Unusually for this site, we are going to review a non-fiction book. That said, review might not be the correct term. I’d like to use the book as a springboard to think about writing specifically, though all will become clear as we move on.
Modello was the name of a housing project just south of Miami with a reputation for drugs, alcohol, violence, prostitution, truancy, and many other social disorders.
The book is the story of how this community turned itself around. The sub-titles on the cover give an extra clue. One states, “A story of hope for the inner city and beyond.” Another, “An inside-out model of prevention and resiliency in action.”
At the centre, at least initially, is Dr Roger Mills. Dr Mills was a traditionally trained psychologist whose life was turned around by exposure to the wonderfully charismatic Sydney Banks.
Banks, previously a Scottish welder of average education, had come to a realisation about life that had changed his entire outlook. Banks distilled this understanding down to three principles, those of mind, consciousness, and thought.
Mind is the innate wisdom, common sense and mental health available for all. Consciousness is the essence that allows us to be aware of our day to day experience, and thought is the commodity that powers our experience in the moment.
To be clear, what Sydney Banks, Roger Mills, and many others were saying is that each of us is experiencing the result of our thought at this instant. If we change the thought, we can change the experience. It is an inside-out model of life rather than an outside-in. Through understanding when a low mood, for instance, is colouring the lens of our outlook on life, we can embrace the realisation in the moment, smile at it, and move on the something more positive.
If this seems fanciful or non-sensical, I will invite you to sit with this explanation for a while. Better still, why not look up Sydney Banks online, or perhaps modern practitioners, such as Michael Neill or Jamie Smart.
But what the book “Modello” offers is the transcription of this method applied practically to a deprived and ignored housing projects in Miami. It is a joy to read first-person accounts from residents throughout the book in their authentic language. Through these accounts, we see a transformation in a group of individuals, which seems to seep out and change the community.
Take, for example, Ruby. Ruby was addicted to crack cocaine and, through gaining an understanding of her own thought, was able to find the motivation to seek help and attend a rehabilitation clinic.
Then consider Lenny. Lenny was bright and ambitious but had sought to steer his talent towards selling drugs. The logic seemed simple. Looking around, Lenny could see that those young men around him who had nice clothes and cars were selling drugs. It was a straightforward story to keep repeating that this was the only way to succeed. However, because one of the Modello ladies reached out to him, recognising his talents for what they were, Lenny not only changed himself but influenced his friends as well. As the book closed, Lenny and his friends had established a Student Tenant’s Association and were all in college – this coming from a background where college would not previously be considered an option.
The book contains many similar tales of triumph over perceived adversity. Schools were turned around, Parent Teacher Associations created, and neighbourhood crime seemingly defeated. Individual women stopped drinking, ended abusive relationships, went back to school, and found meaningful jobs.
So what happened? I think people made a connection with their natural mental health and common sense. People also realised that their lives had value. With this realisation, it didn’t make sense to take drugs, drink, or endure an abusive relationship. Then, free from the shackles of vice or abuse, people began to see hope, which fuelled their subsequent actions.
Allow me to address the topic differently. Imagine our lives as a notebook. At birth, it is full of pristine sheets of paper. This blank page is our mental wellbeing, and in this state, the paper is open to receiving anything.
But as we grow, things are written onto those pages. In moments of reflection, we re-read the sentences, add to them, and create the person we recognise as us. It doesn’t matter if what we read is positive or negative; we build upon our stories and embellish everything with thought.
If challenged, we become defensive and fight tooth and nail for this self-created picture – this notebook that makes us an individual, but as the words on the page, self is a series of repeated beliefs – many of which do not serve us.
For, despite all of the writings in our collective notebooks, one fact remains true. The pristine page still exists underneath it all, and the greater part of ourselves exists in the space between the letters. Through recognising the words as thought and having the consciousness to realise that we are just a book, we have the opportunity to connect to the pristine page of mind.
What is more, there is only one infinite notepad, and all of our lives are written on it. At a fundamental level, we are all connected. When, on some level, the residents of Modello and Homestead Gardens realised this, suspicion, hate, and violence no longer made sense. To hurt another was to hurt oneself. The only emotion that makes sense, after that, is love.
So, where does this leave us in terms of the written art with which so many of us engage? Well, in this article, I would like to focus on inspiration and ideas.
One thing that initially troubled me with the three principles of mind, consciousness, and thought, was that it inferred that writers were not the creators of ideas. Rather, we are conduits of ideas that exist in Universal Mind, somehow woven into the pristine empty page of nothing. We don’t create; we connect.
But as I sat with that idea, I began to feel more at home with it. I think I am okay with it now.
You see, for a long time, I haven’t really written much. My ideas seem to have dried up, and the more I concentrate on “having ideas”, the more things will slow down, as I am clogged up in thought. So I am giving myself permission not to write, and I am doing other things.
We have all seen some media where successful people are questioned about where they get their best ideas and breakthroughs. The answers are always very similar. Insights seem to come when you’re in the shower, doing exercise, washing up, taking a walk, ironing, or even sleeping. Because these are the sort of activities where you can drift off into a flow state and temporarily quiet that chatter of thought. At this moment, you open the space for inspiration and creativity to sneak in.
So, thanks to the residents of Modello, I think there is plenty of ironing, cleaning, and exercise on the horizon for me.
But I would also recommend reading this book, especially if this piece has struck a chord. It could just change the way you look at life and yourself. It may dig down into a seam of hope, just as it did with Ruby, or Lenny, or any of the others who share their unique tales.
Wherever the book takes you, go with love, best wishes and may inspiration flood through you.