The path this post travels may seem a little random... that's OK. It's a reflection of how my mind has been working over the last few days as snapshots of insight entered my nemisphere, and what may have seemed unrelated at first, all of a sudden became related.
If you were old enough in the 1960s to be aware of the '60s, you probably know who Barry McGuire is, and even if you don't, if you listen to music at all, you probably have heard this song...
If you were old enough in the 1960s to be aware of the '60s, you probably know who Barry McGuire is, and even if you don't, if you listen to music at all, you probably have heard this song...
I wasn't old enough to get the 60's, but I am old enough now to reflect on what was going on back then, and music like this helps me do that. I was listening to The Roy Green Show yesterday while driving around, and Barry McGuire was one of his guests. I added him to my list of people I would most want to sit down and have coffee with... a very interesting guy. As he was telling some of his stories he mentioned that a spiritual awakening saved his life back in the day. It was interesting to hear him explain that he was glad to have had Eve of Destruction as his only #1 single because another one would have killed him. The zeitgeist of # 1 singles during that tumultuous time was deadly I guess.
He spoke very eloquently of his personal spiritual awakening that brought him out of the destructive lifestyle he was embroiled in. He mentioned the movie Hidalgo; essentially a movie about a cowboy and the completely trusting relationship he had with his horse. In reference to the movie, he explained a take on the term "human being" that's going to stick with me for sure. If you've seen the movie, you may agree with Barry's interpretation that the horse was representative of an animal, and the cowboy of spirit; the spirit is riding the animal... a vessel. He iterated that "human" as in the animal, and "being" as in spiritual, can explain allot about how we behave and interact. We are spiritual animals. To describe the social, emotional and psychological mess people may find themselves in, he proclaimed that many simply live in the animal realm for too long. Wow. My mind raced toward thoughts, once again of balance.
We appear to favor dichotomous interpretations of things. Art vs. Science... Body vs. Spirit... Left Brain vs. Right Brain; I think this is damaging our collective ability to move forward as humans being in balance with ourselves, each other, and the world.
Jason Silva talks about a sense of revelation... the idea that we are all receivers...
You are a RCVR from Jason Silva on Vimeo.
Again I think of balance... balance between giving and receiving information, love, support, ideas, care; anything that puts us out there as individual human beings immersed in the vast collection of interconnected human beings on earth. I am a receiver, but I am also a giver... socially, emotionally, professionally and cognitively. I strive to maintain the balance.
Jerry Michalsky talks about divergent disciplines existing on a spherical model as opposed to a linear model. He postulates that we have lost our ability to think of disciplines as synergistic... perhaps the natural state of divergent disciplines that are in balance.
I have written loads about balance. I think about it all the time. I am beginning to see that the perceived chaos that emerges when we combine dichotomous disciplines could be the exact opposite... a natural order of divergent domains that, when viewed over time in a context of balance, become the most orderly and complementary elements. Like the Three Winged Bird Margaret Wheatley describes in her book, Leadership and the New Science, out of chaos, order evolves. The phenomena of the Three Winged Bird is explained in this brief paper by Shelley Rosen. In chaos, we are blind to any indication of order. Unstable mathematical systems move randomly in computer models, but over time display a converging shape or pattern referred to as the chaotic strange attractor. Perhaps these strange attractors are manifestations of the balance that eludes us when our perspective sees only conflicting elements. Perhaps we need to view our differences as necessary elements of balanced order... the natural order.
Looking toward nature for examples of this seemingly impossible balance reveals a beauty that is almost unbelievable.
Perhaps even the unbelievable must be balanced by the believable... the clarity that comes from believing. Seemingly opposing ideas and disciplines need each other to justify their existence. Everything has an opposite. The place that these opposites collide is where the best ideas emerge, and where our deepest understanding evolves. Accepting the chaos of this disorder is the natural order. This is what hope is all about.
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