Simplify - Abundance in Less
One ribbon of plastic, a pinch of twigs, a carful twirl and there it is. Home.
I am surprised to learn that the the less I identify with, the more options and freedom I have to move.
This is in deep contrast to how life was sold to me at school. When making the fragile transition from high school into the world, I was left with an overwhelming question - What do I do now? To answer this question, I obediently looked to my teachers, as I had been trained to do. Their eyes glazed over and they slipped a graph under my curious, naive nose, it looked like this:
The message was clear and settled deep into my system. “Put your head down, don’t argue, the path is clear, do what you are told and you will be rewarded with money…you will be free.. in 2,3,4,5 years time”. This elusive term “freedom” always a number of years in the future.
A clear concise image showing increased money coming in as education level increases. An elegant model that education providers purr in happiness at showing students in their charge.
This graph lays the foundations for the education system that the next generation of leaders, change makers, creators, lovers and healers go through. It does a great dis-service to the unique gifts that each infinite human being brings. The model is superficial at best, while down right soul and life destroying at worst.
There are three holes in this model that I would like to speak to.
Hole 1: It assumes more money is THE goal
I never asked my teacher’s “how do I get rich?”. This was never a major motivation of mine. Yet the answer to my question of “what do I do now?” was clear. You make money. You follow the clearly laid out path of how to do that. My soul crumpled at the thought. My hands longed to feel the warmth of life, my body ached to roam the planet, my mind was thirsty for the laws of the universe and the ultimately undefinable nature of living. To be and sense deep into NOT knowing and learn to create from there. This leads me to the next hole in this model.
Hole 2: It shows that accumulating MORE knowledge and qualifications leads to greater possibilities.
The Physicist Brian Cox says that real science can only begin from NOT knowing. New discoveries only begin on the edge of the known. If an education system values “knowing”, “having the correct answer” and learning how to conform to a well known path, how can humans develop the essential ability to function, explore and create from not knowing? How can change happen? If students are taught that straying from the known is dangerous and life threatening - where will the essential changes that are desperately overdue come from? If change means death somewhere deep in our bodies - how will creating the next systems occur?
Beyond this is a deeper realisation I have found. The less labels I identify with the more I can create.
The less I own,
the less debts I have,
the less “shoulds” I take on,
the less known paths I subscribe to,
then the more options I have.
I have more freedom to move, to stop and start. To be unreasonable, to provide more value,
the more I can pivot on a dime…
the more intimate and present with life I become.
This graph did not teach me this. I discovered this myself.
Hole 3: It makes no mention of the planet we live on.
This graph floats one foot above the earth we live on. The earth does not have a voice, yet it informs every breath each person takes. This graph assumes that the “more education, more money" trend will continue, regardless of the slow erosion of the life sustaining ecology on planet earth.
This model stands in airy separation from what is needed from humanity on this planet right now. And what each human could be doing with this “one wild and precious life” (Mary Oliver).
In taking all this into account, I have designed a new graph to show anyone who asks the question “Oh my, what do I do now?”
It looks more like this:
As the capacity of an individual to be in the unknown increases, their freedom to create what is needed increases also this wildly expands what is possible.
Being in the unknown is an exercise in conscious use of fear, because “feeling fear is not really a problem”.
More over, it is essential right now in the creating and leading of change. For this we need new models, maps, graphs and ideas. Every person has a piece to play in creating a new reality for now and the future.
I am glad and scared that you are here, beside me on this earth, right now.
