, California. She can be reached at naomierose@pon.net.

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A Footnote On Re-connecting

by Michael Chacko Daniels

Writing about Ralph Dranow, reminds me it’s a small, small world we live in.

As in six degrees of separation?

Smaller.

This was brought home to me a couple of years ago through my experience with Ralph Dranow, who I met late in 1995 when he interviewed me in Oakland, California, on assignment from the Montclarion for a story on Jobs for Homeless Consortium, an agency that I helped start in 1988.

I was looking for an editor after P. Lal of Writers Workshop, Kolkata, expressed interest in publishing second editions of my three books that he’d published in the early 1970s. I had decided I’d go ahead with second editions only if I could get a good editor to give them the type of editorial attention they hadn’t received the first time around.

But should I get? Not someone who'd trash those early works and stop me from writing another word?

Get Naomi, an inner voice suggested. Naomi? Yes, Naomi.

Back in 1988, Naomi’s constructive editing approach on a novel I had written in the 1980s had greatly impressed me.

I rang her old number.

Not hers anymore.

Nor was she in the telephone directory or in the database of Editcetera, a local resource for editors and writers. Or at least that’s what Barbara Fuller said.

Hmm, I thought, fall back on old tried-and-tested “six degrees of separation.”

I dropped Naomi’s name here and there. No luck. Finally, I mentioned her name to Kathy Kaiser who was editing for me the latest version of the novel Naomi had critiqued back in 1988. Pay dirt. Kathy knew Naomi. Better still she knew Naomi’s maiden name.

It’s truly a small world, I thought.

“She’s now Naomi Rose—her maiden name,” said Kathy.

When I called Naomi Rose, I got her machine. I began to leave a rather involved message.

“Hello, Michael,” said a familiar male voice out of the past, ending my fumbling attempts at a clarifying message. “This is Ralph Dranow. I recognized your voice.”

Ralph Dranow? How did I get Ralph? The same Ralph who had covered Jobs Consortium for the Montclarion, written a profile of me for India West and one on Mark Lee, Senior Assistant Manager of the Consortium’s Oakland Center for CAREERS & the disABLED, and volunteered at the Consortium because of his concern about homeless people.

Had I rung the wrong number? I wondered, confused.

No. The number in my hand was the one Kathy had given me for Naomi Rose.

“I’m married to Naomi,” Ralph explained.

It’s a very, very small world, I thought. We know more people who know people we know than we know we know.

Recently, I asked Ralph, when he’d first met Naomi?

“In the beginning of 2000 . . . We were introduced by a mutual friend.”

In the quicksilver world we live in, I firmly believe we know more people who know people we know, often more than we think.

So, to the old adage: Only Connect! I add: Re-connect.

Click here to read the artile on Google Base.

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Have you visited the rest of

Michael Chacko Daniels' website,

US-India Writing Station?

If not, please do and be sure to

bookmark it. If you wish to

refer others to it, here's the URL:

http://indiawritingstation.squarespace.com/

Feel free to visit, and explore: Fiction, Poetry, Community Service, Homeless, Commentary, & Discussion On The Road To Remaking The World We Live In . . . San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Evanston, Bombay, Kerala, Oakland, Berkeley, Monterey, Bangalore, Calcutta . . .

Feel free to share the above link with others.

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Have you read Michael Chacko Daniels' flash fiction story,
Sing an Indian Name, on Denver Syntax's free online magazine?
If not, here's the URL:

http://www.denversyntax.com/issue5/fiction/daniels/indian.html

Feel free to share the above link with others.

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