A Time of Profound Change
…micro and macro metamorphosis
This is an update and revision of my February 2017 post on The Green Pen. Even more relevant today.
We are in a time of profound change at all levels, from the personal to the global. Not merely incremental change, or tremors, tweaks, and twiddling at the margins, but rather epochal, systemic transformations in human consciousness and, consequently, in cultural, social, economic, and political values and structures. We are indeed living in interesting times!
The challenge before us is to stay calm and centered in the eye of the swirling world-as-we-know-it-ending whirlwinds, focused on the larger evolutionary transformation underway, and proactively doing our part, in community, to midwife and nurture the aborning consciousness of wholeness. And, of course, in spite of all the chaos, breakdown, and attendant heartache, let’s not forget to trust, laugh, dance, sing, and love.
Given this, we must look beyond merely protesting, contesting, or resisting this or that policy, presidential decree, Supreme Court decision, or cruel injustice. While those acts of outrage are important, we must always keep in mind that they all refer to the immediate micro situation. In the much more profound macro situation, for much longer lasting and far-reaching consequences, we must also project, build, and demonstrate the new, more just and life-affirming behaviors and systems that will replace those dissolving. As Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
And one of those life-affirming behaviors that we now have an opportunity to develop in ourselves and demonstrate is expressing compassion and love for all those souls who are trying desperately to hang on to the world that is suddenly, inexorably, and, rightly so, inevitably being torn asunder in the violent winds of change. We can help reduce the trauma and possible (likely!) violence associated with the metamorphosis by helping those in resistance to overcome the fear and to trust that, after the storm and the debris has settled, new structures will arise to provide meaning and security.
What are the structures dissolving in this country? They include attributes of our nation that many if not most Americans have always thought of as bedrocks of what defines the United States of America but are now crumbling – things such as White majority and dominance; Christian majority and dominance; male dominance; the dominance of money, materialism, capitalism, and the nation-state; and the dominance of humanity over other life and Earth as a whole. Actually, also dissolving is the acceptance and use of dominance itself as a form of relationship. For example, “power over” is morphing into “power with” as a preferred way of relating in families, workplaces, communities, and government.
Of course, exercising power-with requires that we trust one another and the new structures even as they continue to unfold organically and nonlinearly. And that’s very scary to many people. Hence the call for and necessity of compassion, understanding, non-judgement, and love. A difficult, possibly unimaginable task when looking through the micro lens, but perhaps it makes more sense and is more doable from the macro point of view and with an eye to the new world emerging.