Sunday, October 15, 2006

Which path will we choose?

Today is "Liberty Sunday", which you can read about at Pam's House Blend here and here. I truly do not wish to post *any* of the "religious right's" vileness here, but am thankful to Pam for keeping us apprised of what that crowd is up to. I just don't want to use my energy in that way right now. I don't want to feel the anger rise up inside me and feel compelled to react. I'd rather *act*. I'd rather focus my life force on positive efforts. Here's another excerpt from the article in Yes Magazine I linked yesterday...

Changing the prevailing stories in the United States may be easier to accomplish than we might think. The apparent political divisions notwithstanding, U.S. polling data reveal a startling degree of consensus on key issues. Eighty-three percent of Americans believe that as a society the United States is focused on the wrong priorities. Supermajorities want to see greater priority given to children, family, community, and a healthy environment. Americans also want a world that puts people ahead of profits, spiritual values ahead of financial values, and international cooperation ahead of international domination. These Earth Community values are in fact widely shared by both conservatives and liberals.

Here's an analogy David Korten described in his talk yesterday, in an essay by Jan Roberts.

The caterpillar is a voracious consumer that devotes its life to gorging itself on nature’s bounty. When it has had its fill, it fastens itself to a convenient twig and encloses itself in a chrysalis. Once snug inside, crisis strikes as the structures of its cellular tissue begin to dissolve into an organic soup.

Yet guided by some deep inner wisdom, a number of organizer cells begin to rush around gathering other cells to form imaginal buds, new and initially independent multicellular structures that begin to give form to the organs of a new creature. Correctly perceiving a threat to the old order, but misdiagnosing the source, the caterpillar’s still intact immune system attributes the threat to the imaginal buds and attacks them as alien intruders.

The imaginal buds prevail by linking up with one another in a cooperative effort that brings forth a new being of great beauty, wondrous possibilities, and little identifiable resemblance to its progenitor. In its rebirth, the monarch butterfly lives lightly on the earth, serves the regeneration of life as a pollinator, and is capable of migrating for thousands of miles to experience life’s possibilities in ways the earthbound caterpillar could not imagine.

During the film, A Quiet Revolution, that I saw yesterday, I learned about the Green Belt Movement for the first time. I just found the web site today, and am posting the link for anyone who is interested.

So, fellow organizer cells, let's get to work on turning humanity into a butterfly.



Alternate link for comments

No comments:

Post a Comment