What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire Page #14

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A paradigm shift wlll require that we question our

deepest and most fundamental assumptions.

And that will require that we take our

current worldview gently in our arms

and hold it while it breathes its last.

Step into a new story.

Walk away from the pyramids.

Get out of the crumbling building.

Break out of prison.

Choose your favorite metaphor. Choose

your own adventure. But choose.

It's time to be truthful.

Millions of sensual pulsing animal

bodies are now living trapped and used

and starved in cities and cubicles

and sweatshops and food courts and traffic jams

and suburbs and public school classrooms.

People who are not rich and

white already know this.

What would happen if we let ourselves

feel our feelings about all of this?

The entire community of life on

this planet is now being threatened.

Where do we stick our picket pins?

Where do we take a stand?

When do we find the courage to

let ourselves feel what's going on?

Our feelings are the swiftest

path back to our forgotten selves.

It's time to be open and humble.

There are huge forces at work in the world, both

seen and unseen. It's time to ask for help.

Ask the ancestors.

Ask the gods.

Ask your God.

Go outside and lie down on the Earth and ask

the land, and the sky, and the life of this place.

And then listen for a response.

Listen to the voices of soll and stone, wlnd

and water, the voices of cirrus clouds

and chickadees, of red squirrels and wood

beetles and Russian olives and hickories.

The world will tell us what it knows,

if only we will be still. And listen.

And then speak.

It's time to show up in our

own lives and tell the truth.

It's time to talk about the world

situation with everyone we see.

We're all in this together. What a relief

it'll be, to discover that we are not alone.

It's time to act with great intention.

There is work aplenty to do in this weary

world, and people engaged in that work.

Find those people. Join in.

Save rivers and stop buildozers and stand

up at city council meetings to tell your truth.

Share skills. Evolve local communities.

Move from agriculture to permaculture and grow

your own food. Learn about medicinal herbs.

As Derrick Jensen says, "we need it all."

Find your work, and do it. It's time.

But what about that speeding train?

How will the Great Turning turn?

We can wait for the train to crash on its own and

hope that it doesn't kill us, and everything else.

But with the children grown, perhaps we can

come together and decide to dismantle,

joyfully and with conscious intent,

the rusty and dangerous old swing-set

of a culture that no longer serves us.

this may seem an impossible task.

But if the alternative is extinction,

then we have nothing to lose.

We humans once knew how to

live on this planet. A few still do.

And that's the good news. It can be done.

We can do way, way better than Empire.

Let's jump off the train and build a boat.

The train is constrained to rigid tracks and its

momentum makes it almost impossible to steer.

But the boat? Ah, the boat

is a very different thing.

Boats set sail into the unknown, subject

only to wind and wave and weather.

Boats can be lifeboats, preserving wisdom and

understanding while the storm rages overhead.

Boats can be arks, safeguarding the

life of the world as the floodwaters rise.

And boats can carry us into adventure, away

from the shores of the current paradigm and to

those unseen shores of a future not yet written.

find your people and build a boat.

Build a local community to serve the

world and preserve the life of a plece of land.

Or set sail in the wider world, interrupting

the destruction, healing the wounds,

crafting connections and changing minds.

Build a boat. A lifeboat. An ark.

A galleon of adventure and imagination

destined for unknown lands.

Build it now.

The ice is melting.

The waters are rising.

We're going to have to let go of the shore.

I do not know if I will survive the

crash of industrial civilization

or the impacts of the climate change

that that civilization has unleashed.

I do know this.:
I have a choice

about how I meet it.

I have a choice.

We have a choice.

I can meet it with a burger in my hand,

a French fry in my mouth,

and a cold drink spilling onto my jeans.

Or I can meet it with consciousness, integrity,

and the sense of purpose that is my birthright.

I can meet it on the far side of

initiation, a mature and related

member of the community of life,

standing tall, doing my best to

protect and serve this Earth that I love.

this is the course I've chosen.

this is my picket pin.:

I will show up and I will tell my truth.

But it's hard to sail alone,

when the seas rage so fiercely.

If you sail with me, we shall

both be made stronger.

And when others join us, then our

crew will be made strong indeed.

Together, we will set forth, to find that new land.

What a way to go. . .

// Let's build a boat //

// In case the waters rise //

// Let's build a boat //

// Clouds they gather in the skies //

// Let's build a boat //

// For when the storm comes //

// Let's build a boat //

// For when the rain it beat like drums //

// Oh the levee will get pounded //

// Now the people are out having fun //

// Someday our work will pay off //

// We will float others will be overcome //

// But you can't outrun the water //

// Oh you can't outrun the water //

// You can't outrun the water //

// Let's build a boat //

// Let's build a boat //

// Take me to the other slde //

// Let's build a boat //

// Be forewarned this is no easy ride //

// Let's build a boat //

// Big enough for all of us //

// Let's build a boat //

// One that's good enough //

// One that we can trust //

// Oh the levee will get pounded //

// Oh the people are out having fun //

// Someday our work will pay off //

// We will float others will be overcome //

// But you can't outrun the water //

// Oh you can't outrun the water //

// You can't outrun the water //

// Let's build a boat //

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