Left or right, creative vision moves the world
How will you engage your creative powers to further your own vision for the future?
Friends, those of you who have been with me for a while know that I have been advocating a form of “purposeful memoir,” which I describe in my latest book as “looking back in order to better understand how we got to this present moment, so as to be able to step more intentionally into the brighter future we yearn for.”
Sounds good, right?
But examining the historical underpinnings of the present moment can be a fraught practice, requiring that we revisit some tough moments and uncomfortable truths, not only in our personal lives, but also in our collective histories.
How did I get here? asks the protagonist of David Byrne’s famous song.
Letting the days go by…. the chorus replies, and it’s as true for the individual as for the collective.
We let the days go by, over a lifetime, over many lifetimes, and now we wake up to a planet radically destabilized by climate disruption, and, in many places of the world, by political systems that have been seized by repressive forces and turned into police states.
It seems that the long arc of “progress” and “enlightenment” that came out of Europe in the 18th century and took the world by storm is now reaching its endpoint, and the conclusion is very far from those lofty ideals of “liberty and justice for all.”
Looking back, every person alive today has played some role in our current shared reality. We are each threads in the social tapestry of our time and place.
So yes, if you are writing memoir, I suggest you consider not just your own personal story, but also how your story has been set into, and often shaped, by the larger warp and weft of the collective around you.
Focus especially on those pivotal moments when you made a decision that led you in one way or another. What prompted you to make the choices you’ve made in your life? And what have been the consequences of those choices?
The same questions can be asked for collective history too—for society, and indeed for humanity on a global level.
Now, in the present moment, we face a series of pivotal moments as a species.
We know what we need to do to begin to rebalance the climate, and to increase our resilience to the inevitable storms and wildfires, heat waves and blizzards that will be slamming the Earth in the coming years.
We know that we need to foster a mindset of radical interdependence if we are to survive as a global family—rather than revert to competing armed camps run by feudal techno-warlords.
But knowing and acting on that knowledge are two very different things, and for many of us it seems like our hands are tied right now. What can I do to push large enough shifts that will make a difference in the near term, in this century?
Small steps are still steps forward.
Even a thought is an action.
Do not let the days go by mindlessly.
It’s important to maintain a kind of personal hygiene of mind now.
Do not give in to despair.
Do not let the light of hope go out.
Do not lose your zest for life, your curiosity, your sense of fun.
It is very hard to be at all lighthearted in the face of the kind of relentless bad news we are getting these days. It can actually seem hardhearted, as if we are not paying enough compassionate attention to the suffering of others.
But it will not help a shackled ICE detainee or a starving child if you go around crying all day.
What might help is if you sat down at your keyboard and wrote a dozen letters to people in power, demanding they stand up for peace.
It might help if you picked up your pen and wrote a poem about freedom that touched people’s hearts and got them to care about the future of human liberty.
It might help if you wrote a purposeful memoir that excavated, in a personal register, how the grand project of participatory democracy began to unravel.
My own coping strategy is to tune into my heart, which is often inflamed and aching with the burden of all the pain and suffering in the world. Instead of wallowing in that pain, I make the choice to channel my passionate compassion into speaking and sharing my vision for a better world.
I don’t want to spend my time reacting to each body blow dealt by the goons in power and their toadies.
I want to spend my precious time imagining a better world, and doing my best to live into it each day.
Keeping our creativity alive and active matters.
Every advance in human culture has come through flashes of creative inspiration.
This is as true for “Declarations of Independence” as it is for “Big Beautiful Bills.” Left or right, it’s really a battle for hearts and minds, which are won by creative vision.
Let it not be said of this time that people of compassion went down silently into “the dustbin of history.”
Anything you can do today to keep your own creative spirit shining brightly is of immense value to the greater good. I truly believe this.
For instance: You write in your journal, you feel a bit better, you go for a walk and smile at a child, and make her day brighter. We cannot know how the ripples from this single “random act of kindness” may go out to change the world for the better. We don’t have to know. We just have to trust that in the grand scheme of things, it matters that we did our best to spread love and light, even if just in a tiny circle of radiance around us.
I want to be touched by your circle of light, and I welcome you into mine.
Together, let us shine like the blazing starchildren we are!
Yours in all creative endeavors,
Jennifer
Friends, it’s my pleasure and my passion to support you as we stretch towards living our lives creatively and to the fullest.
The motto of my author consulting business is “Writing to Right the World,” and the motto of my book publishing business, Green Fire Press, is “Books that Make the World Better.”
If these intentions resonate with you and you are working on a book, or have one in mind, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Supporting creative people bring their work more strongly out into the world is one way I try to make the world better.
As occurs quite often, Jennifer, we are attuned. The book I am currently writing that details the evolution of a modern Medicine Woman, is a form of memoir, but it is also an historical document about the rise of the movement for natural and home birth that I identify as a movement for women's healthcare leadership. I am on a roll with this new genre that weaves memoir with historical documentation, and I am very pleased to see you refer to it as I have been curious if others are aware of it.
This is in line with my new life approach: joy as a radical act. It's good to know there are so many others tuned to the same frequency. Vibrating together for long enough, loudly enough, we will shake up the status quo!