GreenSage E-zine Fall 2009

Persisting on Darkness? Turn on Those Lights!
by Elaine Ireland

We were particularly careful in selecting our quote this month, which is "a negative condition cannot resist the truth, just as darkness cannot resist light." I don't know about you, but in the past seven months in particular, the negative hypercritical, attack mode and fear mongering spreading out from the extremist conservatives in this country is just pathetic.

I believe in free speech, but free speech is completely different than bad behavior accompanied by words. Tabloid politics be gone!! Turn on those lights!! (As in let's shed some light on the situation, return to the light of civil debate and end the darkness of fear-based tabloid politics.)

Promoting divisiveness and difference to retain the status quo of ideas that aren't working for fear of change just isn't natural. Life is change! Get over it. As Rumi wrote, "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there."

These extremists, opponents of social justice, lifting people out of poverty, restoring the economy, greening the economy, bringing health to all, and oh so many other issues, are, well, living in the dark ages — regressing and distorting issues in feeble attempts to get the rest of us to dwell there with them. Its negativity at its worst. Forget it. Turn on the light and wake up to the now!! Most of us know that we are a growing, expanding species, and we're not interested in contracting back into darkness.

The truth is that we as humans thrive on innovation, progress and change. Any other way is unnatural and, well, unamerican in my humble opinion. We're a nation of bright ideas and solutions. Resisting them is like being resistant to life itself. Life is a growing experience, and growing, by definition, involves change. In essence, no change means no growth because the two go hand in hand.

If you look back on your life, you'll see what I mean through your own experience. You'll most likely find that you have been growing and reinventing yourself throughout your life. When you were a child you could envision your future based only on your limited knowledge and experience. You may have said that you wanted to be a firefighter or a ballerina when you grew up.
.
Did you become your childhood vision?

Chances are slim. Why? Probably because by the time you were old enough, you had changed and completely reinvented yourself many times over. Ditto for the next decade or two of your life. Expanding your knowledge and experiences along the way as your development allowed, your whole perception of the world and your place in it kept changing and growing, as did everyone around you. Its a natural process worthy of embracing, not fearing.

Wouldn’t it have seemed ridiculous not to change? Growth requires change and change promotes growth. So-o-o-o, at what stage do you imagine that this process stops? When you take in new knowledge and experiences, you learn and it changes you. Learning, becoming more aware, is, metaphorically speaking, simply turning on the lights. When we resist this process it creates internal conflict and can have a very negative effect on our lives.

Imagine that plant pictured at left resisting growth or even staying in its shell of darkness. If it doesn't come out in a timely manner, we consider it dead. Then try and imagine others wanting you to resist growth, stay in your shell of darkness, resist change, resist the light. Its pathetic. It goes against nature.

In the last decade in particular I've noticed a growing number of folks wanting to persist in promoting that darkness. They're in print, on TV and YouTube to rant and rave on. Its a dark model of both resistance to change and bad behavior. It has resulted in a deteriorating civility as a political strategy.

How did it become ok to publicly teeone else down just to feel good about yourself? To have bad-behavior melt-downs as a strategy to get what you want? To yell "You lie" at the President of the United States in the middle of an important speech in Congress. Kids use this strategy. But that's not the behavior of mature adults in a civilized society, nor elected 'leaders.' People in politics should know the difference between good behavior and bad, yet they have some of the worst behavior.

Let's turn on some lights of civil debate to end the darkness of tabloid politics and get on with important things — like greening our economy and providing meaningful jobs that contribute positively to our culture.