Productive Discomfort Zones and Me

I was reading my friend Laura's blog( see the link)-and she was writing about stepping out of her comfort zone. I was a bit amazed- because that is a phrase I heard last night. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. I was attending part 1 of a 7 week “class” on how to do community organizing. The people that were gathered had a specific target in mind- the elections in November and specifically how to ensure that the sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpio is not re-elected. The speaker, a local community organizer used the term “productive discomfort zone”. I readily identified with this term.

Since I have been here in Arizona I have found myself getting more and more agitated about the circumstances that I hear about here in Maricopa County. I wonder about my ability to live in this kind of environment, and really struggle even with the selfishness of this questioning. I am not the target, I am just someone who has a voice-which I recognizes bears responsibility to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

I was listening to a program on NPR, and was intrigued by the woman who was speaking out a couple of years ago against a Worker’s Rights Center being built in their West Virginia neighborhood. This woman was insistent that before the Center be built, the people who would frequent such a building should learn proper English (speech and writing), proper use of electrical appliances (huh?) and proper hygene practices. [*Sidenote: I think I sucked the air out of the office after hearing this woman.]
Needless to say, I think that I have been living in my productive discomfort zone. I anticipate that I will continue to live in this ambiguous state as I continue to live here in Phoenix. It on a whole is a great community, and is awesome to see so many people who gather to learn how to educate themselves, and demand the change in the systems.

I will be visiting the Grand Canyon this weekend, so there will be some great pics and I am sure some musings next week.