Cooking Lentils, Social Movements, and Leadership

I've recently made lentils a major staple of my diet.  I eat them daily, along with rice, in something like a salad.  They are cheap, highly nutritious, tasty, and most importantly, easy to make

The lentil production/cooking process is rather simple.  First, you get an idea of just how much you want to make (usually about 2 cups worth lasts me the week).  Second, you sort out the lentils, making sure there are no rocks or seriously decayed pieces.  Then, you add about 3-4 times the water of the amount of lentils, and apply heat until a boil.  From there, you allow a slow simmer for 20 minutes or so, turn off heat, let sit for about 10 minutes, and you are done!

I did it yesterday with an open top, mostly because my pot is small and the lentils+water pretty much fill the whole thing.  In contrast to the previous times I've cooked, I observed intently this time.  I watched through the whole boiling process

What I could see could be observed with beans and the cooking of other legumes, but as I began to move beyond just seeing and actually began reading, I found insight.  As a student and desired leader in social movements

Slowly but surely, as the heat increases, lentil by lentil will rise to the top.  I thought about this in the context of movement:  as oppression increases, as injustices begin to accelerate, there will always be leaders that first come to the top, that first speak out amidst the intense, sweltering heat

As things get hotter, we see more and more lentils rising.  The crackling boil is something they can take no more.  They begin rising faster and faster, with greater quantity each passing moment.  At this
point, the social ill has become so intense and become ubiquitous to so many that they've no choice but to join in

Lentils coming to a boil.  Where do they go from here?

Eventually, as the heat reaches its apex, the lentils will begin to fall out of the pot.  The water will also explode out, temporarily fighting the flame.  However, the flame is still at the same capacity; it has been injured but not crippled; it has lost a battle but not a war

The flame comes back and maintains.  Meanwhile, the lentils have suffered great attrition, falling out of the pot to be burnt by the flame or left at the side of the road to ruin

What was once a harmonious dancing of lentils at the top of the pot, a certain kind of kinetic power and unity, is now gone.  The grand expectations that the lentils had when they rose has now receded or will soon die out when they "fall out".  The lentils still left in the pot literally get burnt:  they are completely sapped of energy or just anesthetized to their suffering, barely able to move

I have seen this in my own experience with movement building and organizing.  I'll take police brutality work in Cleveland, for example (this is not a definitive analysis but just a working one, and I am not immune from any of this critique):

• Black Lives Matter and the work in Ferguson expose what had been festering to decades to a much larger audience.  In Cleveland, this meant many marches and solidarity efforts during the Summer of 2014.  The boil is about halfway there
• Tamir Rice and Tenisha Anderson are both killed in a very short span.  This follows the 137 shots and a number of other cases of brutality.   It is the last straw.  We are nearly at full boil
• A number of groups mobilize almost immediately and swiftly, beginning to demonstrate.  They are what we could call those first lentils.  As others begin to see just how exigent the situation is and how necessary there action will be, they join in.  There is serious harmony, with some groups working around the clock as a loving community.  They are the following lentils
• There are city hall protests, a shutdown of streets and highways, and some shifts in discourse from public officials.  The Justice Department drops a scathing critique of the Cleveland Police Department and the City of Cleveland enters into Consent Decree.  The water begins being pushed out of the pot and hitting the flame
• At the same time, group dissension, burnout, and lack of strategic focus prevail and are major inhibiting factors.  City Council goes home for the winter break.  A number of concerns outside of initial demands also begin entering the debate.  Many lentils begin falling out or being pushed to the side of the pot
• The City enters a Consent Decree that leave many bitter, disappointed, and unsatisfied.  It lacks many crucial accountability measures.  Many either take time away from activism as a whole or find their solace in other issues i.e. the 2016 Presidential election (Presidential elections often being the ultimate lentil pot!)

Burnout amidst all the stress and heat

Speaking of Presidential elections, another example of this would be the Obama campaign(s).  In 2008, President Obama was the leader lentil, responding to the heat of 2 wars, massive deficits, growing inequality, and the prevalent notion that something different was needed in Washington.  He was charismatic, attractive, and resonant like few candidates have ever been

Obama generated volunteers and small donors like few had ever done before.  Obama for America had a massive canvassing team, massive data, and the energy to making things happen.  However, after the election, much of that was tempered and that reserve of people was not utilized to continue making changed.  We foisted our hopes with a leader and not completely in ourselves.  The lentils came crashing out after they thought the election heat was over

I often leave with questions.  Part of my journey and struggle is becoming a more loving, empathetic, and adaptive leader.  The reality is that the harmony of the lentils is often short-lived because we put too much emphasis on a few leaders, because we don't realize how strong the flame is and properly analyze how it's been able to maintain heat since time immemorial, because we tend to begin rising with great passion that we just don't know how to sustain or passion that inhibits collected vision and strategy

Given this,  how do we

1. Sustain passions at the initial level or crescendo them as time goes on?  
2. Build organizations that are dependent on leadership but not necessarily leaders?
3. Best understand what the "powers that be" do that makes them so strong for so long?
4. Keep lentils from crashing and burning?
5. Get people to think as visionaries and as long-term as possible?

Try to be as practical as possible.  I'd love to see your answers.  It will be immensely important to my learning!

Onwards, 

D