The death of a culture, or society, is not a pleasant thought. Yet, looking at history, it can also be seen as an evolution of people. From world wars, civil wars, civil unrest, and demonstrations, we have been witness to major influences upon the course of history through cataclysmic events of varying degrees across various levels.

In our culture, of self-improvement, performance measurement, education, business, and politics, there has been a shifted focus from people to systems. With systems and improvements we strive to simplify and streamline life, and in doing so, put people into the boxes that make the streamlined system go. The round pegs are filling the square holes.

Getting people excited about change is difficult, and initially we have done well in our history. As we focus more marketing, motivation, mentorship, education, and relationships based upon fear, lack, and respect, we lose the value-add element of the creative human. Looking over the past decade or two, I can see the increasing levels of conflict in the human psyche. There is a cost to making people conform to a system.

The flaw is simple. Humans are evolutionary creatures. Creative by nature, creative by design, and creative via the creator, the human animal exercises its creative imagination to the process of survival, which has long-since included the discoveries of tools and systems that increase abilities and efficiencies.

Traditional thinking about business, management, and leadership, generally adhere to the premise of people aligning themselves along one path and towing the line indefinitely. The smartest and most successful leaders have learned something contrary to this long ago. People are what co-actively bring about change and make change easy or difficult. Knowing and understanding this makes a world of difference.

Rather than creating a system that forces adherence, create systems that can grow and evolve with people. The whole foundation of every organized system, whether an organization, technology, or process-flow, came about from the original desire in man to create something of value that makes life easier in Community.

Who is serving who?

A question posed last evening brings a strong focus to where any of us would benefit putting our attention. The question simply asked, “What do people want?”

This will be a good place to look and to give. As I had my attention upon this question, I began to realize that getting what we want comes through giving others what they want.

• Is this too far fetched?
• Have I watched too many inspirational videos?
• I have I read too many how-to books?

And then a breeze blows in with the winds of change whispering across the nations. People want change. People are becoming optimistic again.  People want all the good things life and community have to offer.

Let’s hear about what you want. Leave an anonymous or public message sharing your vision of y(our) future.

I cannot help myself. I’ve been laughing at the irony and wondering who else recognizes it?

• How long have we been clamouring for clean air and save the planet?

This year we suddenly find ourselves clenching our teeth over the rising fuel prices. not me though, i got a little electric scooter

• Have you noticed how many are clamouring for lower fuel prices?

Here’s the irony: With the rising fuel prices there have been noticeable changes in people’s habits. Isn’t it interesting that each of us can do so much more when we have to put our mind to it. Now, an external force is telling you to put your money where your mouth is. Pay up, or put up, and in this case to put up is making a difference to the environment as more people find alternate transportation.

Did anyone else notice the irony?

| | |

Reputations are vanishing with the click of a mouse. The risks of social networking can impact any individual, company and brand. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are being checked by employers, recruiters and clients – and they’re about to become more easily searchable. While the risks can be devastating, when social networking is managed thoughtfully, the benefits to companies and brands can be rewarding.

clipped from Techvibes Blog, Online Reputation Management in Vancouver

Forty-three years old, and I have worked 26 of those years full-time. Beyond that, I worked part-time all through my teen years, beginning with a paper-route. Well, you can imagine as a kid I would goof up quite regularly. I’m sure I left many customers either stifling a laugh, fuming, or shaking their head in amazement.

In the military, the business of building a cohesive unit strips the individual to create a piece of the whole. A man surrenders his freedom to bond with a woman, and become a father. A woman surrenders her freedom to bond with a man, and to bear children. Individuals born and raised in families identify with the group. Foibles, goofs, and gaffs embarrassed everyone, kept us humble and human. And then something changed.

What exactly changed and how is somewhat of a mystery to me. In a big way, my own experience really speaks to an age of individuality. I’m not sure if I’ve got the right read on this just yet, so lets just play with it loose and fast, rather than getting hung up on technicalities just yet. Take a look over the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or even 50 years, and the changing social landscape speaks volumes about what is happening.

The sciences offer a great deal of information that synthesized can reveal the social impact of the time period, the affect of politics on the consciousness or psyche of the people, literature reveals much as well, also exploring the emotional undercurrents and philosophies of an encapsulated period of time in a culture. And looking back, a shift and change has pronounced what we have become over recent decades, and the longing in the heart of people everywhere echo the want for more authentic and intimate relationships.

And now technology drives a wedge even further into the divide business, people, consumers, markets, money-lenders, employers, employees, unions, governments… wait… what is going on? Judgement. The worst kind of thing is happening that we wish children would stop doing in schools: Bullying, Peer Pressure, Picking On, Singling Out, Ridiculing, Fighting. Need I go on?

People everywhere, at every single level of business, market, government, service, religion, and so on and so forth had better start realizing that everyone is simply human, and that we’re all simply here to do life together. The restriction on human freedoms is strangling the life and vitality of people all over North America, and has been killing people world-wide for centuries. We are at a time in our lives when more and more people are supposed to be waking up to the truth and enacting powerful and positive changes in their lives.

Live the Life, Love the Joy, and Bless the Pain… this is just the way it is:

There but for the Grace of God, go I.

Case Sample: Boston Legal

So, you nincompoops who want to make a case out of the messy games the Internet trails leave I say, “Shame on you! I wonder what messes live in your closet to shame you so much to reach such harsh critical judgement upon the lives of others and the games they chose to engage as curiosity suits?”

Life, after all, is to be explored.

From the Archives December 2004

I lay here wanting sleep, yet morbidly fascinated with the mood of my body and the thoughts of my mind reflecting on the state of my being and the state of my community. I see the paradox of existence, with a burning desire to follow a higher call into the battle for spirit; an awesome challenge during a time of such materialism. Our separation from spirit is so complete that our goals are all for personal gain. Our desire for fulfillment seeks to gratify itself by devouring others. He with the most toys wins; a statement that focuses on the survival of the fittest and winning at all costs.

My Being feels the pain of separation. As spirit, we’re here to create and to serve creation. We are happiest when we experience the fruits of such transactions in time. We are meant to soar, to experience the divine through the powerful relationship of love for our fellow man; community. We are not intended for a hedonistic experience. We are here for something far different; we are gifts of Creation for Creation.

Growing up with friends, family, school – the system – we copycat the instructions for a life that we are given. It is a dog-eat-dog world we’re told, look out for number one! But this only happens because we permit it and perpetuate it by accepting it as unchangeable. Did we forget?

We came together to fight tyranny and oppression wielded by one single power wishing to dominate the world. Today, the closest single person with this face is George Bush at the helm of the world’s most powerful country. But the real enemy is faceless, hidden behind the seat of power and wealth that controls the world economies and politics. The real enemy is greed for money and power.

The energy amassing in society today is at a significant crossroads. We will either transcend the fear, reaching a new spiritual order in the world, offering peace and unity as a powerful force for positive change, or, we will succumb to our base fears and desires, witnessing greater numbers of trespasses against other persons, groups, and countries. As well, with the paranoia, we will revert to behaviors of lust, substances, and other hedonistic addictions to block out the pain of our separation from spirit.

Spirit is Love. Love for God. Love for Creation. Love for Self. Love for Others. Love and Spirit are inseparable, clumsy in this material world; clumsy in thought, word, and action, but powerful beyond measure. Love is authentic and truthful; it is not an emotion alone. It is far more: It is a connection to the everlasting source of life. It creates an energetic force that courses through our spiritual being causing a sensation of bursting us wide-open. This divine force, so unknown and untapped in our lifetime overwhelms us with love, blinding us to the intention of the gift. Rather than openly sharing, we wish to hoard the gift and sensation, sharing with no one. The gift of love is to be given, not taken, nor to be solely shared with one single individual. It is a life-giving energy that transcends all situations, elevating the life experience of our spiritual selves.

How do we as simple human-beings, so untrained and under-developed in the spiritual realms, learn to let this powerful force flow? It catches in my being, in my breath, in my heart. I wish to hang onto it, to someone else’s, hoping for it to never change. Other times, it brings such pain. The opening chasm aches for all the pain and hurt being experienced in the world all around me. And yet, I know, and have experienced, the truth of its undying source; it’s ever-flowing ability. If only I could sustain that peak. The paradox of being human and spirit; of wanting more and wanting less; of wanting it all and of wanting nothing; of needing companionship and needing to be alone; of wanting love and yet, to still taste hate.

We have become vicious with one another. There is something wrong. We would rather hold others back or knock them down instead of celebrating their fullest potential, pushing them to success. If only we could see how important each and every one of us is in the grand scheme of things. We could then find happiness in our part and we could fit comfortably into community instead of feeling like a lesser person than the next man.

Where has the balance gone in our existence? We’re all supposed to be children of God, of Creation. If we were not, then nothing on this planet would exist either. God can be whatever you want it to be. I cannot define God. I can call God the Creator, Life Force, Mother Earth (all small views of God), the Universe (may still be too small – what do we know), Energy, Spirit. This entity, unknown to us, defies all human understanding and experience; it just IS.

But children, we have to grow up. We have to stop fighting. We should play nice. What greater miracles can we achieve if only we could do these few simple things?

Sitting at Tinseltown Starbucks, a young-looking 35 year-old man approached asking a question. Well groomed and dressed, the mannerisms and speech seemed incongruent with the shell. Being curious, rather than avoiding, it was discovered that a long history of abuses crushed his spirit leading to drug and alcohol abuse. Having recently cleaned up, his ties and relationship to the Downtown Eastside, and particularly people he cared about, was creating an internal conflict of wanting to rescue them versus saving himself. The trapdoor was waiting to pull him back in.

Speaking further with him, it is apparent there is a lot more going on in the lives of many of these unfortunate people. Abuse is a pattern established early in life, and abuses take many shapes and forms. The city and our Vancouver society has struggled for years with how to deal with the problems. There is an undercurrent attitude that suggests people get what they deserve. Unfortunately, this doesn’t rectify the problem, and rarely will it empower anyone to create change. Judgement is what typically leads people to accept their failure and fall deeper into the patterns of abuse.

Rather than encouraging the young man to follow his heart and rescue these other ghosts of the Eastside, the suggestions left with him were to focus on his healing first and foremost. Get the help that is available, stay with the program, get away from the environment, don’t worry about anyone else, and get re-training. His passion and caring were obvious and if he successfully pulls himself out of this nightmare life he has helped create, he could be a potentially valuable resource for the DTES and its’ population in need of recovery.

Saying good-bye he said, “Thanks for taking the time to listen and hear me. Most people don’t treat me this way.” His eyes were sad and downcast. Let’s hope he is one of those who will make it.