Living through the Unraveling
In previous posts, I’ve referred to The Great Unraveling and The Shattering — two ways of describing these times we’re experiencing right now. Horrifying terms, but they beg the question: What can we do about it?
First off, let’s acknowledge that I/we cannot possibly see all the avenues yet. We’re too close to the suddenness, the shattering-ness of it. We’re still stunned, in shock, still full of unprocessed emotions. Later on, as we begin to sort things out, and get some calendar distance from it all, we’ll notice additional avenues.
But, for now, here’s a list to get us started.
Realize that it’s everywhere
This unraveling isn’t just a U.S. thing (although most of my examples are U.S.-centric because that’s local to me, and that’s what I see). It’s everywhere.
There are various forms of shattering going on in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Ukraine, and many more places. There is pressure from extreme-fringe political influences in Australia, France, UK. These aren’t complete lists, just an overview, and they’re offered in alphabetical order because they aren’t intended to be prioritized, one somehow “more significant” or “more horrendous” than the next.
These times, right now, are the ending of a great many things, and for purposes of this post I’ll call them What We Have Lost (WWHL).
Grieve What We Have Lost
Ecophilosopher Joanna Macy would encourage us to grieve. In whatever form comes to you, begin to feel into What We Have Lost. Say goodbye to it. It’s not coming back.
Ritualize it. Pray about it, in whatever form is meaningful to you.
Even though in many ways WWHL has been flawed, take time to consider how WWHL has benefited you. How has it given you privileges?
Acknowledge your fears. Perhaps you are afraid of the instability that surrounds us. Perhaps you are afraid of loss of some or all of your privileges. Perhaps you yearn for the Known — the ways of the past, however flawed, were at least something we kind-of understood.
Begin to let WWHL go.
Acknowledge the reality
WWHL was not great for everyone.
Sit with that a moment.
Perhaps it was great for you and your family. Or, perhaps it was “a little” great, in that you benefited from WWHL being relatively stable with kinda-known rules.
But let’s get real about the ways WWHL was un-great:
- unjust wealth vs poverty distribution. See the MrBig video imbedded in this post
- racism, misogyny, ableism, prejudice against LGBTQ+ and more. See @intersectionalenvironmentalist on Instagram, and/or read their book. See the public writings of indigenous people.
- broken immigration system, broken prison/justice systems, broken systems for helping the unhoused, broken systems for mental health
- broken educational system which doesn’t teach the skills we need for a healthy world
- rampant consumerism driven by end-stage capitalism
- broken agricultural systems, controlled by the corporate elite, worsening climate change and ecosystems degradation, depleting soils and aquifers, producing chemical-laden nutrient-deficient unhealthy food and leaving food deserts
- and much more
(Admittedly, some of these systems I’m less fluent about. I’m just offering a broad sketch here.)
Begin to identify what was missing
On the flip size of that bulleted list, what was missing from WWHL?
One big thing is a value system which aligns with the health of the living world (all of it). A different set of values is needed, in order to bring into being the health/sustainable/just world we yearn for.
This might look like: Rather than profit and greed … listening and empathy and kindness. Rather than power and hierarchy and patriarchal values … considering other options (more in a future post). Rather than “legal rights” … responsibilities and obligations to all living beings. Rather than chemicals … healthy living ecosystems. Rather than maximizing volume-to-market … providing for all the beings who make up an ecosystem, as well as leaving saplings/seed/eggs for the ecosystem to replenish itself. Rather than “globalization” … solving the problems in our local communities, while reaching outward to connect to the greater good. Rather than artificial “intelligence” …. human-to-human connections and hands-on skills.
Learn more about these values — study the work of those who still practice forms of them.
- one example: Chumash values as shared by Wishtoyo.
- The Re^Human School offers a 4-session course lead by Dr Lyla June Johnston (Diné/Tsétsêhéstâhese). I took it the first time it was offered, and it was fantastic.
Imagine the new ways to come
Collect examples of people’s trials/experiments. Actively look for them (a good alternative to doomscrolling!) Meanwhile acknowledge that none of these examples are The Answer — as I said at the top of this post, every one of us is still in the thick of the shattering, too close to see properly.
Help each other by sharing stories of these positive experiments. It helps boost each others’ moods. And, these stories become conversation-starters, so that, together, we can begin to explore our way forward into brighter times.
- The Virtual Field Trips I’ve been posting are me sharing parts of my own collection of stories.
Just like adapting a plant variety to a local microclimate, these samples will need to be massaged, hybridized, and worked with, through community consensus before they reach their ultimate forms.
Do a little something tangible
Physical action is cleansing. It helps move the stuck emotions though your psyche. Do something tangible and tactile today.
It’s a great time for planting a cool-season garden. Or food in a flowerpot. I just taught a little class in visible mending – why not pull out your favorite garments and fix ’em up a little, turn them into art. It’s a great time of year to take a walk in some of the wilder places around the city. It’s a fantastic time to volunteer at a food distribution site or a community garden, to work shoulder-to-shoulder with others who are living in the values of the emerging world.
In summary
The word “transition” is used to describe a phase within the labor of childbirth — the journey each of us went through to get here, and the journey many of us went through to birth our children. As someone who’s delivered through natural childbirth twice, I’ll declare transition is the very toughest part. It’s the part where, as a mom-to-be, you want to jump up and run away screaming I QUIT!!!! And of course that is laughable, because no way is that an available option.
Right now, we are in that phase.
But transition is right before the newborn makes its presence known.
And, there is a tremendous amount of good going on right now in the world. Most of it is not on the pages of the LATimes, not on the evening news and mainstream media.
Most of it is just under the radar. We have to go looking for it. Think of it like foraging for wild berries. Let’s start hunting, and start sharing.
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