The Courage to Stop the Fear

photo of poster with digital graffiti

thank you Audioasis and the Grizzled M Srongs

Dear Mr S,

(in response to :

Strategies for Prevention-Oriented Societies

Where you live could impact the state of your physical and mental health.

The National Prevention Council (NPC) chaired by the US Surgeon General, identified strategies for "prevention-oriented societies" in its 2014 National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council Annual Status Report.  This report highlights progress in implementing the National Prevention Strategy and reaching its goal of increasing the number of healthy Americans at every stage of life. Since many of the strongest predictors of health and well-being fall outside of the health care setting, the Strategy envisions a prevention-oriented society where all sectors contribute to the health of individuals, families, and communities. Download the Report."....

What a sad, side stepping report. 

Aren't we mature enough as a species, to face the really big bogeymen?  You know, the ones hidden under the cloak of protection the early bullies (elite) donned back when the god/kings/queens had ultimate power? I am thinking we just went along assuming they had the right stuff to go with it, gods will and all that.  

Then when abusive power became intolerable, the masses (people) would revolt and a new leader stepped up and life went on. Only not much really changed.

EX: Napoleon called himself an emperor because he was not a king, The king was like bad -right? 

For revolts were merely adaptive measures, the ideology was/is merely massaged, but so far has not been ripped apart to analyze the whole from multiple perspectives, until now.

When seen in the realm of personal development, our culture appears to have maintained an early ego construct. The facade is crumbling. Throughout written history, through the rise and fall of power elites in religious, political, social, and corporate clusters there is a common thread and that is the idea of hierarchy. This is a competitive notion swathed in limited access "regulations and rules," making it lossy. It strangles innovation other than that which suits its own purposes!

The ladder of rewards is used to create that "something to lose" sweet spot (Howard Zinn, The People's History of the United States) that stops the lower steppers from getting too close to the "top" as then the  middle protects the higher uppers. This protective device, this middle ground, middle class wall is a barricade. But it is also a cage!

So when the "winner take all" extremism is touted and rewarded, it is as acting against our better interests.  At the end of the day the  one winner with the whole of everything actually has nothing at all. When no one is left to cheer, to reflect  back the glory that "winner" self disappears. Our culture is therefore suicidal.

I suspect these silly, archaic and limiting notions of who "we " are taught to believe  ourselves to be, come attached to the myths, stories and ideas woven into our personal and cultural narratives. They are difficult to extract without focused effort. No matter, we need to go inand investigate, to keep that which supports our best of selves and let go of that which is blocking our true and healthy growth. 

What made the mess will not solve it. Even as we speak about community, connectivity and relationships we have a huge gap in understanding. Our emotional shadow world  has not been explored. This was tossed behind the barricade of "DON"T" and "SIN." 

Problem here is that it is also part of the "who" we are. We need to understand wholeness. We need to understand our dark sides as well as that which shows up as light. 

Consider that our classic run from fear (pain) is why we are now stricken by the consequences of our ways. Global warming, toxic newborns, dehumanization ramp up,  mechanical walls that steal full sensory input/output, more dis-ease etc.  We have ignored our wholeness and our responsibility to the whole. 

We have made a hellish mess of many things. Instead of being at war with life, we can decide to be at peace with the whole of life.

Under the circumstances it looks like we all could do with a makeover. What about getting a new emotional, logical, mindful handle on our personal selfs so that when magnified in the context of the cultural psyche, the result is a manifest of truth, love, peace, happiness, health, abundance and creative curiosity?  What about that?

 It is time to enter stage eyes open. It is time to learn to accept and understand this simply vast and marvelous wholeness.  It is time to accept responsibility, to stop the justification and face saving-  it is time to put on our grown up pants. It is time to work together in the process of the doing, for this is how we can all learn the new ways fast enough to save our lives.

We need to see the wounds in order to heal. We need to be courageously willing to risk the unknown and leap into developing a future of remarkable  health and well being. We need to risk saving our lives, for if not now, when? 

What if we decide to  help each other reach maximal potentials? What if we really get how the sum of the parts are interrelated, are interactive and expansive -for this creates the more. This then becomes the "more" in the whole of all that is possible. (Gaiad Theory)

When we actualize from these beliefs, what might happen?  Surely it beats the killer, taker  Mad Max nihilism of our old ways? 

Embracing, accepting and respecting  the whole of life, dissolves the power of the bogeyman. I suspect that deep down inside, we all know this.. 

sincerely,
deborah j barnes
fashionRIP