Paths to Healing

Tomorrow, I’m going to dance. Outdoors. At the Himalayan Fair in Berkeley. A longtime tradition in the city, the fair was started 39 years ago by scientist Arlene Blum, founder and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute. In 1978, Blum, an avid mountaineer at the time, led the first-ever all-women ascent of the treacherous slopes of Annapurna I, the world's tenth highest peak.
 
It was her treks across Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, and India, where she enjoyed many local festivals and fairs, that inspired Blum to start this fair. What began as “a small picnic gathering” of local Tibetan and Nepali residents and their friends has since grown into a two-day gala featuring crafts, food, and music and dance performances.
 
On the science side, Blum, a biophysical chemist by training, has been instrumental in helping prevent or reduce the use of  “six classes” of harmful chemicals, including flame retardants and fluorinated chemicals in children’s sleepwear, furniture, electronics, and other products worldwide.
 
I called up Blum today to ask her if she saw any connection between her work as a scientist, and her efforts to keep this venerable arts and crafts fair going.

They are deeply connected, she responded.
 
“For me, a guiding principle has always been tikkun olam,” Blum told me, referring to the Jewish concept of taking action to perfect or repair the world. (Tikkun olam means “healing the world” in Hebrew.) By connecting people to art, culture, and food from different communities, the fair helps foster understanding across differences. And that helps make the world a little better, in a way that’s different but just as important as keeping toxic chemicals out of our land, water, and bodies, she explained. "I feel very privileged to be able to do both these things,” she said.
 
During a time when our racial and cultural differences have been engendering so much hate and violence and pain, Blum’s words really resonated. I’m going to keep them in mind when I step onstage with my fellow dancers tomorrow and invoke Shiva, the Lord of Dance and Destruction, who paves the way for beneficial change.
 

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