Hope and Change are not Binary. At least, I Hope They Aren't

I listened to an interesting Rich Roll podcast that featured the CEO of Whole Foods - John Mackey. He seems like a pretty cool dude that gets it (Mackey, I mean. The verdict is out on Rich Roll) - you can tout your philosophies, but in order to be both heard and successful, you must make some reasonable concessions. In a Quartz Article Mackey says, "You have to meet the market where you find it." In the podcast he speaks about the polarization of the purists and the pragmatists - and yet our need for both to keep a vision and to sustain it. Eh. That last part though.

This morning, I got two daily quick messages from two pseudo-gurus. One said, "dare to be idealistic!" The other said, "it is not enough to dream, pray, think about it and wish."

....

Right?

When I think about the millions of people (especially women) that are trying to survive with very little to hold together their physical lives, I recognize my own privilege in working through my emotional state with such intensity that it allows me to be able to think deeply and passionately about why people would be overwhelmed, underwhelmed, and constantly fighting with each other on Facebook about the varying stages of their own emotional states. I complain that people aren't doing their own personal work, when there are people in the United States (the country which I am told is at the top of the proverbial list or something) that are one generation from not having indoor plumbing. There are still people as I sit here that are without access to clean running water. So, my pragmatic mind goes into overdrive. 

I've met so many people in my life that are so apathetically idealistic that it makes me want to rip a phone book in half. People that need the right thread count in their sheets before they can go on the vacation of a lifetime or people that are paralyzed by the "wrongness" of all of their choices that they chose nothing and complain about the fallout. That shit wears me the fuck out...and I used to be that shit.

Geddy Lee already told you all about it (actually, Geddy Lee sang to you all about it and Neal Peart wrote all about it. I know, NERD ALERT):

There are those who think that life

Has nothing left to chance

With a host of holy horrors

To direct our aimless dance

A planet of playthings

We dance on the strings

Of powers we cannot perceive

“The stars aren’t aligned –

Or the gods are malign”

Blame is better to give than receive

You can choose a ready guide

In some celestial voice

If you choose not to decide

You still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears

And kindness that can kill

I will choose a path that’s clear

I will choose free will.

There are those who think that

They were dealt a losing hand

The cards were stacked against them

They weren’t born in Lotus-Land.

All pre-ordained

A prisoner in chains

A victim of venomous fate

Kicked in the face

You can’t pray for a place

In Heaven’s unearthly estate

Each of us

A cell of awareness

Imperfect and incomplete

Genetic blends

With uncertain ends

On a fortune hunt

That’s far too fleet.

(TURN THIS SHIT UP LOUD)

(On a side note, I have really only recently come out as a total lover of Rush. I was brought up that they were terrible and never questioned it. Much like my own discovery of Jazz, I grew into my own understanding of what I loved and now...I'm quoting Rush lyrics for Chrissakes).

There is no binary rule about changing your life in many ways - but choosing or not choosing is totally binary. There is not "filled to the brim with endless hope that will never fade," and "HOPELESS for all eternity," - although in the heights of depressive episodes it sure seems that way. 

There definitely is action and inaction. 

When I think about how everything is so awfully wrong sometimes in those moments of helplessness, I think about what I can make choices about and what I can change for the better. Maybe it's just if I put on eyeliner or not, but hey! Go me for making it happen!

I had a moment yesterday evening where I had an argument about the way I was being treated and there was the definitive moment where I was accused of never forgiving, never forgetting and never changing. The reality is what I said, "I cannot change what has happened, but I can change what is happening right now." The demand of what I want from the moment and the people around me is possible, especially with clear direction, unapologetic boundaries and hopeful pragmatism. And if people choose to have their own beliefs about how I will react or what I will believe, that is their burden and their own inability to detach from the things that cause their own suffering.

"Dream in a Pragmatic Way." - Huxley

There are purists and they are helpful in keeping a clear vision of the ultimate paradise of whatever campaign they're pushing, but to live in the world that we have in this very moment - which, if we believe what Tolle says (verdict's out on those philosophies, too), is all that is really real - we must assess the situation, find logical compassion and do our best to make the best life with what is available. Then, when we look to, "celestial voices," in retrospect...we don't curse that they did not appear in our lives, we celebrate that maybe they did.