Spiraling Slowly into the Heart of the Labyrinth … I Imagine What Is
A fable to start with. Once upon a time life evolved on a certain planet, bringing forth many kinds of social organizations – packs, pods, flocks, troops, herds, and so on. One species whose members were unusually intelligent developed a unique social organization called a tribe. Tribalism worked well for them for millions of years, but there came a time when they decided to experiment with a new social organization (called civilization) that was hierarchical rather than tribal. Before long, those at the top of the hierarchy were living in great luxury, … having the best of everything. … Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure
And, I think you know first hand how this ‘fable’ has played out.
This blog morning as I sit in the early dawn quiet with a day unusually full of activity, I’m present to an inner conflict and inquiry. More than one, I suppose, as I find such conflicts and inquiries more and more these days. My thinking and imagining is shifting in response to listening and hearing in new ways and to new sources, both within and without, and as I commit to making choices with greater awareness and consciousness. Choices beyond the bounds of the world’s ways .
The sources and qualities of in-formation coming my way have shifted, but that, and indeed my inner inquiry itself, are, perhaps, stories for another day.
The ways in which the world I live in reflects my values is diminishing at what seems to be an accelerated pace. I challenge myself to think differently, to see and hear differently, and most of all to imagine differently. To imagine the infinite possibilities beyond what we call civilization, if we dare to imagine some entirely new and bold experiment. What possibilities lie beyond the limited choices offered up by sides – countries, religions, political parties, etc. – each fighting for its belief that its ways of practicing ‘civilization’ is the ‘right’ way, the way their God created the world and intended it to be forever and ever? What possibilities open when we dare look into the shadows of our past with an eye (and heart) intent on reparation and right relationship?
I have often written here that we need new stories, new songs, new ways to live into beyond what our world has become, and as I write this chapter of my current walk on this earth I am opening more widely to discover and nurture those see and who choose the paths to create a world beyond what we call civilization and what we are experiencing as its entropic shadows. Shadows that invite us to acknowledge the errs of our past, of colonization, of greed, of slavery, and the many ways the myth of separation has been (and continues to be) expressed.
It is time (hopefully not beyond) for a revolution without war, a revolution co-created by simply choosing new paths each unique in its own ways and choices, yet aligned with Life, All Life. Imagine leaving behind that legacy.
Spiraling Up in the Ziggurat … Another Place of Imagining Beyond …