Dignity

Staci Haines’ work put to music.

Words and music by Sarah Pirtle based on Staci Haines.

Lyrics

About This Song

Staci Haines in her book called The Politics of Trauma says that safety, belonging, and dignity are core needs that are inherent. On page 133 she writes, “We are tracking for safety, adapting to belonging, and organizing ourselves to find dignity. We are at our best when we have, and can offer all three.”

She also shows three centering directions of up and down, side to side and forward and backward. Another way to say these -- frontal plane, horizontal and longitudinal. I matched these with the three words dignity, belonging, and safety. Then I created a phrase for each that can be sung. In addition, the musical phrases fit together as partner songs in a round.

Here are movement invitations.

“Dignity. I'm here in dignity.”  You’re invited to stretch up and down your own way along the frontal plane.

Belonging. That goes side to side on the horizontal plane and the words are, “I belong, I belong, I claim it. I be-looong.”

The third phrase is about safety. The movement is forward and back on the longitudinal plane. The phrase begins with a hum, mm.

“Mm. Welcome safety. Welcome, welcome.”

My friends in the Interhelp and Work That Reconnects networks, Aravinda Ananda and Ren Koa, organized a study group of The Politics of Trauma. Each week we studied a different chapter. One afternoon while standing at the Elwell’s spring that is sung about in the song “Wild Water,” watching health-giving water pour into jugs, this song began to flow.

Movements in this song can explore bringing in source, as in chi gong we open our bodies to life-giving energy.

Staci Haine’s book is about somatics, healing, and social justice. Rinku Sen describes it this way: “The ideas and tools in Politics of Trauma allow us to listen to our bodies, and then make choices about what we do rather than constantly reacting to what we think are external pressures.”