 This chalkboard sketch is the live graphic facilitation of the Theory U course I am taking currently on EdX U.Lab (which I highly recommend the 0x and 1x). This session in particular was on the relationship between Finance or Money and the Climate. This image might be difficult to follow since you weren't there during the session but you see the 7 acupuncture points in the centre (noted only by 1 letter) and the surrounding text around it explains the relationships and the leverage points that currently exist for us to make change in societies across the globe. Otto Scharmer the founder and professor at MIT speaks about 'N' Nature on the very left and how we are currently consuming 1.5 times the Earth's available resources, as you can tell, we'd be consuming everything if that number was 1, but right now we are in a depleting rate of consumption. The 'C' stands for Capital. We learnt that the current economic system we live in is largely (95%) made up of transactions that are not happening in the real economy. They are happening mostly electronically, created and birthed out of nowhere simply by banks pushing lots of '0' buttons. As Scharmer notes, we need money to build 'the commons', i.e. the public services that the government is in many countries responsible to build or offer to its citizens, rather than supporting the rich to get richer and other banks and corporations to benefit monetarily from the depletion and consumption of the Earth's natural resources. We are learning in more detail about the specific movements, relationships and attitudes we need to achieve transformation in these 7 areas and the hypothesis is that these will really change things! I am very inspired by the TheoryU movement and I hope you can check them out! The image below is the digital version of the 7 acupuncture points, and here is the original blog post Otto Scharmer writes to describe a good summary of the 7 points.  'The Root Issue: Commodity Fiction
The essence of transforming capitalism—or creating a new economy, if you prefer that term—is often missed or overshadowed by activities that happen under the headline of pursuing corporate social responsibility. These are worthwhile efforts, as are many of the sustainability-related activities undertaken by business. But a true transformation must deal with an essential design flaw in the core architecture of capitalism. In his 1944 book The Great Transformation, political economist Karl Polanyi describes this design flaw as commodity fiction. Capitalism, or the market society, as he calls it, is constructed on the foundation of a fiction—namely that nature, labor, and money are commodities; that is, they are produced for the marketplace and for consumption. But, Polanyi argues, nature isn’t produced by us for market consumption. Nor are human beings (labor). And neither is money. But in the market system they are treated as if they are commodities. That’s what he calls commodity fiction. The result is, according to Polanyi, phenomenal growth on the one hand, but also disastrous negative externalities in the form of environmental destruction, poverty, and cyclical monetary breakdowns. Societies responded to these dysfunctionalities by creating a whole new set of institutional innovations such as standards for labor and the environment, social security, and the federal reserve system—all of which do basically the same thing: suspend market mechanisms where they are not useful.' - Otto Scharmer
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 Rape Culture, sexism and misogyny is all around us, all around the world. The fear of being attacked in the middle of an alley way is not the only form of 'rape'. There is so much more more nuanced behaviours and relationships that people of all genders take part in that alludes to it and make women around the world uncomfortable in varying degrees from discomfort about what a family member or acquaintance tweets to downright life threatening situations.
Sexual abuse is most often done by familiar people around the victim, be it family members, immediate or extended, co-workers, friends, and people you see often. I've experienced street harassment for literally 2 decades and it has accumulated to a constant fear, watchfulness, complete pent up anger and frustration for all these years. My story isn't uncommon, many girls experience sexual advances long before puberty hits. This is why the empowerment and spiritual awakening of men and masculinity is so crucial, along with that for women and femininity. This is why parents sticking around for their children are so important, even if you separate from your partner; to teach children what their value is. Self-respecting children won't grow up to do these things to other people, they know what respect is. There are so many other factors that lead to this type of rape culture behaviour such as codependency and lack of self-love, lack of love in families, and so on but it isn't impossible to fix it, to heal, to re-write wrongs. Gender-based violence towards the LGBTQ community is also an example of this - it is not a duality, a black and white circumstance.  "We tend to measure the perverse progress of these environmental catastrophes in the abstract language of accountancy — in hectares lost to deforestation, or metric tons of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere. This quote comes from a wonderful article (from my favourite OnBeing) that was an interview with author Douglas Christie for The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology. I absolutely love how he connected penthos, prosoche, kenosis, eros, topos, logos and telos in our spiritual and religious histories with our relationship to our planet, to emotion, to each other and to community and our ability to turn to it and our awareness of reality. Our deeply personal relationships with our Selves, our inner worlds, and with each other are what determine the outer world. We are the main influencers on our ecological state, our inner world needs some healing for the outer to heal. I'm really excited to pick up this book, I thought I'd share this with you as well! If you've read the book already, please share what your reflections are!
I don't understand how this has so little views. Elena Bennett articulately explains it all. I love the way this image below is laid out visually, the main categories of areas we need to thrive as a planet in order to continue existing. There are so many initiatives around the world trying to tackle single issues, and rightly so. However, it's also nice to be able to see where you fit in in the work you are doing; what contribution you're making to the whole to ensure the whole continues to exist. These are specifically environmental and ecological and influenced by human usage of resources. We know that politics, human interaction, psychology, and our relationship to our planet are the drivers of how this will all go down (or up! let's be optimistic).  I'm going to tell you about a day, a day that I was feeling incredibly down. I felt no purpose in life, in interacting with people, in keeping up appearances, in showing up in any arena of my life, in speaking up, of waking up, of eating, nothing.
I had just spent 2 days writing evvverything I could possibly think of that I had an inkling to accomplish in life. Some I was meh about, they were activities or lifestyles that seemed too simple or easy, too predictable that I would do that, not challenging enough, not world-changy enough. Others were of the thinking: "hmm that would be funn!!!", or "I could totally do that and do it well", or "well I am kinda talented in this, so I guess I could do that too, why not!". I re-read this long list the next morning and none of them clicked. It was like I was high and you think all your ideas are incredible and life-changing and then you look at it the next day un-high and you ask yourself what the hell is so special about what you wrote. Well I wasn't high, but somehow the magic did fade. I got frustrated. I tried to visualize some of them, I closed my eyes and meditated on them, I could see them in my mind's eye but they didn't evoke a sense of inspiration, excitement, anxiousness and energy at all. Then I ended up browsing Facebook the rest of the day, listening to some epic movie scores to be the soundtrack of my moody-existential-crisis-type day, and I found this article, entitled "7 STRANGE QUESTIONS THAT HELP YOU FIND YOUR LIFE PURPOSE". Yep, yet another personal development list under 10 of things to consider and think about. I clicked on it anyway. And I don't know if it was the combination of the epic movie soundtracks and the privacy in my room, and the notepad I liked, or what but the answers came flowing through. I was really in a state of receiving and allowing the answers to come through me as a medium. I had never really heard of Mark Manson before, but I went through the 7 questions, and the last 2 questions realllly struck a cord. It was clear, my purpose was literally clear to me. And it turned out that simple, clear one that I had written in my long list WAS the one! It was the one I thought wasn't world-changy enough, but I knew that I would find so much joy in doing for the rest. of. my. entire. life. If you haven't read the About Me on the Home page, essentially, it was to visit communities around the world, help them in any way I can, and showcase their work to the world! My body as my vessel, my knowledge/skills as my contribution. That simple. The how I was going to get there wasn't answered but that never really is the key to manifesting anything and I'm currently working on that one. But these questions are what inspired me to start this very website you're reading and to start #BareWitness again and take it out of its year-long hiatus after a very small-scale blip of a pilot test. Take a look at the questions he asks! I hope it helps you too! |
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