What Now? Reimaging our Future!
Reimagining.... Recreating....
Every day I wake up and look out the window. Sometimes the sun is shining, sometimes not. The world still turns. Birds land on my balcony, scavenge my plants, and fly away. The pets need walking and I oblige. I drink my coffee, exercise alone, then hug my daughters and head to work, and life goes on. Except that it doesn’t! At least not in any way I could have ever conceived would be my present, and certainly in a way I outright reject as my future.
I live in Manila, one of the most locked down cities in the world. At publication, we have been locked down since 16 March 2020, which is exactly 574 days or 82 weeks, or 18.9 months. Life interrupted and curtailed; more existing than living! Varying degrees of lockdowns continue to be imposed on patient, mostly passive, long suffering citizens and guests such as myself who view the daily media fear porn mostly with cynicism and resignation, though some still seem to hold tight to and even nurture the fear, as though that fear were a crutch or life raft of some sort. Perhaps it helps them accept and even welcome the chains. The Philippines is Catholic country that has been denied religion since this started; such a tragedy for our spirit! Solitary, introverted online mass does not substitute for in-person community, service, and connection.
Anyway, back to me! I grew up in the 70s, a child of relative privilege in rural Australia. My privilege was not by money for we didn’t have much, and hand-me-downs and even donated food was always gratefully accepted by our our family of eight. I was privileged to have enough, to never go hungry, to never to have directly known war, or famine, or even conflict. I had to work for what I got. But I was also comfortable and privileged enough to become complacent and apathetic where politics and rights were concerned. Unaware of world politics. That privilege came at great cost it seems, for me and many others, because strength it seems must be tempered in the fire of hardship and challenge. Community must be actively built. History must not be forgotten. I had challenges, being the awkward socially inept child who was “smart” but didn’t fit in, not by a long shot. Still don’t, but that doesn’t matter any more. So that has placed me where I am today going through my own tempering process! Determined that “this” has to change!
Is it really a pandemic, or is it a hostile takeover, decades in the planning? The vaccines are not the answer; they are now clearly part of the problem. Endless lockdowns are not the answer; they create far more problems than they solve [that is a topic for another time]. Masks are not the answer; nor shields, rubber gloves, or gallons of sanitizers. Government mandates, controls and fines create resentment, poverty and despair. Hiding in our homes hoping for a savior and better days won’t make this better. We are sinking into a dark age, we must stop this now!!
Now is the time to reimagine how we want our world to look, and to use that imagining to emerge from this trance; to reclaim our power, to build our strength, to gather in our communities, and to change our present and our future. We won’t be going back to what we had before. We need to recreate what we want our world to be.
I dream of world that is a community. Where each person is valued and nurtured. Where people, community, and the planet come before profits. Always!
I dream of a world driven by strong morals, respect, responsibility, decency, kindness, appreciation, and love. A world driven by the need for each of us to reach our best potential.
I dream of a world of merit. Where hard work and achievements reap rewards. Where rewards come with responsibility and accountability. If you have more, you have a responsibility to give more back.
I dream of a world where we all have what we need; though equally important, where we are not driven by out-of-check consumerism; where beauty, curiosity, knowledge, quality and value count.
I dream of a world where evil is found, countered and swiftly punished! There must be consequences for wrong doing. Evil will always exist, but it must not be allowed to grow unchecked.
I dream of a world where there is no censorship; where there is vigorous and rigorous academic discourse on all subjects; where science is reinvented without politics involved. Science, Engineering, and all of the Arts will give us tools and knowledge to guide our recreation.
I dream of a world where medicine is reinvented as a healing instead of sickness. Where vibrant health is maintained though nutrition, movement, and social and spiritual connection. Where medicine really heals.
I dream of a world where government is reinvented, maybe with a council of elders, whose positions are earned through a lifetime of service. They too will engage in rigorous debate for each situation has many sides, and there may be multiple paths to appropriate resolution.
The elders role will be to ensure that the balance between what is good for people, the environment, and the community (local and world), is never again subjugated to ruthless power. The current situation must never again be allowed to occur.
Over-government and bureaucracy will be a thing of the past. When people act from a place of responsibility they won’t need to be micromanaged.
Big-Business, Big-Agriculture, Big-Pharma, Big-Government, Big-Food, and Big-Education will be downsized and reinvented to serve the people and their communities.
I believe we have technology and knowledge to exist with nature; this won’t mean locking everything up to stay untouched. It will mean some preservation, it will mean finding best technologies, it will mean regenerative farming practices, it will mean vigorous measure against pollution and remediation of the damage already done.
I believe all of this is within our reach! We can do this. Reimagine! Let us create!