No one “needs” a $100 T-shirt, but we get one for the story it tells about ourselves. It informs the people around you.
So much of what we do is about who we are trying to be accepted by.
Systems are not living creatures. But they are much more understood as such.
Curiosity is the best bridge to understanding why someone came to their conclusion. We are too quick now; we judge which conclusions are wrong and right. The alternative: when we are curious, ask questions, and are willing to change our minds, we open the door for learning and connection. But when ideology comes in the way, we close the door. I think it’s helpful to understand that, in the setting you’re in and the person you are talking to, it’s worth asking, Is this a space where everyone is willing to change their mind? If not, your ideas are unlikely to spread. Change course.
Another note:
Mysticism will get us into trouble when we refuse to learn how things work.
And, at the same time, if we are trying to demystify everything, we leave no room for magic to occur. I’m not talking about pulling rabbits out of a hat but the magic of awe, surprise, and wonder.
“How did you do that?” is a good question. The magician deciding to reveal their secrets is a choice.
Once you remodel a house, you see how the plumbing, electrical, insulation, heating/air, etc., work together to create a “home.” There’s no mysticism anymore; you see it like a contractor would.
The same is true for cars and brain surgery.
Part of the work of being a professional is demystifying the world of your expertise for everyone else. And if your clients doesn’t want to learn how to change the oil, it will continue to feel mystical to those who need their problem solved.
There’s a gap between:
This situation is hopeless.
And
This situation feels hopeless.
We often mistake the two. Especially, when working with the climate and the political sphere.
Finite games are designed to have winners and losers. Understanding this, there’s an innovative approach to these types of games:
Don’t play games you can’t win.
In other words, quit playing the lottery, stop spamming your resume to companies, let the other driver pass, stop pursuing a relationship that isn’t going to happen…and on and on.
You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.
It’s easy to pretend the things we don’t understand are a miracle. But the “miracle” was the impresarios behind the scenes making things happen without the credit that is deserved.
Miracles, therefore, can be accounted for by who doesn’t receive credit in the background.
Solutions are readily available. But that doesn’t mean we don’t get in our own way to them. For instance, when the remote goes out, we know where the spare batteries are, but we are too tired to get them. You don’t need another solution; you need to follow through. Bigger problems like climate change also have solutions. But again, we can’t get out of our way to implement them. Perhaps, the problem isn’t finding solutions but the courage to implement them. (Or maybe convincing the world there is a path. Indeed, our nature is to give up when the situation feels hopeless.)
It seems like an efficient way to kill two birds, but that task is not likely to be possible if they move. While we like to think of it as a helpful metaphor for efficiency, we don’t realize how inefficient it is until we try. We often take on more than we can handle is the real lesson here. (Never mind the ecological consequences of this mentality.)
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