We Make the Way by Walking

In light of the – not optimistic – scenarios that lie before us, those who do not sink into despair want a Plan. What are we going to do? Who is going to lead us? What is The Plan?

Turns out no one has “A Plan” “That’s because our current situation is not simply a problem that can be solved with a brilliant strategic plan, especially by a plan designed by people whose imaginations have been shaped by the values and assumptions of our current suicidal economy and anti-ecological way of life!...That’s not to say planning is futile: it’s just to say we should see our current situation as a super-complex predicament that must be lived through in an evolutionary process.” (pg 252)

Evolution does not work by following one grand master plan. It experiments. Most experiments “fail”. Some succeed partially or with great success. What doesn’t produce new life and growth dies, and what does produce new life and growth continues on and then adapts again to the new situation.

There is not “The Plan”. There are millions of people and millions of organizations that are living through our predicament, seeking to adapt and produce new life and growth. These people and organizations are dynamic, experimental, and evolutionary.

The call is to each of us to, as Maya Angelou says, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then do better.” “Whatever you do, it matters. The same is true for what other people do….The things you as an individual are doing now really matter, and the many things we come together to do matter even more.” (pg 253)

While everything matters, “some things matter more than others”. (pg 255) There are a wide variety of ways to focus on what matters and the things that matter even more. Here are a few suggestions:

1.     Voice your concern and your commitment. “The single most important thing we can do about our situation is talk about it.” (pg 255-6)

2.     What you have learned matters, and remaining curious matters even more. Now that you know more about our global situation, keep learning. Use a variety of resources – including indigenous ones – to learn how to meaningfully live in our predicament.

3.     Continue to contribute by learning, voicing, voting, volunteering for and supporting organizations or individuals doing the work.

4.     Your organized religion matters and your spiritual strength matters even more. Our spiritual life – individually and in community - forms the foundation for a more loving, just and generous world.

5.     Allow room for anger, sadness, and joy. Anger is a good, natural response to injustice. Well-managed anger can lead to doing beautiful things.

6.     Your family matters, and your “community of resilience” matters even more. Remember the old African proverb: “IF you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

“Whatever happens to civilization as we know it, you and I – in our own wick, wax, and flame – can find and do what is ours to do right now and shine as magnificently as we can right now, each year that we’re given, each day we’re awake, each that breath we take…In walking, step by step, the way will unfold like tendrils reaching out from a billion branches, seeking light. The ultimate destination? That is beyond both our control and our capacity to know. So here we are: savoring this gift of each day, in this life, in these times, waking up in the unfolding mystery, and that is gift enough, here and now.” (pg 262)

(For all posts in this series on Life After Doom, click here or on the Life After Doom box below)