When I wrote the “What is Huh” introduction, I said that the aim of this community is to create “a pathway to something better”. One month later, and whilst I’ve shared some thoughts and ideas that I hope you’ve found interesting, that pathway is still looking a little illusive.
I’m not going to beat myself up about this, big ideas are intimidating and change is harder to create than it is to want, but we do need to make a start, so that’s what today’s post is. A start.
I’ve been daydreaming and note making a lot over the past few days, and whilst I have some ideas on what this pathway might involve (see below), I feel like perhaps we should begin by defining “something better”. What does that actually mean? What does it look like? Feel like?
Something better
The urge to self-censor here is enormous! I’m immediately worrying about what sounds too ambitious, or naive. Which ideas are contentious, biased, or just impossible. But let’s not do that. Let’s not let where we are today limit where we want to be tomorrow, and what we’re capable of achieving. Let’s not worry about sounding stupid, about ridicule, about being wrong or changing our minds. Plenty of time for that another day, but not today. Today let’s be brave and say out loud what we dream of. Let’s go for it.
We should start wide. Too much detail too soon is a blocker.
So, for me “something better” is a place where everyone (and I mean everyone, not just those who can on the backs of those who can’t) is free to live a life safe from harm, hunger and servitude. Where we are free to explore our physical, mental and spiritual potential without limits (respecting the rights of others to do the same). Where our cultures are in balance with our physical and non-physical “realities” (that’s a whole other post right there!). Where work is something we do for the benefit of the community and to explore our own potential, not to earn status, property or exert/avoid control. “Something better” is a place where we rediscover the richness of consciousness, and engage with every part of it.
Okay, so sure, now let’s satisfy our inner-critic to shut them up, and acknowledge how far we are from that right now. How getting there feels really, really hard. Good. Inner critic abated, let’s also say that it might be easier than we think. I’m thinking here about the power of personal action.
Personal action
There’s a statistic about climate change that says that individuals can only directly effect about 28% of global emissions, the other 72% being in the exclusive control of governments and corporations. This may well be true (I’ve not checked, but let’s run with it), but the problem with this sort of data is that it perpetuates a hopeless mindset, an abdication of responsibility, some angry finger pointing, but ultimately the maintenance of the status quo. In reality that 28% is not to be sniffed at. The scientific consensus is that global emissions need to come down by 45% to hit net zero by 2050. That means that we can control more than half. Right now. We also shouldn’t ignore the impact on governments and corporations (in reality just large, anonymous groups of people just like us) of all of us determinedly exercising control where we can. My point, individual action is everything. The idea that we are all slave to dark, global forces is a myth (gratefully perpetuated by those who benefit from it).
If we wait for others to change things for us, it will never happen. If we wait for others to build a pathway to something better, it may well be better for them, but not for us (kind of where we are now really). The path begins when you, me, our friends and community put a foot on it, not before, and it will appear without fail the moment we step forward.
I’m a bit wary of quoting The Bible, even though it has some profound and useful insights, because it’s almost too loaded to reference in its own right. In truth though, I first heard these words in the 2014 film ‘Fury’, delivered so perfectly by Shia LaBeouf, so lets just say we’re quoting that.
“I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And... I said: Here am I, send me!”
This, I think, is what our first step on the path looks like. Accepting, perhaps with a little excitement, that flicking the switch of personal accountability and empowerment is all we have to do at first. It’s actually very simple. We just have to see it and embrace it. Everything else flows from this first step. In fact, I wonder if “flows” might be an understatement. Perhaps if everyone made this first step, this simple change in perception, the result might be more of a tsunami.
At this point, let’s give our inner critic a bit more TLC, perhaps even a hug as they’re probably hyperventilating! We are not fools. We know there is much complexity beyond this first step, but that changes nothing now and must not stop us. The first step is still as simple as it sounds. Personal action. See it. Embrace it. Allow yourself to be awestruck by its potential.
What we control
Let’s go back to this 28% though, because this particular collection of things we can directly control only relates to climate change. This pathway and the better place that it takes us too has many more areas where we can make an impact. There are more levers to pull. I spent some time thinking about this, trying to settle on a simple, top level list of areas where we have control, and where exercising that control serves our purpose. Here’s what I have;
Food
What we eat, how much of it and how it’s made; the impact of production and distribution; what (if any) other creatures have to die for us to eat and how we treat them; fair trade and fair distribution.
Community
Families and friendships; tolerance and the acceptance of difference; support systems; shared spaces; giving; history and collective memory; how we share ideas and knowledge.
Consumption
What we make and what we buy; how much we consume; what we throw away; energy.
Mind
Personal growth; shared growth; meditation; mental health, diversity and medicalisation.
Technology
What we use and what we reject; how and when we travel.
Lots of these areas overlap of course, in fact since they’re all things we can control and point to a better way of being, perhaps they all do.I’ve also left a lot of stuff out that I was itching to include, like capital, access to technology, borders, but this is a list of things we can directly control, either today or in the near future, so I feel that they don’t belong here. Perhaps I’m wrong?
What about you?
I’d love to hear what you think. What have I missed? What does your “better place” look like? Please comment freely, suggest corrections, side posts and if you really feel like it submit a follow up post we can include here.
Have s great day,
x
Images
Vincent Van Gogh, ‘Wheatfield With Crows’
Hokusai, ‘The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’
These are the first steps, to imagine something better.
Then to be what we wish to see.
We are powerful, and every action ripples throughout the cosmos.
It starts with ourselves. Don't worry what others think. They are not your concern.
Regards.