Monday, November 28, 2016

PLAGUED BY A WORD THAT SUPRISES ME


Decorum.  Yep, 'decorum".
Maybe I've watched too much Downton Abbey and The Crown.
And even those took place as decorum crumbled.

I am a rule breaker, an informalizer, a chaotic creator.
And a balancer.
I tend to lean the other way when there is too much of something.
Too much sad, I'll bring in joy.
Too much craziness, I'll emphasize sanity.

And I am wanting decorum.
No more nightgowns for dresses. Quit cutting out pieces of your clothing.
No more f bombs on TV or as the most commonly used expletive
No more bluster.
No more hysteria
No more puerile hauntings of people's private sex lives

We are a fevered people across the globe
We need world wide acupuncture to cool all of us down.
I might even begin to tolerate Robert's Rules of Order

We do need action--cool and calculated
We do need commitment--the boring diligent kind
We do need calm skills to listen across differences to build collaboration where none seems possible
We need new processes for civil discourse and expert facilitation of them
We need impulse control
We need the discipline of a unifying vision that is worth the irritation and long term effort to bring to fruition
We need to quit making one another wrong while in strong strong disagreement.

For those of us in the US how about The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as a starting point? There's a worthy experiment.







Monday, November 21, 2016

PONDERING OUR COMMON PLIGHT


My time in Rangeley was hushed.
Removed. No phone calls. No Internet signal.
Books and naps.
The recent US election receded with all of its profound negativity and anxiety.
I was in a healing mode, literally, for my body and spirit.
I was sleep walking.

Coming back my experience was tender.
I didn't come shockingly awake.
But I saw with less filtering and the world was different.

I saw:
--hysterics coming from all sides. 
--a gag rule in effect where people were afraid to speak their truth to one another if they weren't already in agreement
--a new seriousness in young adults about how the world works and that they actually do have to be active in its creation of a different way
--many people talking about compassion and empathy as desperately needed
--serious fright about being safe
--polarization as the the dominant dynamic at work in most situations
--sorrow
--a turning in to take care on one's own because that external world is nuts


I stay slightly subdued. Why? Because old forms are falling away. (Some sage said that.) New forms have not emerged. We need what is called the third way.
Opposites are not attracting. We need a new path to emerge in government, schools. religion, health care to name a few. We are without a common vision.
I trust it will emerge. In the meantime, we swim in the chaos  searching for 
that new way. All of us. We are in this together even if it doesn't seem so.









Saturday, November 12, 2016

Sunday, November 6, 2016

FOR MY NORTH AMERICAN READERS


Vote Please

Democracy is a relatively new bold and brave social experiment.
It was designed on the principles of tolerance and balance of power.
We forget that it is fragile
Support it. 

Please Vote