It appears we are living in a time we could label with the quote, ” The more things change the more they remain the same” .
Humans are stubborn folk. Entrenched in the rhythms of sameness even in the face of extinction. The world burns and lines are still queuing up for the next gadget, tickets for the next great festival, the yoga self embodied empower retreat, find your sexual power summit, or new must have fashion accessory. We are distracted by the rush of “feel good” and “be you” as the world crashes into a hellhole of fire, decay, wars, and dirty waters.
I could ask why yet that is it’s own kind of self inflicted hell. A masochistic brain exercise I will leave for someone else to flaggilate themselves over.
In the nature of my work I hear the battle cry of change and revolution all the time. There are books, lectures, Gurus, teachers, classes workshops, YouTube videos, endless memes and posts about it…. one can and some do go broke on the investments to navigate change as a life choice/style. With all those resources and methods one would think we got this. We know this. We can do this. And yet… What I see is quite different.
“…I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract
Explain the change, the difference between
What you want and what you need, there’s the key,
Your adventure for today, what do you do
Between the arms of the day? I believe my shirt is wearing thin
And change is what I believe in…” REM
The willful denialism and addictive distraction to not feel the collective grief and suffering is painful to watch unfold. Yet, it is there all across the social media posts and in the faces of people trying hard to live. Just live in this world.
It’s get choked out with the bypass culture of look at my perfect life and you can do this too – just believe in yourself and have great sex with that perfect partner, work from home as an entrepreneur, Don’t dwell on the things that cause you to feel overwhelmed. Don’t focus the the negative. Etc…. and this gives the illusion of choice and change and the world keeps marching forward towards extinction.
The contrast to the reality of our situation and the response is a profound statement to the human condition. The more we’re shown the truth of how we are in the world the more we distract and dig our heels in. We come up with long complicated policies, projects, and procedures that get mired in the bureaucratic mud of government as time ticks away. Those wanting to grab the last bit of power and money continue to spread misinformation to suppress the truth and gain support for ther cause.
People feel helpless. They are worn down to the place of just surviving. They do as they are told and look for a savior in the form of a “fix” to make them feel something that makes all this seem like a life not wasted.
I just pointed out a whole lot of depressing stuff about where we are at right now on the planet. Some of you might be at different ends of the spectrum with this but we are all contributing to it’s continued health as a system design to crush life on this planet.
I titled this blog Change. Real change requires something very different from what we are doing. It starts with the honest awareness of where we are at and taking actions so radical that we no longer participate in the structures that have brought us to this place.
It is a commitment of noncompliance to the system that has us enslaved. The system that directs and defines our worth and then gives or denies based on the metric of your participation in system’s growth. It can only survive if we keep feeding it. And it has conditioned many to see their worth through that lens and fight for the system even when it does nothing but humiliate, isolated, and deny them dignity.
We have to stop. I wish there was some nice neat way to do it. But there is not.
Radical change can only happen when there is a radical shift in awareness followed by engaged action in a new direction.
I have spend the last two years pretty much homeless traveling around the country teaching and documenting this country’s reality. I visit my circles of communities from coast to coast. I take the pulse of their emotional states. I see their struggles just to be who they are. I watch them grow old. Have children. Some die. I have experience their magic and joy. I feel it is a blessing to have these connections.
In all this work to be aware, I have experienced poverty and wealth. I have seen the new and shiny and the worn out and homeless. I have seen things so beautiful that it breaks your heart in to a billion pieces because there is something greater out there. It could be some God or just the physical forces that drive this universe and it contains us. It created us. And it loves us without conditions.
I have cried a lot. I have sat overwhelmed wondering if there is anything I can do that is meaningful. I started writing. I want to share with you all what I see and maybe it will be useful.
My conclusions are limited to my experience. That experience comes from living as a witness to this world and watching how it treats people, places and things. What I feel is most important now, comes down to this, I think until we are ready to stop participating in the very systems that we know are our overlords to extinction and we are ready to fight for the a valuable life of dignity for all then, we need to stop pretending that we are investing in change. We clearly have not.
If we want the next generations to have all the resources and beauty we had then we need to protect the resources and places that are left with a fierceness that is equal to our love of life and living.
Every day we make one of two choices. We either chose to live or die. And all our actions will support which ever one we choose. That is probably the first change we can each do daily.
Shaman @ Large 