What’s New?

What's New

Idly I scroll through Telegram posts.
It could equally be Facebook.

One story after another of harm to human beings.
It could equally be nature.

The stories are horrifying. Every one of them a tragedy in a family far away from me.
It could equally be a family close to me.

These are things I care deeply about. They are my topics. Health. Peace. Ecology. Humanity. Freedom.
Presented in another form. Sickness. Conflict. Destruction. Inhumanity. Control.

How did this happen?
How did we come to focus so much attention on human misery
And fail so deeply to address the underlying roots of the problem?
How is it possible that such an enormous challenge lies in front of us
And our collective spirit isn’t leaping at the opportunity to be the solution?

So overwhelmed by information
That it passes by almost without meaning.
It’s just another story,
In the same vein as another story.
There are more stories to come, many more,
Every one of them deeply meaningful to someone
And yet lost in the barrage of stories, stories, stories.

I’m shocked at myself.
I don’t know whether to read more
Or not.
I feel I need to be informed
But I’m highly selective in what I read.
It conforms, mostly, to my worldview.
Over and over again I confirm my beliefs about the world
As if I’m not quite sure.
But another story makes no difference.
It adds nothing to my day.
Except to quieten the feeling that I’m supposed to know what’s going on.

It’s an illusion.
The news is an illusion.
The idea that I can know what’s important in today’s information-filled world is an illusion.
And it’s an illusion that has almost completely lost its power in my world. Just a thread remains. A memory of my parents. That obligation to follow the news, as if it were the truth of the state of affairs.

So I draw into my inner resources, to see what’s new there.
I ask questions.
Big questions.
Questions about life, and why.
Why is it like this
How did it happen?
What can we do to make it better?
How does it really work?
How do I navigate through the sea of information?
How does a better version of life establish itself over the current version?
How do we make it real? Meaningful? Aspirational? Inspirational?
How do we attract people away from the scrolling news
And into the new news?
The news that is unfolding… emerging… evolving.
The news that brings us together in collective purposeful activity.
The news that we shape through our ideas and our creativity.
The news that has the crispness and appeal of real newness.

How do we bring health, where there is sickness?
Such a simple, obvious question, but rarely asked in the news.

How do we create peace and bring mutual understanding where there is conflict?
You would imagine it would be the only important question that must be answered before all others.

How do we restore the aliveness and exquisite beauty of nature where there is destruction, pollution and abandonment?
Surely every human being shares this desire.

How do we become more human, more generous, kinder, more loving where there is inhumanity?
After all, isn’t this exactly what we’re here to experience?

How do we protect and expand our natural, sovereign freedom where there is control and domination?
It’s the deepest calling that unites us across the planet.

This is the real news.
This is new.
This produces new stories.
Stories worth hearing.
Stories that give hope.
Stories that inspire.
Stories that create pathways that others can follow.

These are stories without a central, dominant narrative. There is no obligation to keep up with them. There is no pressure to conform with them. They don’t control your attention.

They are for sharing.

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