Which Wolf Will You Feed?
We live in testing times. The world is fragmenting.
A friend was talking about the geopolitical interplay which might or might not inform Trump annexing Greenland; a cascading series of consequences and impacts shaping and informing next steps, whatever they might be. Trump is a caricature. A steamroller. A 'bull in the china shop' of real life, turning, smashing, destroying, making explicit what has been implicit. For 50 years America has meddled in - with us here in the UK, and the West generally, meekly in support - other people's business. It's what the imperial power does; bullies, appropriates, interferes to its own self sustaining advantage. In the main this plays out behind closed doors and charades of diplomacy. Not any more, the wrecking ball is in town, painted orange for all to see. What was once hidden, is now visible. The American war machine in service of profit, resources and growth. Twas ever thus: the East India Company, anyone?
I'm not here to write about politics. Although I am interested in the always spinning, grand wheels of change. Maps are being redrawn, landscapes shifting. You might imagine a child studying a map at school - whatever this might look like - 50 years from today: A big globule to the left (of the euro centric map we're familiar with today), an imperialist America, it's claws stretching south and north east, bleeding far beyond current confines.
To the east, the map runs red: China and it's silken road and reclaimed territories stretching far and wide.
Up top, a Russian bear.
Below and between, husked out powers, lands left fragmented and divided, bloodied scraps. The global south, the play thing of new Imperialist overlords. Europe gone, fragmented to broken, starved of money, purpose and cohesion. A theoretical mighty block rendered impotent by a ruling class which lacked vision, competency and accountability - and a care enough it's people.
Heavy stuff.
Or worry not?
How The Tide Turns?
The above map viewing thought experiment is a vision rooted in today's realities: a map drawn and redrawn based on resources and military power.
But it is a map which leaves much out.
New threads are always taking root.
For three years I hosted a podcast. It was called Peripheral Thinking. the premise simple: the ideas shaping the mainstream tomorrow are hiding today on the margins. Celebrate these. These might be artistic threads, creative endeavours, experiments and / or iterations. Or 'more than human' movements.
They might be small. Or big.
Like climate change.
Communities gathering into new self organizing systems.
A consciousness evolution.
And on and on.
We can't know what the future will look like. Only that the big wheels are always spinning - and the giant soup is being shaped and re shaped by ingredients we see, and don't see. It's easy to overlook the margins, blinded by today's loudest voices.
Which brings us all the way back to you, me today.
How you turn up matters.
What you do matters.
The root meaning of 'educate' is to draw out. This feels important in these wild times. To drop below the noise and draw out what's below, inside, wanting to take root, to find voice.
Yes there's a need to earn money. Beyond that there's a rich tapestry of work you might do, of contribution you might make, which better expresses who you are and what you yearn for.
There's a verse in the ancient Chinese text, the Dao De Ching:
"In the pursuit of knowledge we add one thing everyday.
In the practice of wisdom, we subtract one thing everyday."
This describes a movement, a shaping of our times.
The last 50/60 years were defined by accumulation (on ever more powerful steroids): pursuing knowledge, status, power, wealth, filling ever deeper holes of doubt and insecurity, separation and loneliness, left brain craziness feeding ever hungrier ghosts.
And yet, in time, the tide turns. The fast moving, outward flowing rip, sweeping us out, slows to steady and, ultimately, a pause. This the slack water. And then the tide turns.
In this turning tide, we all have a role.
What we do, you do, matters.
Orientate to wisdom, to simplifying and clarifying, to sensing and responding into both the big wheels of change and the unfolding of your life, moment by moment. Sensing too into the places you're stuck and holding on, ever more fearfully, to underlying stories and narratives, ideas and habits whose time has passed. And in this, finding the courage, the path and practise to wisdom, to subtracting and letting things go.
Clearly this is not writing for everyone.
It is for you if you're feeling the drift, wishing and wanting more, inquiring even - is this it? - and, in your heart, know you've resources enough, and care enough, to, in Jeremy Lent's words, help weave new story into culture. The world is a complex web of patterns and interconnections. Your node matters. What you do, for who, how and why matters. What you choose to weave into the soup matters. The story you live by, the values you invest in. Little things matter. It all matters.
There's a line from Jung courtesy of James Hollis:
"Life is to be defeated by ever greater things".
This is both your opportunity and need. To say no, little by little, to playing small and safe and step instead into something richer, deeper, more meaningful.
Sure, the mortgage needs paying and the kids - as unreasonable as they are - demand food and a roof over their heads. This not an invitation to ignore your worldly responsibilities. Quite the opposite. This an invitation for you to shift your narrative, invest in humanity and connection and dive deep into a service of spirit. To live with a humility and control less. And to do this in service of others. It need not be all 8 billion others. Start with a small cohort. Weave together ideas and thoughts which move you, and support them.
So where to from here?
The Cherokee Tale of Two Wolves comes to mind.
In the story, an elder and grandson talk about two opposing forces, two wolves. One, 'good', the other 'bad' - good and bad in this, care and compassion vs hate and envy. Worried which of these wolves will win, the child is told 'the wolf that you feed will win'.
Which will you feed? Trump. Putin. Xi. Or connection, humanity and heart.
That and being defeated by ever greater things.
This is what I'll write to over the coming weeks. If you're keen, join me.
Now, a favour: if the resonates, please share with a friend.
If you haven't, you might sign up here and I'll share each new installment in this unfolding journey direct to your email - that’ll be me writing you back home to a life rich in purpose, meaning and reward. And maybe a little usefulness too.