After reading this, I felt guilty and ashamed. I've been blaming the systems around me and have not really been doing much to put my words into action.
"EVs suck. There are still places that generate electricity through fossil fuels. It's not really that much cleaner. And the mining of cobalt for the battery? I don't even wanna get started on that atrocity."
"Whoa, these blueberries are kinda pricey. I think I saw it cheaper at Walmart."
"These gas prices are ridiculous!"
It's just complaint after complaint after complaint.
(August, what are we actually doing?)
This has inspired some deeper introspection on my part. I don't know where it's going to lead and I don't know what I'll find. But I do know that I've been in the slumber of inaction. I doesn't have to be a plan with global influence. We can't all be Boyan Slat. I can start small, I can start here.
What a powerful opening of recognition! It's so easy to complain and get lost in the anger of all that we see. It happens to me often. These systems depend on us staying righteous and not taking up action on the ground. By making us feel either superior or inferior, they keep us paralyzed and fighting each other. Joanna Macy said, “The wave of the future is on the local level. Don’t waste your heart and mind trying to pull down what is already destroying itself. But come into where you’re almost below the radar and reorganize life."
Small is everything. Just start. That's perfect. That's all there is <3
Sometimes I get paralyzed by overanalyzing what I "need" to do. I can certainly start somewhere small and honestly stay with the small things.
I started writing things down after the space of introspection. I don't really need to go past my small and simple steps. If someone is inspired by what I do and they go further and implement bigger things, so be it. I can choose to master the small things. My brainstorming activity kept pulling me into the "how can we then make it bigger" mentality. It's a hard mental path the shed off.
Thank you for this piece that you wrote. It was a great encouragement to organize my thoughts and feelings.
This reminded me of a passage from "Behold the Dreamers" (Imbolo Mbue) which is a beautiful book that essentially boils down to the effects of Capitalism and fathers:
"... the problem is not some system. It's us. Each of us. We've got to fix ourselves before we can fix a whole damn country. That's not happening on the Street. It's not happening in Washington. It's not happening anywhere! It's not like what I'm saying is new, but it's only getting worse, and one man or two men or three men cannot fix it."
"It’s time to give up the need for an enemy." Wow. That's an incredibly powerful and useful assertion to take to heart Kelly. Thank you.
Thank you, Rick. May we find simplicity in the challenge, both inside and outside of ourselves <3
After reading this, I felt guilty and ashamed. I've been blaming the systems around me and have not really been doing much to put my words into action.
"EVs suck. There are still places that generate electricity through fossil fuels. It's not really that much cleaner. And the mining of cobalt for the battery? I don't even wanna get started on that atrocity."
"Whoa, these blueberries are kinda pricey. I think I saw it cheaper at Walmart."
"These gas prices are ridiculous!"
It's just complaint after complaint after complaint.
(August, what are we actually doing?)
This has inspired some deeper introspection on my part. I don't know where it's going to lead and I don't know what I'll find. But I do know that I've been in the slumber of inaction. I doesn't have to be a plan with global influence. We can't all be Boyan Slat. I can start small, I can start here.
Start.
That's what I'll do. I can start.
What a powerful opening of recognition! It's so easy to complain and get lost in the anger of all that we see. It happens to me often. These systems depend on us staying righteous and not taking up action on the ground. By making us feel either superior or inferior, they keep us paralyzed and fighting each other. Joanna Macy said, “The wave of the future is on the local level. Don’t waste your heart and mind trying to pull down what is already destroying itself. But come into where you’re almost below the radar and reorganize life."
Small is everything. Just start. That's perfect. That's all there is <3
Sometimes I get paralyzed by overanalyzing what I "need" to do. I can certainly start somewhere small and honestly stay with the small things.
I started writing things down after the space of introspection. I don't really need to go past my small and simple steps. If someone is inspired by what I do and they go further and implement bigger things, so be it. I can choose to master the small things. My brainstorming activity kept pulling me into the "how can we then make it bigger" mentality. It's a hard mental path the shed off.
Thank you for this piece that you wrote. It was a great encouragement to organize my thoughts and feelings.
This reminded me of a passage from "Behold the Dreamers" (Imbolo Mbue) which is a beautiful book that essentially boils down to the effects of Capitalism and fathers:
"... the problem is not some system. It's us. Each of us. We've got to fix ourselves before we can fix a whole damn country. That's not happening on the Street. It's not happening in Washington. It's not happening anywhere! It's not like what I'm saying is new, but it's only getting worse, and one man or two men or three men cannot fix it."
100% these systems were born out of the human imagination so that’s where we gotta start if we want to fix them!!