6) Something Positive

Well, that took more than half a year.  Hehe….not exactly how you start a successful blog eh?
So, here’s what happened.  Depression. It turns out that staring into the abyss of society’s escalation into madness, without knowing how to make a meaningful difference, gets depressing!  Who knew?

So, this is about Something Positive.

Here’s what I believe.  I believe people are YEARNING for more out of life:

– living authentically, from their heart
– not worrying so much about what’s “appropriate”, or whether you have love handles, or a ‘bikini body’, or whether your pants need to be a half-inch longer or shorter or whatever
– community….community….and community.  But not boring communities, or even grimly determined “make the world a better place” communities.  I mean, there are good reasons why 2 people will sign a petition that you post on Facebook, but 200 will watch your video of a breakdancing baby.  We want to have more fun. We want creative, supportive,beautiful, heart-opened communities.
– being CREATIVE.  Which really means, I think, being COURAGEOUS!  We want to BUST OUT of our staid ways, our embarrassments and self-doubts, our fears and anxieties, as well as our boring habits
– doing stuff outside, and not in “controlled environments”

It’s like, most of us (I hope?) can remember when we were kids and we used to do fun  things.  Like laughing.  A lot.  Sometimes until food fell out of our mouth or pop came out of our nose.  And then laughing at that.  Dancing in our bedrooms like maniacs.  Feeling PASSION!  For lots of things!  Pokemon, Harry Potter, Minecraft, Percy Jackson, MUSIC, our fav celebs.  Feeling awe, mystery, wonder.  Having BIG questions about life, the universe, and everything.  And not yet being jaded and cynical and smugly repeating insights we don’t really understand, but what the hell, they make us feel smart.  “It’s 42, maaaan….”

I believe people are yearning to feel hope, joy, love, to unselfconsciously embrace, inhale, and celebrate life.  I believe people want to stop passively absorbing and consuming, and instead, becoming ACTIVE PRODUCERS of culture.  It’s like, when did we stop painting and drawing and singing and making poetry, so that we could….sit in Starbucks drinking overpriced coffee with our friends?  When did going outside get sacrificed to surfing people’s bikini pics on Facebook?

Like seriously man…when did we all decide to become sanitized, detached and “cool,” instead of creatively rambunctious, courageously rebellious, dirty, lusty animals?

When did “community” become trying to grind against some drunk stranger in a club filled with people almost exactly the same age as us, rather than the inclusive rituals and meaningful celebrations of the “village” we all have in our minds?  (Although hey club-grinders, kudos, at least, on being dirty, lusty animals….lol….)

Maybe we can’t all live in Stars Hollow with Lorelai and Luke but……well, actually, can’t we?  Can’t we be silly and simple and sincere and genuine?  Can’t we drop our facades and personas and live from the heart and gut?  Can’t we resurrect, or create anew, communal rituals that are based on community, not consumerism?  Can’t we just have fun again and not be so constrained by our notions of what it means to be a responsible adult?

When my eldest daughter turned two, I took her tobogganing.  It was the best.  She was scared, then elated.  We got cold and wet.  We fell off and got snow in our faces.  We shouted and laughed and rolled around in the snow.  I realized at one point I was having SOOOO much fun!  And then I wondered what the hell had happened to me, that I stopped tobogganing for TWENTY YEARS!  Like, why did I need a two-year old to remind me to go do simple, fun things?

So, this is the Something Positive — people are ripe for change.  People are hungry for authenticity, and not just the hipster-inspired, reclaimed-wood, lumbersexual, capitalist-appropriated “authenticity” that allows us to feel like we’re embodying good-ol-values, while still remaining docile consumers who participate in perpetuating a fundamentally destructive culture by continually working on our personal identity project, rather than connecting to the deeper rage and love that would inspire us to radical action.

No, I mean the kind of authenticity that is….authentic.  Living from our hearts.

People are yearning.  And so, in the emptiness, despair, anxiety, addictions, and inescapable feelings of superficiality that pervade our lives, I think there is hope.  Change is coming.  People are realizing there’s more to life than this.

Now we just have to figure out how to amplify this gnawing disquiet, along with the hope and inspiration that will release beautiful, courageous, life transforming energies within, and between, people.

When I was a kid, I loved that I was living in the “dawning of the Age of Aquarius.”  Turned out we were barreling into Reaganomics and the stranglehold of Neoliberalism.  But now, a few decades later, the pendulum is swinging back.

So, let’s dance!