On Culture Change

Hello friends,

This is another tough missive this week, for which I apologize in advance.

I’m writing this while heading home from a gathering with a group of people I trust, some of whom I’ve known for decades. We’ve been helping each other in our work on culture change this whole time.

Together, we’re playing a long game, or attempting to.

But the long game is often heartbreaking, isn’t it? And my ability to even think in such terms is a sign that I am not currently living under desperate circumstances.

There are at least four genocides being enacted by humans right now. There are people kidnapped. Tortured. Held hostage. Bombed. Gunned down in the street. There are hungry people. People forced to live on sidewalks. People displaced. People working under terrible conditions…

And also: There are people everywhere struggling together toward freedom. Organizing for justice. Reaching out toward love. Creating sparks of hope.

You are reading this from the midst of your own life. I do not know your current conditions. All I can do is hope that you are well, wherever you are. All I can do is hope that you have a safe place to sleep, and nourishing food to eat, and clean water, and people who love you.

PD Ouspensky once wrote of walking down a city street and seeing a lorry piled high with crutches. World War One had just begun and those crutches were being delivered to the front in advance, for people who still had all their limbs. He realized then that this was the way of the world: we would always be preparing, somewhere, for war.

His teacher Gurdjieff told him that this condition would never change until and unless humans changed ourselves and our relationships with each other. But to do so, we must first know ourselves.

Let’s keep trying. No, thoughts and prayers are not enough, but if we can come to know our motivations and turn away from our own violence, greed, resentment, and fear, we may just stand a chance to create something better, something new.

Together.

So today, I’m with you for the long haul. How about it?

be well — Thorn

Paid subscribers: Reminder that third Saturdays are Sprint With Me time! Bring your creative projects on November 18th and we’ll hang out together. I’ll send a link later this week.