things fell apart
and the center did not hold
at least that’s how grandpa talks about the olden days
days where capital was holier than spirit
man dominated (and subsequently) destroyed nature
and growth was the ultimate god
those days long gone — almost all but forgotten
……now we just are.
living breathing and being, in deep synchronicity with the world around us
deep synchronicity with ourselves and others
an appreciation and reverence for abundance
one that’s not hampered by “the invisible hand[s]” of the market
it’s odd how it happened though – grandpa would say-
how it all had to fall apart
……………………..to eventually come together
The world we want is here; we just have to stop fighting against it. We have to allow that world to be as present and real as we allow the numbers from the NASDAQ and Dow Jones to be. Initiatives such as the Green New Deal and parts of the ACA, as well as protests from Standing Rock against the KeystoneXL Pipeline are all indicators that we have the foresight, intellectual prowess and heart to write a new story about our economy. The real and most pressing question in my mind is are we willing listen?
Are we willing to stop ignoring our waters, our un-served (intentionally spelled) communities? Are we willing to start to calculate the true cost of many of our wasteful linear capitalistic ventures and wholeheartedly throw our efforts behind adopting new metrics of successful enterprises, adopting new metrics of health, adopting a new framework for measuring a countries economic prowess that extends further than GDP and military belligerence?
If we are, then the mechanisms of how/ which idea we adopt – whether we go solar or rely on wind or a combination – are secondary because we are all oriented to the same metrics of evaluating success.
Shared Ownership Workshop 
Wow. I so enjoy your poetry. I’m not sure if you are going more for Yeats or Achebe or both, but this is beautiful! Simple with significant meaning and imagery in just a few words. I can see the grandfather and grandchild. How wonderful to talk about the olden days as a time that made no sense compared to the wonderful present. Similarly, you say so much with your prose after your poetry. You are fluent in recent resistance movements and policy improvements. Evaluating success. We value what we evaluate. We care about and make changes and decisions based on what we evaluate. Even if we are all evaluating using the same metric, we need to choose what that is carefully. I would value reading more about your thoughts on those metrics and how we get to consensus about what to measure. Thank you for a beautiful, thoughtful post.
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Same as Ken, I’d love to read more about what metrics should replace the Dow? In one of my breakouts on Monday we talked about a training Sister Corinne mentioned about “Decolonize your Mind” and I think the idea that the Dow matters is one of those things we need to unlearn. How do we begin this unlearning and what metrics should replace it?
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