Having Faith In Our Culture Will Help It Heal
This post is taken partly from my comments on Mark’s post about the bail-out.
Mark expresses a common sentiment along the lines of “I don’t know if our civilization will survive”.
Here’s my take on this, and I apply it both to our US culture and to our global situation:
I tend to take a very long view on our countries economy and structures, and our world’s struggle with environmental pollution.
I think of our country/culture/society, and the world at large in which we have a huge influence, as being in its adolescence. We are growing up…which means learning from our mistakes…which means we will make more, I’m sure.
I see them as part of a much longer/broader cycle. Our country as a whole is struggling to move from anger/blame/finding fault to responsibility and cooperation. So every “crisis” is an opportunity for us to grow, and I have faith that this is happening.
Civilizations mature over long periods of time. So I don’t worry so much about it on a day to day level. I focus more on my own maturity, and developing my own consciousness in order to help and teach etc, to move things along in whatever spheres I have influence in.
Like “Think globally, act locally”, I like to “Think long-term, act day to day”.
Will we survive?
I just have this faith that we will. I act as if we will.
I figure, if we don’t then we don’t, but wondering about it makes me spend energy in worry and hope/doubt, and that creates ineffectiveness.
I have a strong sense of faith that we’ll make it. And a sense that if we don’t commit to making it, if we stay hovering in fear/doubt–that this is part of the problem somehow.
I believe that the very act of having faith in ourselves and humanity given the current situation is a radical act that will help create the future where we do survive, and thrive. Because it seems to me that vision precedes action: you have to believe in something before you act toward it. So I feel that faith in ourselves is, in itself, important to have.
I almost see it as an aspect of growing up and developing maturity and responsibility: you see yourself as capable of taking on the things in your path, as being equal to your life. I see us as equal to our situation. It’s dire, but we can meet it, we will meet it, we are meeting it. Progress is slow in some areas, but it is fast in others, and it will crystallize soon. I have a solid sense in my body that this is true.
And I want to get off the fence with it, come out of the “intellectual skepticism” closet and commit. I think it’s important. I believe in us.
I want to help heal our culture and help it mature; I think one of the key aspects of a healer is that they can see the person they are helping as whole long before the person sees themselves that way. Through the healers eyes, the person begins to be able to see themselves in a new way, and then starts to believe that new things are possible.
They start to believe in themselves because they are believed in. From believing in themselves, they start acting in ways that support their own healing. Vision precedes action.
So what I see is that our culture has all the inner resources and wisdom it needs to heal (just like a person does). And it has the support of its community and the Universe, if it reaches out and asks (just like a person does). And, it has some roadblocks to realizing this (just like a person does). But it still has that potential and I want to have faith in it (like I would a person).
So when I look around, I don’t see signs of doom and reasons to be hopeless. I see a young culture struggling to grow up. The US was founded on a very strong need to individuate and go our own way. We are still maturing into realizing that now we need to play well with others and what it takes to do that.
I see lots of people in our culture trying to learn just that. I see all the folks looking to the East and other cultures for spiritual understanding. That is happening. And it’s because as the people of our country mature, they realize that there is stuff out there that is wiser than our “rugged individualism” and our love of the marketplace above all else, and they seek it out.
This affects our culture. We are our culture. We are the cells that make up the body of our country, and we are healing ourselves from the inside out, and that will heal our country from the inside out. The idea that culture is created by someone else is bogus. I claim my culture-creating abilities and exercise them. I am blogging, I am creating community, creating art, creating life. So are millions of others.
Our culture is growing and maturing. And I have faith in it.
We can all be vibrantly alive and happy. Here I discuss the ideas and tools that will get us there.
Interesting, Emma. While I agree with much of what you say, there are two things I don’t quite agree with is the faith bit.
As I’ve stumbled my way through my life, progressing, as one rabbi put it, in distances exactly as long as I am tall- as I fall flat on my face, climb to my feet, and fall again- I’ve found that the ability to hold doubt to be something that balances me.
I have a deep and abiding faith in Source, that all is, was, and will be well in a Divine sense. And, the truth is, on the earthly plane things fall apart. People die. Cultures and empires pass. If there’s anything I learned after 8 years on the ambulance is that some people make it, and some people don’t- and there’s no mentally explicable rhyme or reason to it.
That actually builds my faith and clinging to a deeper sense of Source. And, while I don’t doubt that we have what we need to overcome what we’re facing as a culture, I also have a question in my mind… will we make it?
It doesn’t slow me down- but it does keep me connected and interested. What a cliffhanger!
As the Sufis say: Die before you die.
The second thing I’m not sure I agree with? Cultural age. Although the US has only been in existence since 1776, our culture is older than that. I’m thinking in terms of the first European shifts towards industrial capitalism in the 1600’s. And you could go back even further. We’ve got a good 400 to 2000 years under our belt, depending on how you count things, and empires have risen and fallen in shorter amounts of time than that.
Thanks as always for discussion- yer makin’ me think…
@Mark
Yay, glad for the discussion!
Yeah, I agree, people die, and death is part of life, and cultures and empires pass. I agree with all of that. I guess I’m not saying “America will stand forever in its present form”. Of course not. In fact, what I’m saying is the opposite: We are growing and changing all the time. And I doubt very much that we can know right now what we will look like when we are done growing and changing. We will transform. And transformation is nonlinear. You can only see a few steps ahead of you when you are really on a growth path. But you have faith, that’s what leads you on (that’s what lead me on anyway, faith that healing was possible, and faith in myself that I could do it).
And sure, it will involve death on many levels. I just believe it will also involve rebirth, renewal, growth, and healing. I just see all the struggles we are going through as part of that long process.
The faith I feel is not in a particular future. It’s a faith that there is a purpose to America. A purpose to humanity. And that purpose is good. That it will come to good. That it is, in fact, already good. Despite our flaws, there is a beating heart that is alive and good in all of us, and in our country too. That’s the heart of my faith.
And it’s really not an intellectual faith. I can just feel it in my body. A love for this species. A sense of watching this species grow into itself. Like watching a toddler learn to walk, seeing it fall, but knowing that its bones are strong and it will stand up again. It makes me smile to think of it this way. =)
People die, yes. Cells die, structures die. But the soul, the heart, it lives on. I don’t believe the heart and soul of our species will die, just now. Our bodies (the structure), may die, in various ways. In fact I think it will have to, much of it. As we build better, more life-nourishing structures. But we will live on, somehow.
And not just survive. We will find our hearts and souls again and learn to live from them. And it will be amazing.
When you heal, you find your uniqueness and you find that it is special. That you have gifts that are unique and precious. Humanity is like that. We have beautiful gifts that we will learn to own and celebrate and appreciate.
And to get really woo-woo on you, sometimes I feel like I’m not from this planet exactly. That, through reincarnation or whatever, I came here to be part of the help this planet needs, at a time when humans are just beginning to step into their power. Misusing that power sure. But only because they are so young and unsure of their goodness and the reality of goodness. They need help and support from the Cosmos. But that help and support is there. The Universe does not want humanity to die. That is a conviction I have that just lives in my body, and I really can’t explain it except by going to the super woo-woo. =)
I just have this bodily sense of watching it unfold. Knowing that it will be OK. That doesn’t mean I’m not involved, I came here to be involved. (Yes, I know, I’m sounding like a crazy woo-woo person). I just hold that in suspension-of-disbelief because I feel that some part of it is true, even if it’s on a metaphorical rather than physical level.
Yes, there are different ways of looking at cultural age. I guess they all seem to point to one thing to me though -> we aren’t done growing up yet. We as a country, we as a species, and, on the micro level, many of us as people, including me. =)
[…] Well, I wrote this post because I just outed this whole idea of myself being from another planet on my other blog (in the comments). And I feel nervous and scared that everyone will think I’m a TOTAL NUTJOB. […]
Oh sure- I can agree with that. I have faith that something will continue somehow. I don’t have to be attached to any particular way things turn out- I mean, we’re all going Home to Source, right?
I was speaking specifically about our current society and culture.
I can’t claim to know anything about what the Universe wants with humanity. I do have faith that we’re in the image of the Divine, in all the mystical ways that is meant, and so as long as the Divine continues to want this particular mirror in place we’ll continue.
@Mark
Yes, I’m talking about our current society and culture too. I think maybe you aren’t getting what I’m saying but I’m feeling a little frustrated and tired to re-explain it right now.
Hmm… I just got a little confused. Because when you wrote:
“I don’t believe the heart and soul of our species will die, just now. Our bodies (the structure), may die, in various ways. In fact I think it will have to, much of it. As we build better, more life-nourishing structures. But we will live on, somehow.”
I took that to mean you were referring to us as a species, and also when you wrote:
“The faith I feel is not in a particular future.”
I took it to mean what I was trying to explain- that things may die and change, and that what we’re currently living in may eventually look very different. And I have a faith in the deeper Source, but not a faith in any particular outcome or particular manifestation.
But, anyway- going into a very busy week couple of weeks- so don’t take it amiss if I disappear for awhile…
peace
Mark
@Mark
I don’t feel very energized by the prospect of trying to clarify with exact precision what I meant and whether we disagree and to what percentage. I don’t feel any excitement or juice in that.
These ideas are close to my heart, and I try to speak about them with my heart, and I long to hear back from *your* heart. The heart that knows, the heart that feels, the heart that believes. Would you show me that?
Hey Emma-
Hmmm… I’m not sure what you’re needing when you say “heart” here. I will tell you that personally I’m a little full: the birth mother who is carrying the twins we’re adopting arrives tomorrow for a weekend visit, and we’re holding a 5-day business retreat starting next Friday. Life is definitely very full.
And despite me being full, I’m little lost about you thinking my heart is absent somehow from the discussion. My heart is definitely here, and yet we seem to be missing each other. That’s okay with me. I trust your heart. I was having needs for clarity and understanding, and my request somehow didn’t connect with any aliveness for you. And so I’m not sure where to go next.
So, I think the next place I’m going to go is to continue cleaning up the house in preparation for the Visit- that’s where my heart wants to go.
And, I’m glad you have faith in our culture and species- meets my need for healing and trust.
peace
Mark
“And, I’m glad you have faith in our culture and species- meets my need for healing and trust.”
This helps a lot, thanks. What I meant by “heart” is the naked needs and feelings my post inspired - and to celebrate anything that resonated or inspired you.
I guess I didn’t hear a request for clarity and understanding or connect to any needs in your last comment. It landed like you were trying to catch me in a web of my own words, and I felt sad because I was wanting celebration and connection.
I feel confused and sad when you say it’s “Ok with you” if we miss each other. Longing for mutual desire to connect. Understand if that’s not your deal, just something I long for in my friendships and community. Do you share that longing?
I guess overall I experience a certain reserve in how you write and I’m longing to crack that open and see the messy you underneath it. Well, not like I want to hit you over the head, LOL, just that I wonder what’s inside and want to connect to it. I experience that I don’t entirely trust your heart (well, if I get what you mean by that?), and I’m feeling a sense that it’s because I haven’t quite connected to it in our interactions.
But maybe your twins will crack you open. =) (joking! kinda…)
I’m smiling inside thinking about the new life you are bringing into your home and am glad that you are devoting time for it. It seems really important. =)