FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1230

We make this world: we have responsibility. We do not determine its outcome, but we affect its direction. We must choose direction; no, there is no must, there is only responsibility for what we do. Do we help things along or hinder? Is there a middle path? Dead weight is hindrance. There is however dread choice: do we mobilize, do we surpass? This then makes it clear there is no middle path: lying on our couch or doing only what our forbears did is not meeting our responsibility: mobilize! Surpass!

And the greater of these is to mobilize. We cannot be assured that we will surpass, but we can assure that we get going—ourselves.

So meet. Meet ourselves. Turn to and meet those next to you. Meet your divinity. Mobilize! Throw your whole life at life!

Mobilize toward what? Toward the music, the poetry, the light and rhythm in each, in all. (Music, poetry, light, rhythm are all synonyms for, pieces of, divinity. Let us remember!)

Assault! Open worlds! Open hearts, eyes, minds! WEave! Sing, Brother, dance, Sister! Mobilize! Make the world life sing!

See the new, take in the wonder, hear the song, then mobilize it! Throw your life away on this, for it shall be thrown away in all events! Throw our life away!

Please pass it on.

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What if we remember they are not just commandments but imagine-ments?

:- Doug.

Is our country worth having? The it is worth some dedicated thinking together time.

:- Doug.

Throw it in the ash can! Our school system: pretty much all of it! Finally put my finger on why. Conformity: that’s what the Industrial Revolution needed. So that’s what we teach. Desks in a row. Authority up front. Everybody gets the same facts and information. Poured in. Bolted down. “We” (who know) are doing to “them” (a mass of Its). As if learning were a product of teaching! (Little wonder then that teachers are so ill paid, and administrators abound. Teachers have their own “teachers” who control what they teach, how they are paid.) Let’s replace it with an education system. Let’s lead people out. Let’s encourage them to invent: to create their own world. (We will never go where they must). Let’s encourage students to find their own answers. Especially their own questions. Help them figure out which answers and questions they can trust. Encourage individuals to work together. Let us open space for new worlds. Let us get out of their way. They can go beyond where we have. Let us free. Let us invite. Let us make whole. It is holy work.

:- Doug.

Our work: Difficult conversations as acts of service.

:- Doug.