It is really quite simple: the world can be a place of incredible abundance, joy and opportunity for every being, if only we choose love, common sense and compassion above all else. Forget political standpoints, the Obamacare debate, money markets, and starbots, the most urgent matter we must publicize, picket, lobby and fund is our own well being! Change begins by asking questions. Peace and joy happen when you listen to the you that is shining beyond the clouds of all the over-thinking, that tends to smog humanity’s collective thoughts. Beyond this horizon, an extraordinary world awaits for all beings! Let’s remember…
1. There is more than enough of everything in this world for everybody. If our entire 7-ish billion strong human population came together and were all given 1000 square feet of Earth to live on, we would still only be filling a space as big as Texas (see here and here). Fortunately, we live in a big wide world with a colossal amount of land mass that provides enough resources, riches, minerals, energy, fruits/grains/sweets, medicine and necessities to swaddle every breathing being on Earth in luxury, multi-fold. This is why…
2. The business model of ‘privatize to profitize’ is simply not sustainable. So much of our modern industry is built around the idea that you can take something that flows freely from our beautiful Earth and make it private for the sake of personal profit. As we have seen for generations, this creates a monopoly of the resource or idea, restricting it to being bought and sold only by a very small group of individuals and interests. This unnecessarily disrupts and complicates a more harmonious exchange, more simple and smart living. There are countless stories of multi-functional miracle crops (such as hemp) being destroyed because one single plant has the ability to make trillions of dollars worth of industries obsolete. Supply and demand is manipulated to the delight of shareholders and spectators, profits grow obese and the captains of the ships are celebrated as shining contributors to industries who play with and make money off of money, debt, naturally occurring resources and gambling institutions such as money markets. Meanwhile, we have our planet’s natives living in poverty-stricken countries deprived of their own drinking water, because the local water is “owned” by private bottling companies exporting to us. Beyond the paper thin limits of whatever social structures we have created and accepted for ourselves, we are essentially born free onto a planet that is 72% water, of which only 1% of freshwater is readily accessible. The UN says it’s a protected right, yet communities are deprived, not to mention it eerily costs more than soda, or carbonated water with sugar and chemicals. Unfortunately, and not always knowingly, most of us are swept up in some form in the supply chain of the monopoly and the influences of those companies. Instead of being enriched and happy, innovating and living purposefully, we are being sold to and on the fields and in the trenches as players and pawns in the game, some of us never even have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, to be able to have the things that are our born right to have. Freeing naturally occurring resources just seems obvious. Flipping a script that dates back to our ancestors is as simple as making a few shifts of your thoughts and priorities. For starters, let us feel like we deserve better, because we do, and so does the Earth. If something does not make sense to you, speak up and ask why, and let us not be satisfied with the answer “because this is how it has always been done.” The information age has helped give rise to the empowered conscious consumer, one that seeks high integrity, good quality, fair trade, eco practices and transparent business methods. The passions of game changers, visionaries and entrepreneurs + the surge of alternative communities, farming and free-for-all resources = the downfall of purposeless players of the game- and let them fear not! There is room for everyone to live their dreams.
3. While on the subject of industry, just because it creates jobs does not mean it is good. We always hear about companies and industries that are operating with terrible conditions or intentions, or that the industry is feeding a destruction or an unethical practice, but hey at least jobs are being created! Sometimes the jobs are in the US, more frequently they are in countries with heavy poor populations who are getting by on less than $1 a day. Some, absolutely horrid conditions- child factories, animal farms, sixteen+ hour/seven days-a-week workdays- inhumane and utterly unnecessary. There are currently millions of manufacturing workers live in specially created cities making it easy for them to give their lives feeding “consumption” industries, keeping up with consumer addictions all over the world. The other thing that gets me is that even when jobs are created, what determines the value of the time and energy of one person’s work over another? Is is where they live? What class system they are in? What opportunities they were met with in life? And why get a bigger paycheck over another? To buy ‘nicer’ things? Does a sixty-five year old picking tea leaves from sunrise to sunset deserve a Lamborghini as much as a thirty five year old hedge fund manager or a rich prince or a single mother who is a nurse working a double shift in an emergency room? And better yet- would we even want that Lambo anymore if suddenly everyone could have one? What does that say about our motives? And how many goals and dreams like these are really just a fantasy created out of an insecurity? But anyway, back to jobs…
Architect and futurist Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, who lived from 1895-1983, said it best: “We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”
Sustainability, arts, freedom, philanthropy, innovation, entrepreneurism, purpose work… these are the stimulants of not only the youth, but a generation of boomers who are catching their second wind, and all the good people in between. Thankfully, conscious consumers, more people putting purpose to work, emerging entrepreneurs finding ways of monetizing their passions and talent are on the rise and charting new territory. We are opting out of the game more, saying no “thank you I’m doing me” more, and ideally ‘me’ is ‘we’. That’s where the magic is. We are thankfully identifying and beginning to move away from what does not make us feel good and finding our way into things that enliven us and fill us with great joy.
4. While on the subject of what we deserve, education should not be considered a business, nor should any matters of the public. Unfortunately corporate interpretations of ‘solutions’ to human conditions are often publicly traded, profiting and celebrated businesses. These include our food, water and nutrients and our healthcare and education systems. When you mix business with wellbeing you get beliefs such as “there is no profit in a cure” and educational budget cuts on things that actually develop character in our kids. Our foods are filled with things that are straight-up banned in other countries, our water is a concoction of chemicals- something we all contribute to- and in classrooms where children are forced to sit for a major part of their first eighteen years of life, the lessons could be far more rewarding, fulfilling and purposeful. Our well being, what goes into our bodies, what heals our bodies and what information we allow to shape our mind should be held sacred, not left in the interest of a bottom dollar. Again, it is up to us!
5. Having the highest defense budget in the world is not cool. Did you know that for $60 billion per year we could end global world hunger? To put it into perspective, NATO nations spent $1.75 trillion in 2012, the US accounted for over 40% of that tab, almost $700 billion. We (USA-bred) spend as much in defense as ten other countries put together, including China, the UK, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Now we know there are all sorts of people that are tragically losing out when it comes to wars, and there are lots who gluttonously profit during wars, but there’s something deeper going on here. My question is with our fair amount of problems here in the states, what gives us the right to twist with the ways of others? Just like the little boy on the playground who beats up other kids because there is something going on at home, this is a cry for help! If anything, our high cost defense statistics should signal an intervention- all is not well on the home front! So yea sure, we want to spread the idea of better societies in other countries if that is what the defense for the defense is, but shouldn’t we get our shit a bit more straight first? We are a slightly scared race of people (vulnerabilities are okay people- let’s talk about ‘em!), not to mention control fah-reaks! We have cities going bankrupt, aging systems needing reshaping, we are a nation of more addictions than we care to admit, we are influenced heavily by entertainment and news media (and entertaining news media), not to mention carry around debt up the wazoo! We do not need more control over resources and more notches in our belt, we need chats and hugs and copious cups of lavender tea!! We need to sit with, accept and release our own past fears, shame, insecurities and conditioning and do some serious soul searching before collectively coming together to inspire the rest of the world. Instead of becoming the strongest/mightiest/most feared/blah, blah bore me nation in the world, we could become something truly incredible! Of the upmost integrity and progression, where true innovation exists. We have beautiful bursts of freedom, happiness, opportunity and prosperity that makes me beam with USA pride, but we also have scars on an underbelly that needs nurturing and healing.
The magic happens when we begin to live our truths to the fullest! When all the curtains have fallen and we stand with grace- accepting, forgiving and compassionate, this is when we can do vastly powerful things for ourselves and as a nation. We have the opportunity to get back in touch with that magnificently powerful being within, filled with true calling, purpose and passion- and then act on this for the greater good! That is inspiring!!! We are a nation of innovation and many of us go on with our grinds and routines, consumed and exhausted, instead of tapping into our own natural and easy abilities to do great things in this world and live well.
6. With respect to our funding institutions, if we could only govern ourselves better there would not be need for so much traditional governance. Each and every one of us has a responsibility to ourselves and each other to behave in accordance within the highest and purest integrity of a human being, no matter what circumstances of life you were born into. No excuses. We like to think we have a certain unspoken code of ethics that we just don’t break, which most of us don’t, but it still happens often enough. And when it happens it must be looked at deeper. There are reasons behind abuse, drug problems, violent expressions of rage, desperate measures, sheer boredom. Reasons that must be held with care and compassion… childhood traumas, deep fears, untreated mental health issues or even just growing up in unfortunate circumstances and having a shitty outlook because of it. We are a nation in need of collective hand-holding and a double dose of optimism… and we must have the courage to breathe through the fears that move through us.
7. Your biggest concern is how the ‘true you’ is doing. Forget about pressures that will not matter in an hour, a day, a month, a year, a lifetime… forget about woulda/coulda/shoulda’s, the dramas of your friends and in the lives of entertainers…. start being concerned with the days ticking away in your own life. Because of the ideal end result, this isn’t selfish: when you elevate yourself you actually stop thinking about yourself so much and start taking action for others. Check in. Discover the roots of your happiness, your pains, your fears and your beliefs and projections down to their core. Undress yourself to your most naked and vulnerable state. Don’t fear it, don’t try and escape it- ride out your issues like a bucking bronco if you have to, into the sunset of a life you love. How are you doing? How are you breathing? How do you feel? Are you happy? Why not? What are you doing in life that supports your dreams and purpose? Are you even in touch with your purpose? It’s ok. Be grateful for where you are. Give yourself a compliment. Be gentle with yourself. Accept that your life is how it is as a result of the decisions you make with each hand you are dealt throughout it. Remember every day is a new day. Look forward to the opportunity of creating anything you want for yourself, and to work on anything that you want to improve or strengthen. Even laws of physics back up that if you want to achieve something and move with clear focused action you will achieve it in one form or another. Make sure not to get stuck too deeply- a lot of us get wrapped up in spending weeks, months or even years wanting something and working towards something, only to realize it is not quite what we thought it was going to be when we get it. Sometimes when we reach a plateau of a dream-come-true we look around and feel- is this it? We are on a journey of discovery of ourselves and our interactions with others. Go back and find the roots of your habits, your beliefs, your joys, your fears, your insecurities. Choose what to cut loose and what to let fly! Realign with your childhood passions to gain insight on your purpose. Read more, learn more, reclaim your curiosity and lust for life! This is a very big world and much of it could be explored with a plane ticket, a backpack of necessities and a bit of faith! Find what you love doing, what comes naturally to you, and especially the things that don’t feel like work to you. Dedicate time of self-discovery- start a romance with YOU. The most powerful form of human being is one sound at mind, healthy in body and rich in spirit. Make it your mission to be the best person you could possibly be, and have fun on the journey along the way! We are here to become smarter, stronger, more loving and to leave this place better than how we found it for our offspring. Simple as that. Most of life’s complexities are in our own minds.
8. Technology is not the only way to connect. To be moved, to feel deeply, to experience moments of awe and inspiration, we just have to disconnect to connect. Unplug. Spend as much time as you can in nature on this glorious Earth, just being in the moment, rooting your feet to this breathing planet. Spend time with life in general, just observing. Quiet the mind, dismiss judgement, doing nothing overly habitual, just watching in absolute wonder and appreciation of all around you. Leave your cell phones behind and rise up from the games and distractions. A tremendous amount of life is happening around you at any given moment. Give yourself this time.
9. We do not truly own land, people or animals. We never have and we never will. We own our bodies, our beliefs and our actions. As with most things we like to call our personal possessions, we find that in time they end up owning us.
10. Tolerance and compassion will rapidly change the world. We all know suffering, joy, pleasure, pain, love, embarrassment, gratitude and acceptance. It is 2014- we are out of the dark ages. It is completely inexcusable to knowingly let anything or anybody experience the feelings that we do not like for ourselves. My mom raised my on the idea of treating others how I would want to be treated. It makes sense, it feels good. In a world that is equipped to feed, clothe and shelter more than we can imagine, simply treat others as you want to be treated. A global awakening of acceptance, tolerance and compassion is literally all it will take to change the world.
Changes begin within every one of us. Blessings & love on your journey of life!
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