Andrew Dunn 2020: Weaving Bridges to Freedom
The times they are a-changin’. Here’s some of my story and what I’m up to in the coming times.
I experienced major personal challenges and professional changes in 2019. Lots of exciting things are unfolding as a result. This piece is largely forward looking but also integrates key life experiences from recent times.
I’m learning that everything I want is on the other side of fear. This is me opening my kimono so you know how to relate with me, so we can better lift each other up. Storytelling is therapeutic and one of the magical affordances of social media is the context for one to put dreams, intentions and needs out there to be seen by the community. I’d love to invite you to share something similar and see what happens. Everybody wins. Here goes mine.
My calling is people are free 🍃
I’ve come to this purpose declaration through an ongoing process of getting to know myself better — what lights me up, what has caused me suffering, and what matters more than anything — so that I can live a new life that is aligned with, informed and inspired by my soul.
For me, it’s freedom.
Freedom from fear, anxiety, shame, doubt, scarcity, oppression, the mind, pressures of expectation, stories that don’t serve, boxes, manipulative technology, control, the past, other people’s opinions, limiting beliefs.
Freedom to be, feel, rest, express, stumble, think, use my voice, follow my dreams, explore, make choices out of love, create, regulate my nervous system, communicate authentically in each moment.
How can I be a living expression of freedom that creates personal inner paradise and inspires that in others around me? What does that actually mean in practice?
It feels like I’ve been slowly building towards this way of being over the last six years (marked by my India experience). I’m going to give it a shot.
My intention for 2020
is to follow my highest excitement,
to the best of my ability,
with absolutely zero insistence
or assumption with respect to a specific outcome.
I’m going to be present for 2020, which is poised to be one of the most dynamic years of our time. Are you ready to surf the wave?
I’m grateful for the freedom and newfound awareness to try this. I trust that my impulses are increasingly in service; that I’m making effective choices that support both self and world, as well as creativity, experience, wholeness and integrity. I trust that I will be supported in return. No matter how much my ego tries to protect me from doing the psychologically scary things, I know I won’t die. I’m okay. I’m safe. I’m loved.
It’s an experiment. Two months in and it is beyond imagination. And now some form is taking shape.
Energetically, what really lights me up is:
- Connecting (or “weaving”) people, ideas and communities
- Visioning, brainstorming and initiating new projects
- Learning about myself and the world through new experiences
Materially, I enjoy doing these things in aspects of life that I am uniquely connected to, namely: systems change, technology, business, & personal growth. So here’s what I’m working on in each:
🗽 Systems Change
“The greatest hack of our generation is to rise above our programming, realize that everyone is “us” and apply our great American ingenuity to create solutions so that all of us can win together.” — Christopher Life
What if this decade marks the beginning of a new era of humanity in which we realize the vision of a world that works for all? I have never felt inspired to engage in politics. Until I fell in love with One Nation and found myself tearing up every time I was in the same room as their leadership team.
With One Nation, another aspect of my life can come into a greater level of personal integrity. It’s a powerful vision to enable a new era of humanity to emerge. A convergence of transformational movements in all domains, now ripe for a political rally point. A graduate school for all-win leadership. A multi-decade effort to rebirth our systems, and a 2020 campaign to find the others and propel important ideas into the field.
I feel excited about playing a bridge weaving role: one foot out in the world using my voice and antennae, one foot inside the organization learning and staying on the pulse, while translating between each side of the porous membrane. I’ll be hanging out at HQ in San Diego this month!
Offering: Learn more by watching the announcement video and give me ring if you want to learn more about all-win political culture.
📲 Technology
“Healing isn’t about feeling better. It’s about better feeling.” — Anonymous
I am still stewarding Siempo, advising Digital Wellness Collective, collaborating with Transformative Technology Academy and The Center for Humane Technology, and advising/mentoring a slew of startups and nonprofits working to help create tools that protect and promote human thriving.
Though Siempo operations have been on pause since the summer (app and browser extension still available!), there are some compelling collaborations in the works, and it has become clear that the value of the knowledge, experience and network I have cultivated far transcends the boundaries of the company today. There’s also a deeper truth to this work that I’ve recently connected with (hint: it’s all about the emotional body).
Offering: if you are creating something in this space, I’m open to consulting/advising arrangements or providing quick feedback!
💸 Business
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
― Lila Watson
Raise your hand if you have a weird relationship with money.
🙋🏼I‘ve been on a long and bumpy journey to unpack my class privileges, I barely made it through business school, struggled to find the right investors for my last startup, get anxious around friends when rung up at fast casual restaurants, and don’t really know or feel aligned with where all my money goes at the end of the day through consumer choices and investments..
Welp, I never thought I’d be working in finance but after a series of synchronous events I’m exploring collaborations with several organizations that are creating mechanisms for greater healing of people and the planet. I’m inspired by a wave of new models of financial services focused on the wellbeing of all parties–from alternative financing for mission-driven startups, to innovative products and services that help align one’s resources with their heart (way beyond typical impact/ESG/SRI investing).
In particular I’m excited about Montcalm TCR, an SF-based financial services firm that is starting to wave the flag for coming into right relationship with money in all dimensions.
Offering: conversation around all things money.
🌬 Personal growth
“Health refers to the ability to choose and respond, rather than just the ability to function.” — Forrest Landry
I’m privileged to live in a place and time with access to a variety of unique and powerful healing modalities that have profoundly helped me and those I love.
Some changes that I’ve experienced in the last few years include:
- Diet, exercise, sleep and mood are A+. I’ve kicked my addictions to sugar, alcohol, smartphones and social media, dating, pornography and more.
💪🏼I love my body. - Things I never dreamed of having the courage to do now come easier: singing, dancing, public speaking, talking about my fears and biases.
💃🏼I love myself. - I no longer suffer from existential angst, low self-esteem, low grade anxiety, the need to control or change others or a situation, suppressed sexuality and gender expressions.
⁕ I love this life. - I have connected with purpose, elevated relationships with family members, started dreaming again, fulfilled fantasies, had mystical experiences beyond words.
✨I love all life.
In light of these experiences, I’m inclined to say that the highest leverage way forward for civilization is leaders (including you) at all levels healing their trauma and re-connecting with Spirit.
Offering: I’m not a coach or therapist, but I’d be thrilled to share more of my story and listen to yours. Consider me your transformational travel agent 🚀
🌉 Bridge Weaving
While the efforts described above are in separate disciplines, to me they each represent expressions of the same things: freedom, inner transformation to outer transformation, role modeling all-win leadership.
Each is a bridge to a more beautiful world that includes the others. As the synchronicity rate increases, I find myself standing on the other side of the river, running between onramps, building new crossings, and waving to the other side that it’s safe to transition out of Game A and come on over this way.
With these distinct and interconnected projects, and the roles I’m playing in the spaces between them, I kind of feel like I’m just running around town, and I got some really good shit. What do you need? Ohh and what do you have? What do you know? Wow, how about this idea? Ah you gotta talk to this person. Let’s jam on it! Yess.
This natural process generates lots of creativity in the form of new connections, novel projects, and more sophisticated maps (which makes sense because one of the chips on my shoulder is placing third in the middle school geography bee) that can be useful for individuals and organizations that I encounter on the path. In leaning into these gifts, I’m able to focus my time on things that are energy-giving as opposed to energy-draining.
It gives me great joy to connect people to what they’re looking for and to participate in the earliest stages of visionary projects. They say “do what you love” so what has been stopping me from doing that?
ALL THE STORIES. That I’m supposed to be doing x y z, that I need to create safety and stability for the future, that I’m not good enough to..
Thank you, stories. You’ve been working so hard and have been absolutely critical to get me this moment. Now you can rest. So I can be the new story I want to tell.
I don’t have a model for this professional career. But I’m going for it. The more I tune in and lean into ONLY the things that light me up, the more I find I’m supported in return.
The “reward” isn’t one paycheck from one organization. “Compensation” comes in many forms, from many places, through many timelines:
Retainer, commission, vesting, gift, access, food, shelter, medicine.
Serotonin, oxytocin, being seen, being heard, healing.
Joy, fulfillment, inspiration, recognition, wisdom, experience, friendship, karma, reflections, “social capital.”
Nothing. Unknown. Unknowable.
It’s fluidity of life. It’s freedom. I’m working all the time on things that are joyous and effortless and impactful, including myself. I’m getting closer to doing exactly what I’d want to do everyday if I woke up with complete freedom to follow my highest excitement, which is to take care of my vessel, use my gifts and position to participate in sovereign unity with the civilization version of the Apollo Project to create the most complete and thriving human society we can imagine, and have the spaciousness to be present with what is arising in the moment.
I am not my job. I am a bridge weaver, a visionary, a connector, a healer, a social entrepreneur, a community builder, an all-win leader, an enthusiastic passenger on Spaceship Earth.
In nature, an organism like a tree doesn’t just do one thing — it serves a variety of roles as connective tissue in the ecosystem. I think that’s where I’m headed — fitting well into nature through my choices. Which relates to the misconception around “survival of the fittest.” Of course one needs to reproduce to pass on their genes, but it’s not only about competition; it’s also about cooperation and compassion, i.e. fitting in with nature.
Sophia Rokhlin speaks about bridge building as doing the work of:
“translating and uniting different worldviews and approaches to synergize new, holistic ways of seeing and being.
In biology, we find a concept called the edge effect or ecotone. The edge effect is a term used to describe the place where distinct ecosystems meet. They’re territories of confrontation, chaos, clashing. They’re also territories of innovation, synergy, and even sites for the emergence of new species!
Now think of this edgeconcept as an analogy for cultural cross-pollination and globalization. I, like many others, work in this space between indigenous and mixed, botanical and technological, romantic and practical, imaginary and empirical. These are contemporary edge zones.”
“The edge effect is expressed in mathematics as a shape called the vescia piscis — the intersection of two disks with the same radius.. This shape holds significance for esoteric traditions and in Early Christian art, representing a sacred unity and meeting point.
It is from this linking of two discrete circles that life multiplies (think of a zygote growing) and evolves into grander, more complex geometrical expressions of itself. It also looks quite a bit like the human portal into life ;)”
I love this space between. It’s where the magic and mystery is for me. Join me in playing around in this emergence pool!
🌬 Coming Attractions
While we’re here, I want to list some other interests du jour. Let me know where there’s overlap for you! I’m keen on:
- Learning more about my ancestry, dreamwork, bridge weaving, massage, Judaism, prayer, herbal medicine, systems thinking, sacred geometry, Egypt, regenerative agriculture, love and relationships, dance and song. From elders, the indigenous, strangers, you.
- Exploring nature for extended periods of time, bird watching, ancient sites, hot springs, the dark corners of my psyche, intentional communities.
- Sharing what I learn through speaking, writing, social media (returning to Instagram shortly after six year hiatus!).
- Writing a letter to Wharton inviting a conversation about the institution’s evolution to support the next generation of leaders to meet the demands of our time (with folks from the Wharton Wisdom community)
- Starting a New Paradigm / New Economy / Game B job board
- Collaborating with my mother on an online community she manages
- Loving my body, my family, my friends from all threads of life. Celebrating them.
- Listening more deeply to my body, to people with different perspectives
- Creating art, memes, stories, templates, quality time with those in my life
- Watching more sunrises and sunsets, science fiction movies, birds, stars
- Visiting a permaculture community in Central America
- Aligning my financial resources with my values and heart
- Hosting a special gathering for The premier of Avatar II (12/17/2020)
- Growing my hair out and trying new styles
💟 My Needs
In addition to support on the major projects outlined above, I am inviting in help with:
- Renting a car so I can move more freely
- Finding a virtual assistant who shares personal and professional interests
- Creating a personal website
- Planning a 30th birthday in NY and Bay Area in April
- Finding opportunities to speak in public
- Identifying transformational people and projects to support
- Subletting rooms in intentional communities, especially with folks I share synergistic dharmas with.
- Decolonizing my life
- Watching media that expands my mind — on psychology, philosophy, spirituality, ecology, indigenous wisdom, ancient history
- Holding me accountable to operating with integrity in thought, speech and action
- Loosening my hips
- Trying out a men’s circle
🌎 Geographical Plan
I’m currently nomadic, increasingly in San Diego (One Nation HQ), with several trips to the east coast planned throughout the year.
Other events I’m orienting towards include:
- Passover in the Desert (April | California)
- Aniwa Gathering (June | Berkshires)
- Burning Man (August | Nevada)
- United We Stand — Hands Along the Borders (October | Border)
- Eclipse (December | South America)
- Potentially: Egypt and Atlantis, Nomad Peace Caravan
And so it is.
I trust you 2020. Thank you 2010's! So much gratitude. Thank you for this life, for seeing me, for being patient with and forgiving me, for inviting me on incredible adventures, for teaching me.
All in for all life.
Aho mitakuye oyasin!
Peace.
For 100% Liberation Throughout Space and Time,
Andrew
אַבְרָהָם חַנָּה
Thank you Jonathan Dubin and Simon Mont for the inspiration to write this piece.
EDIT: I wrote most of this piece in third week of December. In the last few days of the year, several things shifted such that what’s written here does not as closely match what I might write today about the near future. Though I think it’s useful to communicate what I did write here as it remains true in a broader sense, as well as within the main organization I am orienting towards working with in a deeper capacity (One Nation).
