525. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.
I believe we are living in a time when THE OLD STORY is colliding mightily with THE NEW REALITY. It is an opportunity for change but like most times of great potential change, we hold on with white knuckles to THE OLD STORY. Change is frightening precisely because it is unknown. It is easier to hold onto the monkey bar than it is to fly toward the next place. Our circumstance is dire because the pace of change is blistering so the immensity of the denial necessary to maintain THE OLD STORY is…profound.
As Marshal McLuhan wrote, we humans are great at stepping into the future with our eyes in the rearview mirror. It’s as if we live life in a rowboat, pulling for a future with our backs to where we are going. The occasional glances over the shoulder help us spot a destination but our eyes are fixed on the shore from which we came. Safety lives on the shore behind us (we think).
As Roger once said, “I believe among a human beings greatest capacities is the capacity for denial.” Denial often looks like this: “Things are okay just as they are,” “I wish we could return to the good old days,” “Let’s get back to basics, return to our values, do what we know works.” Just listen to our education, political, and economic conversations! Denial also likes to think that things are happening to us; waking up is simply the acknowledgment that we are the creators of the story.
[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]
Filed under: Story, Truly Powerful People |
The Direction of Intention 
Ah, but rowing! Can I give another perspective? Rowing, moving forward by fixing one’s trajectory on the past, may not be denial so much as honoring what has come before — the ancestors. ‘Wazee kukumbuka’ in Swahili translates to ‘the elders remember’; in African cultures one moves forward into the future by getting closer to the past. Hard to explain yet a growing understanding as I age. Maybe we need to do both: honor the past and welcome the future with curiosity and awe.
I love your perspective. Yes, both/and! Let’s go rowing….