“Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.”
-G. Hopper
“You weren't born to be a cog in the giant industrial machine. You were trained to become one.”
-Seth Godin
I have been wondering lately if I am crazy. I think it really is more about feeling crazy- like I and so many around me have been duped, drugged, and dragged. If you have not noticed lately or been aware of it, you are living in a system. A pungent system designed to numb, comfort, and kill you. The numbing robs the very awareness you need and the desire to discern, the comfort replaces peace and sufficiency, and the chaos…well it is just chaos- a destruction of all that is good, true, and real. life It seems the world around me has a formula for what success looks like- and many have bought the factory along with instructions on how to run it. They think they know how people should fit into that place, these predetermined boxes, slots, and square holes that give them the needed “pat on the back” security in how to run the company. They put profit before people, growth before character, and security before gifts. For them it is the only thing they have known. The system is very good at indoctrinating every person on every level from newbies to old bees and the lessons have produced results and a bottom line. The tragedy is that on many levels the system has “worked” and given them the american dream; a larger home (housing less people), more stuff to fill the empty spaces (oh how we hate empty spaces), and a core belief we deserve what we have worked and we better keep it up. We better fall in line if we are to get our porridge. We better learn the ancestors dance.
Is a bear meant to dance?
When I voyage out into the great mountains of Colorado I am always reminded of the delicate frailty, shared beauty, and vast unpredictability of raw nature. One of the thoughts that always pops itself into my head is the chance that I might cross paths with a bear. There is a part of me that thinks that would be cool, especially if it was close enough to watch for awhile. But if I were to get too close, I could be dinner for that very bear I admire. That is just the reality of it- things could go either direction, hopefully not the latter. But have you ever seen a dancing bear in a circus? Stripped of its dignity it often wears some decorated outfit (sometimes even a pink dress), is controlled by its trainer, and amuses a crowd of spectators. The bear has no idea how silly he looks but I would bet a million dollars he is thinking that this is what he should be doing for now. He has been trained to twirl, shuffle his feet, and bob his head…you might call it indoctrination. He really looks stupid but we laugh mockingly and maybe even endearingly at each move he makes which represents hours of practice, intimidation, and a giant re-creation of the image of bear. All he has and all he does appears as a great ability, a wondrous result of training, and a taming for a “safer” bear. But a bear is a bear unless he has been brain-washed, dressed, and expected to waltz for the masses. But when the night stills and the day draws to an end, after all the dancing and body contortions, he tries to sleep but is haunted in his tiny cage. Maybe that night he has a faint memory of days he walked proudly in the wild, hunted and foraged for his food, and taking naps in the warm sun under the aspen and ponderosa pines. That was real and good. Now his food comes to him, he works on making the perfect spin, and the sun from a long day falls crookedly on his broken toothless smile. This is false and dead.
Can you dance with the bear?
If you are like me, I bet you have some outfits you have worn all your life, some moves honed perfectly, and some mocking dreams that still your beating heart. You have been numbed, comforted, and killed by another's measured success, by those who have trained you to believe just what that is and how to get it. Maybe you have even taught others about the best way to achieve the american dream is to dance like they want you to, conform to the image they put around your waist, and you will never think it is really stupid. But it is…profoundly. Have you followed the way of the dancing bear? Do you trust your training in the system so much that you have trained others to stay in the system- maybe even fear it? Do you get what is happening? Do you smell the pile of crap you have been given and call it mountain mist? Do you want more?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd.”
-Jesus Christ
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