After the Show

A Thoughtful Recap - Sixteen Months After Ferguson 

I was just reading a thoughtful article about the unrest at Ferguson that referred to Protests as Theater. I love and agree with the idea that often to implement change, attention must be drawn to the need for that change. The world of art is frequently our societal expression for many issues, and honestly, I had never thought of a protest as theater, yet it is. Whether an organized event carefully planned or a momentary reaction that mobilizes a group, protest is for show. It broadens the sphere of an issue and takes it into the more rapid currents of the public interest from the private heartache of its perpetrators. In that sense conflicts and confrontations - any human eruption - like the volcanic and seismic activities of the planet itself - are about the process of producing change. Human nature is very much in sync with the rhythms of nature's nature. When forces build up beneath the surface, eruptions follow, re-shaping the landscape into a new format for sustaining the inner needs of both the planet and its humans. Destruction and reconstruction occur. The article goes on to state that the real work of change will now begin as the tumult of the past few weeks subsides. Once the show has been staged, the ground opened for new seed, the work of change will happen more slowly and substantially over time. Political processes will change. Accountabilities will change. Attitudes and tolerability will change. Behavior will change and so will the rules, spoken and unspoken. And there seem to be tides in human affairs as well. Ebbs and flows. Places where we are moving forward with new life and abundance, and places where life and abundance seem to be sucked out of the very land and people, by the changes brought on through our human eruptions.

What to do when all of this is reported and assaults our senses from every quarter? When the next disastrous happening hits the news and we are all embroiled in the minute to minute happenings of the latest tragedy? How do we handle the onslaught of information and make a positive difference without furthering the angst of the situation? How do we shift the energetic balance from one of negatively charged emotions to one of creative growth?

And here I stopped, stopped by my own question. I think this is one that I have to ask of you. Each of us is personally responsible for how we tip the scales on any issue. Sometimes we are part of the eruption, sometimes part of the reconstruction. In the longer overview, there is no particular good or bad about all this turmoil we experience, there is yin and yang, balancing and rebalancing into a new form, just like the earth that sustains us, the solar system that sustains the earth, the galaxy that sustains the solar system........

Written after the happenings at Ferguson I stumbled upon this unpublished blog tonight - a week after the attacks on our beloved Paris. Once again its message rings true. How we respond and build is our personal choice. May we be healers, restorers, builders. Namaste.