On Longing

Much of my thinking lately has been about belonging as fundamental need in human beings. We need it like we need air, water, food. No doubt, there is need for differentiation also. But there remains longing for belonging. Belonging amidst differentiation is a home run.

From my files which I perused this morning, below is a piece on longing sent to me by a friend. It’s attribution is Starhawk. Though I don’t know Starhawk, I’m appreciative of these words.

We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been — a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpse of form time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.

The Noise of Numbers

In graduate school twenty-five years ago, one of my professors shared this: “If it can’t be measured it doesn’t count.” I remember as students we laughed when hearing it. A bit nervously. That professor was not a guy obsessed with measuring. He was just astute enough to name a societal pattern. At the time he was pointing to essential qualities like love and kindness, and to essential practices like collaboration and innovation.

That same professor also taught about what he called the inverse relationship between ease of measurement and meaningfulness of data. “The easier it is to measure, the less valuable is the measurement. The most valuable and meaningful something is, the harder it is to measure.”

A colleague in Amsterdam recently sent this video, “The Numbers” (5 minutes) that is a great call to change the story of measurement and numbers. It’s a call to change the course. “The market ideology isn’t a law of nature. It was created by humans. And humans can change it.”

There are several compelling questions and invitations in the video that make it a good watch. For me,

  • Are we not worth what we used to be? (challenging the absurdity of numerical rankings that are so prevalent in contemporary society)
  • A system that sees everything as money will never bring us to a humane and sustainable world.
  • Dare to Question (reminded me of a poster I saw recently at The University of Washington in Seattle, saying “Question the Answer” rather than the old school message that would have been “answer the question.”)
  • Ignite Debate (or engagement, or curiosity, or a more open encounter with one another.)

Take a peek. It’s worth it.

About Time: An Inquiry

Dave Pollard is a person I’ve met a few times over the last ten years. I’ve enjoyed it each time. Dave writes rather epic blogs under the heading “How To Save The World.” They are long, as is the one I’m referencing here on time. But they are also very thoughtful and articulate. Dave knows stuff. I love his honesty about who he is and what he sees, as is highlighted on his site:

“…chronicle of civilization’s collapse, creative works and essays on our culture. A trail of crumbs, runes and exclamations along my path in search of a better way to live and make a living, and a better understanding of how the world really works.”

Here’s a snippet from a recent post, About Time: An Inquiry. I love his thinking that meditation is “simply being in the presence of awareness,” which helps me empty just a bit more when my mind takes over.

“We normally consider that meditation is some kind of an activity of the mind. It’s a focusing of the mind, usually on a mantra or a flame or on the breath or just on the current situation. In other words meditation is normally conceived as an activity. What we understand here by meditation is something very different from that. Meditation is not an activity that is undertaken by a mind. Meditation here we understand as simply being in the presence of awareness…”

The full post is a good read, with a cup of tea to settle in.

This Unruly Mess

Macklemore, the rapper and songwriter from Seattle, recently released a teaser for an upcoming album, The Unruly Mess I’ve Made.

First, I love the title. The naming out loud of something that is an unspoken truth.

Second, I love this line, “If you aren’t scared of what you’ve created, you aren’t done yet.”

I also love it that Macklemore has remained an independent performer, not signing recording contracts with major studios, to preserve his freedom to create as inspired.

There’s a little something in this for all of us. Don’t have to like rap. Just hear or read the narrative and notice the part of any of us that wants and needs to create.

asd