By JUDITH FAIRWEATHER
Last September, Anna Rowinski, an artist and chiropractor with a practice on South Street in Pittsfield, put on a large green hat and took a boldly visible sign that read "Just for today don't be afraid" with her to Park Square.
"I got this idea and it wouldn't let me go - to sit on the circle with this sign. It was my way of being proactive, of not just laying down," she said. "But it was the feedback I got.
Some people acted like they were dying for this. It made me realize how dry we are, how much we are looking for permission to connect" to one another, she said.
When talking to her twin sister, Christine, Rowinski said, "Christine said we need 'wake up economics,' where people value each other rather than the accumulation of wealth, power and prestige."
Rowinski recognized that her sister was right, and she knew what she could do about it. She would create a book with that very same title, incorporating drawings and phrases that had been coming to her for the last three years. "Wake Up Economics: A People's Portfolio," a collaboration between the two Rowinski sisters, was printed in December 2008.
The small book features a single idea on each page, like "Lean toward the unexpected" or "Compassion changes everything," accompanied by softly colored simple drawings.
The drawings, and the idea to create a book, had been born three years earlier.
"I had this little pearl of a dream, and it was so sweet. In this dream, I met this guy, who was 30-something. He says, 'It's me! It's me!' It was like the best of reunions. .
"He kept up this mantra of 'I was there.' What he's getting across is that he's always been there," Rowinski said. His name, Rowinski knew, was Andy.
"It sort of dawned on me over time that maybe I'd just write a story about Andy. But I had a problem. I couldn't draw him."
Rowinski kind of forgot about the project, and time passed. And then the wheel of life spun. Her father died, and her work pressures increased. "Then I came up with this crisis at work where I could go with what the corporation was demanding of me, or I could keep my integrity and sanity and drop them," she said.
She would come to the decision to take the financial risk and drop them, but Rowinski had a sleepless spell during that time.
"So, to discharge that energy, I started drawing. Eight figures were quickly drawn, and then words came to me," she said. Here was Andy, finally on the page.
All of this was happening "in a time of political dysfunction and angst. I could feel it in people," she said.
Rowinski said her dream, her drawings and her experience on Park Square with her sign made it clear to her that it was time to "wake up and realize you're more than your stuff. You don't need stuff. The speed of life disconnects us from what we really are."
Rowinski's book was a reaction to the disconnect she felt between people, but also to the change she experienced the night of Barack Obama's election to the presidency.
"There's a new way of thinking about economy. It's not the old model anymore where the upper crust gets everything and there's nothing left. It's not just wake up economics - it's coming up around us if we stop and listen," she said.
"That me first mentality - we're watching our institutions crumble because of that me first mentality. When those institutions crumble, something new can grow from those cracks that's much, much better," she said.
"The time was right. The feel of the book, the feel of the inauguration - people are yearning for a better quality of life. . There's a very profound shift on that level," she said.
And as for her readers, Rowinski hopes what they take away from her book is not something in their heads, "but with their hearts. It's a portal opening. What the book does is slow you down. To take to heart (the messages in the book) - it could be as simple as smiling at someone at the store."
The message of "Wake Up Economics," then, is to pull away from the it's-all-about-me concept and to let go of the value we place on things and power, beginning once again to recognize the value of humanity.
"We don't have time for our families, we're working so hard. So instead of family values, we need to value our families," she said.
"Wake Up Economics: A People's Portfolio" is available for $9.95 at Chapter's Bookstore and Wild Sage in Pittsfield, Clearwater Natural Foods in Lenox, Kripalu in Stockbridge, the Bookloft in Great Barrington and Judy's Gifts in New Lebanon, N.Y., or by contacting the author at wakeupecon@verizon.net. Info: 413-442-0010.
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