On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, massive, overwhelming, incomprehensible disaster struck the northeast coast of Japan. Life for those in the region would never be the same.
This book is about the awakening that follows disaster. About the minutes and hours and months and years that come after now. It is about what happens when we’re smacked on the side of the head and open our eyes, startled out of the trance in which we have been living our days. It is about the opportunities always present, often invisible, to create the lives we want, now.
As the waters from the tsunami flowed back into the ocean, as the last bricks fell from buildings almost destroyed, people began to turn to one another. They grieved, they laughed, they prayed. And they asked, what now?
This book is about my journey with the Japanese people over the last six years. I write about my own story of awakening after plunging into this disaster. I share stories from people who found where to take their first step, and the next. I offer the tools and processes and worldview I introduced as people came together to discover and create what comes after now.
This book is built around two big ideas. The first is that after disaster, we find our way forward, together. We come awake, together. Disaster obliterates the past, plunges the present into chaos and co- coons the future. We need each other to see and build the new. The second big idea is that we don’t have to wait for the overwhelming tragedy of disaster to make the communities and lives we want. We can engage each other with respect, curiosity and generosity and begin to co-create what we want, now.
For a more in-depth overview of the book, please check out these chapter summaries.
If I could only have one book about leading social innovation on my shelf, AfterNow would be my choice. To read Bob Stilger’s stories is to sit next to a master practitioner — one who is both humble and generous with his teaching. AfterNow provides much more than a set of principles and methods for community-based change. It invites us into a way of being that unleashes hope, imagination, and resolve in the face of confusion and despair.”
Larry Dressler USA, author, Standing in the Fire
Bob Stilger has written a brilliant, personal account of how to apply a learning orientation to complex issues of community renewal. His engagement with events in Japan after the Triple Disasters represents a real-world application of working with volatility and uncertainty in groups, social networks, and organizations. AfterNow is alive with theory, models, practices, and processes that can enliven any group.
Alan Briskin USA, author, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace
Bob Stilger is a genius who weaves the future from the here and now when we don’t know what is right and are in chaos and confusion. I’ve worked with Bob for many years in Japan and have been with him when he senses into the invisible atmosphere — the BA — and then poses the questions the BA needs. He loves Japan deeply and wholeheartedly and is able to be in the BA with a perspective, position, insights, and professionalism. This love and determination is only possible for a person who believes in people and BA. I believe that is what happened in Bob’s work in Japan in our time of chaos. AfterNow is a hint to shed a light on what’s next in the world. I hope the love and wisdom of this book will reach many.”
Ai Sanda Japan, founder, Co-Creation! Project, Recruit Lifestyle Company, LTD.
In Bob Stilger’s beautifully crafted and life-affirming book, AfterNow, we hear the echo of the poet John Keat’s line: ‘There is nothing stable in the world; uproar’s your only music.’ We hear this music every time we are surprised by those many aspects of life that are not controlled by us. AfterNow guides us towards finding faith that even in the presence of harm; life knows what it is doing. Our encounter with the unknown is not only something to accept but to be sought after. By following the path through anxiety, grief, and sudden loss of place, life can be transmuted into something of beauty within which a deeper truth can be found.
Michael Jones Canada, pianist and author, The Soul of Place
A Gift. Bob Stilger has given us a rare gift offered with such tender love and compassion. Called by his heart and friendship, he traveled into chaos and disaster to become a companion to the people of Japan. With his heartfelt listening and companionship, he supported an organically unfolding response to the Triple Disasters. From the intensity of the Japanese cauldron comes a tapestry of rich lessons. In AfterNow, Bob brings us several simple but profound maps for how to find our way through monumental rivers of chaos and confusion together. ... I am grateful for the contribution of this book is to our collective journey.”
Maaianne Knuth Zimbabwe, founder Kufunda Learning Village
AfterNow is a work of brilliance that captures both the unique essence of the Japanese rebuilding efforts and the power of working within community in uncertain times. Part memoir and part manual, Bob’s story of love and commitment grows out of the tragedy of March 11, 2011. I work in and with Japanese contexts, and AfterNow speaks to the heart of the rebuilding efforts and the transformational power that rose from the destruction. Read this book and you will not only be filled with hope but will also take away some practical tools as a contributor to the greater good in the world.
Britt Yamamoto USA, executive director, iLEAP
I have grown up hearing tales of the vibrant, defiant, quixotic individuals and communities that my father has worked with around the world. I have grown up in Japan. I have grown up with the chance to meet and work with those whose stories wend through these pages. This book brings to life the richness and wisdom that I have always found in those voices, that show me that another world is possible, one in which ‘moving beyond business as usual’ is not just an empty catch phrase. They give me hope.
Annie Stilger Virnig USA, Knowledge Management, Learning, and Capacity Building Specialist, UNDP Global Programme on Nature for Development
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