“Yeah, wins are possible. That only happened through community, through collaboration, through everyone giving what they could." -- Pattie Gonia

I first heard about it over a year ago at Hollywood Climate Summit 2024 and now it's here! If you are in Europe, find it on HBOMax. UK? It's coming for you soon! Here in USA, buy it on Prime. So what is it? Go Gently. An eco travel show that puts the 3 Step Reciprocity on full display with 2 faces you may recognize in the lead photograph by Kenzie Kate.

Reviewing all 6 episodes though these 3 steps would take ages, so let's dive into how it shows up in this wonderful Atmos article...

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

Travel shows can be an interesting challenge to this concept. What is home? How do we treat it? Are we honoring it or exploiting it?

What's kinda interesting about this road trip is that it starts at one host's home in LA and ends near the others in Portland, OR. And in between, they take the time to gently greet people, places, and experiences with curiosity, fun, and intention.

Let's start with the host who also served as executive producer and author of the same titled book. Bonnie Wright -- who you may recognize from....

Bonnie

So often we compare people now. We compare each other through their political views, their experience, their job. But going through different landscapes, it was fascinating seeing the different ways people were being affected by the geography of their environment, but also how many similarities there were. No matter if it was the ocean that they were fighting for or a tree, there were just so many similarities, and they were all applying similar ideas. So it was really nice to bring all those landscapes together and show the interconnectedness of it all.

Willow

And our love of nature is something that everyone can rally around.

Bonnie

It’s a part of everyone’s life. It truly is.

Indeed. Earth is home to us all. It is a thread that connects us in similar ways and creates uniqueness that represents the ecosystems we live in.

Here's the one and only Pattie Gonia's take on that sense of connection through nature...

Pattie

That’s what it’s all about. It’s about connections. It’s about supporting each other. I think that all happened because of a connection to nature and a connection to place. I keep on thinking about the sand dunes up in Oregon with Queer Nature. That was unbelievable. We got to go out with Pınar and So and do some wildlife tracking and just to see how many different languages a landscape is speaking all at once that I often don’t listen to or don’t see because I’m not paying attention to it. I think about that with every environment I’m in now.

Perhaps after watching the show, you'll tap in like that in every environment too.  LMK! 

Discover Your Earth Archetypes

Just a couple weeks ago, I finally shared all the references I was finding to people talking in different ways about the 3 Step Reciprocity Cycle. In just a short space of time, I've encountered several moments where other folks are looking at how to change the question:

What Can I Do?

And asking new questions very similar to what we do here at Earth Archetypes:

Who Are You?

Here is is from not only Pattie but the interviewer (who is actually in the final episode of the show!)

Willow

There’s a subtle cognitive shift that happens from not just, what can I do? but, what can I give and what is it that I have to offer? It’s such a beautiful thread in both of your works. 

Pattie

With everyone we met, a throughline for me was taking who you are and what you’re good at and applying it to what you care about in this world.

PS.  I'm excited to talk to you next week about how it came up twice in a climate organizing event I attended called Rabble Rouser :) 

PPS.  Feeling ready to ask yourself these new questions?  Take the Earth Archetypes quiz!

Work Together in Community

Often when I reflect on this step, I think of compatibility. Like how someone with a physical touch Love Language can be compatible with a quality time. In fact, when you take the quiz, you'll see a page in the report devoted to compatibility between the different Earth Archetypes. How we can celebrate our different skills and perspectives to create something fabulous. I definitely hear this in in Pattie's quote:

Pattie

I also wanted to make something that felt like it represented the sides of the climate movement that I love most, which is people working on solutions, building community, and not just talking about it but doing things. I feel like that’s what this show really captured.

But something a bit more hangs on Bonnie's words....

Bonnie

It was my intention, which definitely happened, to just fall in love again with nature and human beings. I feel like we’re constantly told we can be the problem, but to actually like us and to like people and to like the places we go was just really important to me, and I felt that during the process of making it.

Love.  

Closed Loop Cycle

You may notice that several of these quotes could be put in more than one step of the Reciprocity Cycle. That's part of the beauty. They are inherently interconnected. But just like the Earth Archetypes that help give us a starting place to understand spectrums of possibilities, the steps help our human minds land somewhere. My hope is just like with Pattie and Bonnie, the steps blur for us all for an unbroken cycle.

Pattie

The show is not just focused on climate solutions and people and just this endless slog. It’s really showing the balance of fighting hard, mourning hard, and playing hard. What we really wanted to show as well, which happened naturally, was the play between both of us and the play and discovery of learning new things and meeting new people.

Everything isn’t climate related, but also everything kind of was. It was really fun to just go thrifting with Bonnie and to pick out a dress for a dinner party with her at this secondhand store. We wanted to show these practical things that we all know in the environmental movement that are easy life hacks that are more fun, like thrifting or trying new things with cooking that could be more vegetarian. But also, just showing that two people who are fighting for climate are also having fun is really important because a lot of people right now are wondering if they have permission to celebrate. I think it’s very important to remember that our queer elders, for example, knew that and baked that into the movement. In fact, that fun and that joy is what encouraged people to join the movement. 

And we did so through such things as literally putting Bonnie in drag for the first time, so you can look forward to seeing that in the show as well.

It was quick drag at its finest. And it was also just play. So much of this show is just a road trip with friends and showing people that it’s not all a fight.