Something Different

In reflecting on the stand I've taken to shift my city, I have given some consideration to what is not working, on the premise that if something isn't working, the only choice is to do something different. Interestingly, it has occured to me lately that I am something different, a new species. I don't know yet whether I am simply a part of a generation coming into their own, or whether I am genuinely on a unique path, but my instinct is that there is a whole species of people my age who are becoming about shift in the world.

It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to look at our methods and see whether they are functional. We cannot simply rely on the tactics of previous generations of social warriors, for those maneuvers are obsolete. In fact, the warrior paradigm may be obsolete altogether. What has been bred by the warrior mentality is a destructive system of mutual blame between the right and the left. Rather than a stand for growth, members of each side take a stand against the other side, and spend time blaming and fighting each other. This does not work for me. I once felt it to be a character flaw that I was not a warrior, a determined, unstoppable sword-wielding man, around whom things just get done. In realizing that fighting does not work, I have come to be grateful that I am not of that sort. Instead of the warrior archetype, I find myself becoming a priest, a stand for unity and connection. Instead of the sword, my tool is the lens, through which I magnify and focus the cleansing light of the universe.

Which means that, instead of adopting a left or right wing identity, and especially instead of a party affiliation, I become a force for consensus and synthesis of positions. Perhaps through the balanced blending of both extreme positions, we as a city, a generation, and a country can come up with answers to some of the dilemmas of our society. At the very least, we will have done and been something different.