What Is a System?
and why you should care
A system is simply a string or network of interlocking elements. It is that simple. It is important to apply this definition to liberally if you are an agent of change.
Agents of change are people who have found that part of their job is bring about change of some sort. This could be through nurturing creative expression, bringing people together around an important issue or simply listening to a call from deep within that something has to shift.
Agents of change often work to find solutions to problems. Instead of exhausting your precious self by head strong fighting, instead learn to notice when the issue is caused by an actual system. Here are some clues that the problem could be solved by systemic change:
The issue is important.
The problem is chronic, not a one-time event.
The problem is familiar and has a known history.
People have unsuccessfully tried to solve the problem before.
(from the systems thinker)
To make that tangible I ask you:
Is it important to you that humans will need 3 more planet earths over the next 30years if we continue to use fossil fuels at our current rate?
Do you consider the fact that 33% (conservative estimate) of New Zealand women experience physical or sexual abuse in their life times, illustrative of a chronic issue?
Are you familiar with the fact that everyday, each person in New Zealand discards 159g of plastic which sits clogging the life flow through the delicate ecosystem of our oceans.
Have you heard of the reports of (unsuccessful) efforts made by local and national governments to solve the “housing crisis?”
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions it means these problems are symptoms of systemic issues. The systems were built to serve the purpose of creating profit and sustaining hierarchies. They do this well. The systems also create mass destruction to anything that does not serve that purpose. In order to solve these issues new systems must be designed, created and played full out in. This is incredibly exciting.
How to Build A System
Just start. Start with out knowing how it actually goes. Start with your heart. Choose the elements that you want, choose them like your were choosing stars for a constellation. Interlock them, as your capillaries interlock with your viscera, deep, nourishing, alive and vital. Sign your name on this life with your systemic fingerprint, let in bleed into your children’s, children’s dreams. Discard the rest.
Start with your pain. Lean closer to others, bounce off your network like a dew drop on her web. Breathe this network and all its elements deep into your lungs. Recognise the spark of life, use that as your feedback. Learn to evoke the power and beauty of humanity, place the magic of creation at the centre.
Systematically assemble the pieces that brought that light to her eyes… allow yourself to remember. Learn to stand while systems crumble around you, do not stoop to right them, let it happen, lean into the emptiness. Be That.
The next systems are coming, I can hear them like a far off train coming down the line; distant, rhythmic, potent, filled with breath and air. Like a fast approaching dream they will fill all our senses.
And all that is needed ensure their fullest, most essential arrival is you, in your most you, you-ness.
