My father - an extreme moderate - used to always remind me when things got bad that NOTHING compared to 1942. He said it looked like Hitler was going to take over the world. The “greatest generation” hadn’t yet been born into mythology, the American Collossus hadn’t made landfall in Europe, The Eastern Front hadn’t turned — and all looked bleak.
Today - yes, we have uncertainty. The Citibanks have collapsed. People’s savings have been devastated. Washington is trying to revive an obviously failed system. Republicans - AMAZINGLY - are touting deregulation as a virtue. Let me remind them of a 2nd Century Mishna passage that says more or less that you need a strong government, or people “will run wild like wolves.
Despite the confusion and uncertainty — we have food — although sprayed with toxicity (also amazingly, a commonly accepted reality!). We have iPhones. We have incredible abundance all around. So it ain’t 1933.
And it ain’t 1942.
But it is a time to SERIOUSLY rethink how we… do business as a species.
Rapacious capitalism isn’t going to sustain us (neither will rapacious socialism or communism, for any die-hard reds out there!).
Rapaciousness won’t keep us alive on a planet we love — one that chirps, sqwaks, trills, warbles and burbles (I suppose we can now supply all the “tweets” we need.)
Isolation won’t serve us. And social media is making a change here.
We need to rethink it all.
We need to rethink who is my family? Who is my community? How expansive can I make these categories? How many people can I include in the One? How many species?
All sentient beings, anyone? Mr. Buddha was on to something.
I am haunted by a phrase that came to me while I was immersed in Esmerelda, my faithful hot tub: The Economy of Nurture.
How do we restructure our economies, our buying patterns, our business life, our family life, our eating habits (any fish left in the ocean? Anyone? Anyone?) — to align ourselves with what we TRULY ARE: spiritually yearning beings, craving CONNECTION with nature and each other, and CRAVING a sense of leading a MEANINGFUL as well as a PLEASURABLE life.
Do you have any ideas about this? I am thinking about it daily. I love new horizons, and this is a good time to peer over what’s been to what could be.
I am inpsired by Daniel Pinchbeck and his fledgling Evolver.net, as well as by Satyen Raja and his latest thoughts on building nurturing communities from the ground up.
Let me hear your voice on this. A global crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
Peace, Love, Joy and Cabernet…
Adam
My idea is our One Global Body is pregnant..contractions hurt..
gestation can be full term..
we need that..Re-evolution!
we are waiting for our own Global Rebirth.
This is why collapse can sound negative, but after all Nature teaches us cycles rules. Mancrafted systems cannot baffle the infinitive varieties of regular change and thank Nature our solar system works like that.
I cannot tell you right now the etimological meaning of the greek word crysis: But it’s Positive!!
Nurturing..yes we are nurturing beings in nurturig communities, but our egos pretend to release and create the big illusion we are individual nurturing only ourselves, our families, our tribes, our people, our communities, for our own’s sake.
Let’s shift, drinking some Amarone, and why not, getting infos about the Slow Food philosophy!
Watch Goro Miyazaki’s animation..and let’s watch over our Global Rebirth, full of joy and spiritual devotion and pragmatism.
Intelligent and well thought out. Awesome questions about relationship between things, Mr. Buddha spoke on this as well! Signing out thinking of your questions, they’ll take time to answer, but like positive change, its time well spent.
peace
Robert Allen