TRANSFORMATION
Now, I want now to come back to a central question in the work we engage in here, which is transformation.
Consider that ‘transformation’ refers to that moment when we can stand outside the Time we are in. When we can stand back and, in some way, intervene in the unfolding of the shaping forces and organizing structures that constitute our experience.
When we can see something about how we are making meaning of a given moment; when we can stand in witness to the ways in which those shaping forces and structures constitute how a particular situation or event occurs for us.
And, given this capacity to observe and witness the shaping forces that shape us, become more choiceful in how we engage in the Time we are in.
An example: “Helplessness”. A common feeling in the midst of today’s snowballing crises is the feeling of “helplessness”. The sense of utter disempowerment.
Now, consider: when I can stand outside my feeling of “helplessness” in the face of certain world events—when I can recognize that my feelings of “helplessness” are part of what constitutes those world events in the first place—that my feelings of “helplessness” arise as part of a broader collective force that keeps those world events in place—that guarantee their persistence. For instance, my feeling of “helplessness”, and our collectively held feelings of “helplessness”, are a key piece of what defines a crisis as a crisis.
When I recognize that my feeling of “helplessness” is one facet of the many faceted crises itself—that my feeling of “helplessness” is the crisis—that that feeling is an aspect of the constituting force of the Time we are in…. When I can recognize this and join in solidarity with others in feeling deeply into that helplessness, while understanding that helplessness as belonging, not to ‘me’ or to ‘us’, but to the Time we are in—a possibility for choiceful engagement in the moment becomes possible.
A new horizon of possibility—for action, and perhaps even activism—makes itself felt. It becomes a new constituting force.
What if I were—we were—to assume the Stand of an empowered actor (for instance)?
Standing as an empowered actor, I/we might become aware of both the freedom and accountability that arises when I/we can take responsibility for my world. When I/we can act as witness to the effects of our own passivity, and assume a different stand. A stand in which my/our thoughts matter; my/our words matter; the beliefs, preferences, and stories that animate my/our moment-by-moment experience and reality have an impact on the world around me/us.
From such a stand, we might be inclined to become deep learners. Learners who make ourselves ones who are highly attuned to their reactions and judgements. Who are committed to making it a practice to examine even the smallest, most banal moments of life, of work, of relationships, and become witness to our own pettiness, reactivity, and mean-spiritedness sdfsdadfasdf for instance, in order to discern and unpack the meaning-making processes by which those moments are constituted by the shaping forces and organizing structures referred to above.
Imagine if we/I were to make this a discipline for ourselves/myself—a daily practice in which, perhaps, we/I even engage with each other in unfolding? Our own lives become a canvas in which we/I activate a new possibility in the world — both In here and Out there.
Such a discipline is, for me, what transformation is ultimately about. More than a singular lightning bolt event. But rather, transformation as a way of living life.