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Do Well by Doing Good

Posted by: Jane Jelenko   |   Posted in: Living Intentionally, Loss of Status, Summoning the Courage, Social/political Activism, Jane's Musings
Monday, January 28, 2008

 

Rainbow Warrior

The baby boomer search for spiritual fulfillment has a long history. The ’60s “Age of Aquarius” gave rise to the ’70s consciousness raising groups and est retreats. And, in the last two decades, we have witnessed a marked increase in traditional religious study and a heightened interest in mysticism (kabala is a good example) by followers ranging from Madonna to your normal-looking next-door neighbor. No one could miss the proliferation of seminars and self-help books designed to help us discover our purpose. Chicken Soup for the Soul, first published in 1993, has spawned more than 105 versions, not including six books in Spanish.

The spiritual seekers we met while researching Changing Lanes had pursued first careers with the goal of maximizing income and status. Now, in midlife, they have taken the opportunity to rearrange priorities and devote more of their time to exploying the spiritual experience. But none of them is sitting around contemplating her navel. What distinguishes them is that they have moved beyond personal introspection to apply their spirituality in meaning ways.

 

We heard about Joy Silver, a brilliant feminist and leader in the gay and lesbian community. Her years of spiritual study and practice have informed her passion for creating inclusive communities. What we admire is that she created a profit-making business model based on her core values to serve a social purpose. Joy’s story proves the old adage that you can indeed “do well by doing good.” Living purposefully does not require you to disengage from the world. You can earn a good living while doing something that has meaning for you.

Picture Mighty Mouse in high platform shoes. Magnetic energy packed into a five-foot frame. She sits lotus style in her desk chair, widow’s peak now visible after tossing off her big black hat. Short legs, big chest, tiny hands—like the cartoon caped crusader, Joy Silver makes a powerful impression.

The wall of her office displays the plot map of her company’s $32 million real estate development project, called RainbowVision. It is the first gay and lesbian retirement community in the country. Joy raised a combination of debt and equity for the innovative project and oversaw its development. If you think that RainbowVision is the culmination of an illustrious career in real estate, you would be quite wrong.

For 20 years, Joy was a bass guitar player and singer. She was a featured musician in Lilith, the feminist rock group that burst on the scene in the mid ’70s. Blessed with outsized talent and energy, Joy believed that she could bring about social change through her music. Even as a child, Joy recognized that her sexual orientation made her somehow “different” and all her life, she has felt a compulsion to bring about a fairer, more balanced world.

Joy was something of a child prodigy, learning to play Spanish guitar at her father’s side. Still a babe when she attended college, she majored in English, attracted by the new wave of women’s literature. At nineteen, she got her Masters degree from the Goddard Graduate School for Social Change, focusing on Women’s Studies.  This was not to be the end of Joy’s sponge-like fascination with feminist issues.

Her formal studies completed, Joy became a professional rock musician. Living on the road gave her the opportunity to read voraciously and to explore a variety of social-spiritual forms. She studied her own tradition, Judaism, with Lynn Gottlieb, who in the ’70s was the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi. Joy dove into bible and comparative religion studies, focusing on the role of women in tribal societies, in the same way that she approached feminist literature and anthropology in university. She came away convinced that “disorganized religion is the only way to go” and now identifies herself a “Pagan Jew.”

But she has other identities as well. With a self-mocking smile, she claims membership in the Clan of the Wolf, the tribe of Lilith and the Nation of Isis. Sounds like the poster child for New Age dilettantism, but Joy is not a dabbler. She is a serious anthropology student and spiritual explorer. In the ’80s, she joined one hundred women for a Wolf Clan Gathering to study with the Native American grandmothers in their teaching lodge. According to their culture, the wolf is the power animal and they taught women how to relate to that aspect of their being. Through the experience of simple dance and vision exercises, Joy learned the one truth that continues to sustain her: that we are all related in nature and in spirit.

Recalling how the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” had special significance for Joy as a young girl, she adopted the rainbow metaphor to convey the message of inclusiveness underlying all of her activism. When her performing career began to ebb, she sat down to write a rock opera, titled Rainbow Warrior, weaving old myth elements into a new personal myth as a means to fight the social battle for an inclusive society. Four year later, the metaphor would also be the namesake for the biggest undertaking of Joy’s second act.

By the mid 1990’s, the gay and lesbian community had made great strides toward achieving equal rights—but recognized there was a long way to go. They, like their heterosexual peers in the baby boom generation, began to be concerned about what would happen to them as they got older. Many did not relish the thought of moving to a traditional retirement home or assisted living facility, away from their support systems and vibrant community activities.

Not one to sit around complaining about her lot, Joy took up the cause. Along with three other principals, she established RainbowVision, a real estate company with the mission of developing “intentional communities” to meet the needs of gays and lesbians as they age. Actually, Joy hates the term aging and prefers to call it more benignly “this part of our life.”

This is not a volunteer project, but rather a for-profit business venture with enormous potential. Their first effort is the $32 million project in Santa Fe with 60 condos and 86 apartments, 26 of which are assisted living units. The concept is uniquely attuned to the needs of their target community. Joy understands that gays and lesbians want to live with like-minded people—where they don’t have to fight for acceptance. She proudly describes the myriad of activities that are offered; making special reference to the Cabaret Club she is building in which she fully expects to sing. There is something for everyone: spa treatments, nature trails, cooking classes, health and fitness facilities, art studios, and organic community gardens.

Joy had the moxie to face the challenge of raising the financing for a major project that had never been done before. She successfully raised money from traditionally staid financial institutions, convincing them that there were significant profits to be made in serving the unmet housing needs of the gay and lesbian community. Joy explains her determination this way: “I would feel isolated if I didn’t have the guts to put it out there.”

Her goal is to develop ten to twelve properties according to the Santa Fe model. A Palm Springs campus is under way, and the San Francisco area facility is in the early stages.

As Joy shares on her company’s website: “Enlightened self interest continues to inspire and energize my involvement in the creation and development of RainbowVision Communities. When I lived in New York, I passed a residence for the extremely frail in Greenwich Village. One night I looked up at the window and saw lights flashing, a mirrored disco ball spinning, heard music blaring, and saw go-go boys dancing. Smiling to myself, I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want. I want that party when I get to be that age. ‘Cause if there’s no dancing, I ain’t goin’!’”

Joy is an inspiration for those who are tired of wringing their hands about the serious problems confronting them or our society at large. She has harnessed the spiritual power inside her to put forward innovative solutions and push for their implementation.

Did you flirt with spirituality in the ’60s and ’70s? Perhaps it’s time to revisit that side of yourself in your more mature years. You might be rewarded with greater insight into why you were put on this earth.

 

 

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