A lot of good. Maybe more GOOD than we can imagine. Why? Let me tell you how 7 teenage voices will change the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the game changers.
"Getting our voices out there matters?How do we do that?[yada, yada, blogging] Will you teach us how to blog?"
That was pretty much the gist of the conversation I had with this group of kids after a talk I gave in April 2015. The topic was youth ingenuity. The attendees, almost all adults, mostly educators, social innovators and social sector folks just happened to include this small group of 15 and 16 year olds. My message to the group was that we can't afford for their voices to be unheard. Why? Because they will change the world.
I developed a class for these kiddos and began teaching it as a volunteer on June 22, 2015.
Today is July 13, 2015. I will meet these kids at 4:30 this afternoon for our 4th class. How did we get here and where are we going with this? It is quite simple. These youth, facing many unimaginable hardships, had the excitement and curiosity for life that young people innately have. They also had a chance meeting with an adult who they thought might have something to offer them. That adult was me and, like every other adult in the world, I know that it is my job - and my pleasure - to teach children what they want to know. There is so much talk and frustration about the state of education in our nation and world that we often fail to hear the beautiful stories of our young people excited to learn. So here is that story, the first installment of many to come.
"Finding My Voice"
Not only is today our fourth class, it is also the day a film team is coming to class to help tell our story. What began as a small volunteer experience for me is becoming a beautiful example of a need for our youth. The class isn't just about blogging, as writing a blog is merely a vehicle, a communication tool. The lessons I teach the kids go much deeper. These are kids who have very deep stories and experiences of the painful truths that exist for teenagers in America. They are urban teens of color with the struggles, safety concerns and challenges that exist in their reality, almost completely unknown, unheard and undervalued by the rest of the world. And I do mean the rest of the world. Just as we don't hear about and easily avoid tuning into the realities for children all across this planet.
In my class, the topics we delve into include truth, integrity, vulnerability, boundaries, personal safety online, creative self expression, self-confidence and so much more. In a class of 7 students, I have seven entirely different voices, expressing themselves in seven beautifully different ways.
While my work is largely focused on teaching entrepreneurship, 21st century and "soft" skills, workforce readiness, career planning and the like, success with all of these lessons - typically triggering social-emotional issues for young people - begins with helping students find their self-confidence. There is no better way that I have found in my 15 years in education than to help students find their voices while they learn about and prepare for the real world. So, I named the class "Finding My Voice". And wow, they are doing that in ways I could never have imagined.
So why are we filming our fourth weekly class? Because the class has become bigger and more significant than we originally thought. What was at first a small summertime course has become a vision for a six month class that not only guides these students through the social and personal experience of stepping into confidence and expression of their truth, it will inspire others as well. It will be a peer-to-peer mentoring training that allows these super seven kids to learn personal gifts and self-management that they can then coach and inspire the next group of 7 students through, inspiring healthier choices for themselves and others. When students witness their peers doing well and achieving, the results can be a mixed bag. Rather than ostracizing the one kid who is choosing to do better, this is a small group who are, together, doing GOOD. Peer pressure is less likely when the kids have each others' backs. And what's more, the experience of these seven kids is something other kids can look forward to having themselves in six months' time, with their own small group of peers.
How do we keep this going? We need to raise money. A crowd funding campaign will be forthcoming, complete with a video and an appeal from all of us to support a small group of youth whose voices will do a lot of good in the world - the kind of GOOD the world desperately needs right now.
This class will be a powerful, fun and beautiful example of personal growth, empowerment and self-expression. That the kids are not at all isolated from the world in this experience - this is quite deliberately the point, actually. A self awareness of their place in the world has already been born for these kids, rooted in compassion for the readers in similar situations all around the world. And their hearts are growing: they hope to inspire other young people in every corner of the world simply by being themselves, speaking their truths, and using the medium of blogging on the great social equalizer that is the Internet.
The kids and I want to know:
Have you spoken your truth today? It might just change the world.
I've been to Selma, Alabama. I've stood at the church. I've traveled the fateful road that saw so many march for what they knew to be their true and God-given rights. And, I've seen the segregation so obvious to the eye and heart which still exists in this place where the movement began.
"This situation can and will be changed."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Watch it.
Listen to his voice.
Feel it in your heart.
Live the truth.
Know this speech and it's important moment that opened a door of change in our collective human history.
Today is not just a day off from school.
It is a day to reflect and see how much has and has not changed since 1963.
I just received an email from a very close friend who moved to the other side of the world a couple years ago to follow her dreams. She has. But it's not enough. It got me thinking (and writing) about how just about everyone I know is struggling right now. I don't mean to say that people's lives are falling apart, in fact most "strugglers" I know seem to be doing okay "on paper". They seem content and in most ways, they are FINE. But fine just isn't enough when your soul is knocking on your brain and saying, "Hello, it's me, your higher self. You're here for a purpose. A big one. And it's a big undertaking. You won't fail, but you will have to change a lot of things - let's get going."
Sound familiar?
That's all well and good if you know what that purpose is (or at least think you know - or have an idea) and it's easy enough to live with if what you need to change doesn't cause you too much pain, or financial burden... but I don't think that's the case for many of us. Maybe most of us. I think we are all releasing something huge... and in some cases, we are releasing everything.
At first I thought it was mainly happening to my "generation" (let's call that Generation X - fancy label isn't it?) - but even that isn't right. My mom is changing in ways I never imagined. Others her age are turning over MASSIVE stones in their own lives. At first, I thought my former students (who are now 18-24-ish) didn't face as many of these challenges - I thought they had a different perspective because of their innate open-mindedness - they grew up living and breathing a kind of openness that has existed in their world view because they were born into a world that is connected via the webosphere. They ARE the children of the global village. But that assumption wasn't right either. Many of them find the norms of society to be boring, redundant, pointless and un-engaging. And they're right. How can we lose them before they've even really begun the "grown-up" journey?
Actually, I don't think we are losing them, I think they are leading us on this journey into Change. For their generation, it's a default setting. For us Gen Xers, it's a kind of refusal to conform. For the once-radical baby boomers it's an overdue rebellion (they who got distracted raising us Gen Xers). For all of us humans though, it is a very personal and very difficult set of questions, doubts, worries, self-examinations and, in the end, a battle that can only be fought and won with love and honesty. Love and honesty with Ourselves. Talk about a tough audience.
I wish I had answers for my girlfriend but I feel as though my only advice to her is to stick with it. I'll stick with it too. (Mine is no less open-ended, unsettled, raw and inside out than anyone elses.) Not only will I stick with my own uncertainty, pain, loss and confusion, I will do it right beside her (thank God for the internet). And apparently I'll do it out in the open for the rest of the world to witness if they care to. I suppose a big part of the self-honesty in this is admitting that we are not alone in the uncertainties - and then reaching out to ask someone to stand by us while we go through it.
This great collective of individual struggles is part of a greater human struggle to find what is right for allof us. Collectively. The Collective Human Population. After all, we are all the same, aren't we?
There'd better be a good excuse for a blogger with a fair number of regular followers in all corners of the globe - from Demark to Hong Kong, Romania to Sri Lanka and Argentina to Israel - to disappear for six weeks, right? Well, I've certainly got a good reason -- and countless stories to tell.
I've spent six weeks in a part of the world with the greatest dichotomies I can imagine. I've seen the richest of the rich living fat and happily on one side of a concrete wall while the most poverty stricken human beings live on the other. That these extremes exist is heart-wrenching in and of itself - that they exist within a stone's throw of one another is unfathomable. That they live daily with the reality of each other is heartbreaking. That nothing is being done to change this is criminal.
I've seen poverty, slums, starvation, corruption, child prostitution, abuse of power, child neglect, beggars, crippled outcasts, blatant pollution, hard labor, bare feet on city streets, animals and children eating from dumps, trash in national parks, exploitation of natives, parading of culture for commercial consumption, exploitation of those doing good and false promises by those who should be doing good. I've seen it all, I've felt it all, I've been changed by it all.
There will be many stories to come but this is the opening of the box of souvenirs I brought home in my own heart - a collection of vile and screaming injustices that must be changed in the world. I ask you to join me, if only in your heart. Open up, ask yourself to give your attention and compassion to any of these stories and you will have made the first step.
I'll see you there - where we are changing the world, one step at a time.
Everything is changing. Everything is moving quickly. Everything is lining up, turning around, and light is being shone in dark corners. Our purpose, our challenges, our to-dos are becoming clearer and more central in our daily lives. We can't ignore things anymore. We can't pretend things away. We can't stick our heads in the sand. We must - and we will - start to create great shifts in our own lives and in the world around us.
The journey has already begun. You're on the bridge.
Be open. Whatever shows up is showing up for you. Yes, things are moving quickly and that's because we are all changing so quickly. The world is changing at a very rapid pace and while we need to be careful to take care of ourselves and stay grounded, we must also be aware of the shifting, changing nature of life so we can allow ourselves to move into the correct flow of life - and onward to the other end of the bridge.
The speed of life is hastening. You don't try to fight it because the battle will be too consuming. Be open to it and to what it is calling you to do. You have an important job to do. You have an important job that the world needs you to do.
If ever there was an important time to be busy during the times in which you are meant to be busy, now is that time. This does, of course, mean that it is more important than ever to slow down when you are supposed to rest. The increasing speed of life will call you to become grounded and honor your body. After all, it is this one precious body of yours - and mine - that will carry us stealthily through the shifting changes happening in the world and on to the new world we are creating - on in which peace and love carry us all through.
I'm back from my hiatus and the first and most prominent thing on my mind is the state of peace and humanity in the world. I am feeling a sense of sadness and disappointment amidst the celebration of Osama Bin Laden's death - and a deep level of concern for where we humans, in 2011, place our hearts on the grand scale of human compassion. Is it really okay to celebrate the death of another human being?
Celebrating the death of Bin Laden - once I heard the news of both his killing and the wave of American response - struck me instantly as just a wrong thing to do. Why would we metaphorically dance on someone's grave? Spit on it, sure, I get that. It's an expression of anger. But can celebration be an expression of anger? Celebration comes from feelings of joy and happiness and love. This is just not something that computes for me - and whats worse, it feels wrong and lacking in some sort of alignment to what is truly divine within each of us.
I've learned with time and much spiritual work that my initial non- ego-created response to something always contains a level of truth that comes from something far greater than my own mind. I - and I think many others - tend to "revise" our positions after we have our initial response to a situation (and I am referring to our initial solar plexus-located intuitive-level response). That revision is done in consideration of social norms, learned beliefs and opinions which are all external creations. Once our egoistic minds become engaged in the process of categorizing, judging and assigning labels to a situation - often to a degree that the response is no longer that inner truth that we can rely on - I believe that we become misguided and get off track. And it just so happens that I think that is what has happened in this situation.
It turns out that my initial intuitive response to the news of Bin Laden's killing is precisely in line with my very conscious belief in peace for human kind. As we have had a couple of days to live with this new information about Bin Laden's death, I have found myself feeling a great sense of concern for humanity. It makes me sad that there is so much pain, fear, death and destruction in the world - and amidst all that, I'm also sad that humans are capable of celebrating the death of another human being. To be relieved, satisfied, or even glad about the "loss" of a human being - one most humans have every reason to despise - is one thing, but this act of celebration and how that is tied to a kind of patriotism is rather upsetting to me.
Celebrating death, in my heart, feels sad, lonely and misguided. Death is not something to be celebrated. In this case, this death will not be mourned by most people, but joyous singing and dancing in the streets in celebration? It just seems wrong. What does that say about us? Bin Laden killed so many people -- that he is gone should give us pause to honor the lives of all who have died and suffered because of this man. We should pay little regard at all to him and focus all of our consciousness and emotion on the love that still surrounds the innocent lives lost both here in the US and around the world. (Americans are not Bin Laden's only victims.) I think, instead, we should bond together in our commitment to end the violence and bring more love and peace to the world. Let's honor the souls lost to senseless violence rather than celebrating the death of one man.
The way we respond to ANY situation in life is a reflection on us - not the person or situation we are responding to. It's kind of entry-level spiritual work I'm talking about. Forgiveness is not for the person being forgiven but for the person that forgives. The way I react to someone who treats me badly says something about me, not about the person mistreating me. And the way I respond to the news of death - especially of someone connected to so much violence and hatred and destruction - speaks to who I am at the core.
I'm simply uncomfortable with bringing happiness to this situation. Rather, I'm left feeling a deep desire to heal the world, to give more love to others and to have reverence for the entire course of human action. Many, many people died at the hands of this Bin Laden and his followers. What, exactly, in this situation is there to be happy about? Bin Laden is gone but he is just one person - there is an entire army of misguided human beings who have obeyed and tortured and died for him. Do we really think that will change now that he is dead? Is anyone really breathing a sigh of relief? Does anyone really feel safer now? What, exactly then is being celebrated?
The spiritual teachers from whom I seek guidance - Jesus, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, MLK, Mother Theresa - would never celebrate the death of another human being. Nor will I.
None of it has gone away. None of it has gotten better. None of us are immune.
Japan, Haiti, Gaddafi, Eman Al-Obeidy, Lebanon, war, famine, fear, pain and inequity - it is all over the world. It's all still happening. As you struggle with your own pain, fear and disappointments, remember at least for this moment that there are millions and millions of us living in horror and desperation.
Please don't forget. But please don't dwell in the sadness. There is power in our emotions. Our job, if we have the strength (and every single one of us should have at least that), is to send love and hope and prayer to all who suffer in the world and to do what we can to end suffering in any way possible. Whatever it may be. Wherever it may be. We are all one and we grow closer every day. We are closer to the Japanese than we were one month ago when the earthquake hit, even if we have forgotten amidst the busyness of our daily lives.
This is Part 2 of a two-party entry I began this morning. There was much, much more to say.
My belief (click to read the previous post) is this: War is never the answer... Peace is. I have countless reasons why I believe this but only a few thoughts were shared in my previous post. The reality of saying things out loud (or writing them out loud, as the case may be) opens me to other's opinions. I love that about humanity. I also love that I live in a free society where I am free to believe in Peace. Specifically, as it turns out, the freedom of Peace.
Peace does not cost anything - and even someone living without freedom can embrace, embody and spread Peace. Consider what Nelson Mandela has achieved through Peace, as a prisoner for 27 years of his life.
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”
- Nelson Mandela
Peace is made of love and when love is given, it multiplies, it heals and it is returned ten fold. Peace is harmonious with our most basic emotional needs and the way we would treat a newborn baby or a child. Peace is the only way to end suffering in the world even if you see the issue as a simple matter of physics. Yes, physics. While I am a very spiritual person, science supports what I am about to explain about Peace.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction (Einstein - another Peacemaker speaking of a "universal truth", if you will) and matter will not change on its own unless external conditions such as temperature, or internal conditions such as chemical content, are changed. And a tiny, simple, almost imperceptible change can completely alter something from one form to another, like combining 2 Hydrogen atoms (H2) with one oxygen atom (O2) makes an entirely different compound every human needs for survival: H20, or water.
We also need oxygen but, like hydrogen, when it is combined with other elements, entirely different and often deadly substances are created that are nothing at all like water. So, now that I have used almost all of my high school chemistry on you, you can begin to see why I will argue that bringing more Peace to the world has the potential to change things significantly simply by introducing it somewhere where it does not currently exist, if you only look at it from a scientific perspective.
If we go one step further and consider that quantum mechanics has shown us that things happen beyond our scientific method's ability to measure, then we can be even more open to the unknown impact of Peace on a world full of suffering. And consider, for a moment, a mind-blowing discovery within quantum mechanics called Young's Double Slit experimentthat illustrates how the act of observing a thing changes it (this fascinating discovery is also called Relational Quantum Mechanics). If even passive observation can change the behavior of particles then I implore you to consider how prayer and intention for Peace by millions and millions of people can, indeed, change the world.
"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding"
- Albert Einstein
Here's a video illustrating Thomas Young's Double Slit experiment - worth the watch. But stick with me on this Peace business...
So, since I am not a scientist (though I did love my high school physics class!), and because I do believe in the great power of the mystical and metaphysical, I will implore you further to consider just how powerful Peace has been on this planet and will continue to be.
The most famous peacemakers in history are household names - Jesus, Buddha, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, The Dalai Lama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yes, the greatest terrorists and murders in history are also household names but it is because of the pain and suffering they have caused, not the love they brought to the world. When you hear the name Hitler, you instantly feel the impact of that name. The fear, the violence, the unconscionable destruction of human life on a massive scale. You heart sinks. You sigh. Your shoulders drop or your muscles may tighten. You would prefer not to have heard or read the name at all. It is a name with a low, sinking, painful feeling.
But go back to the list of names I wrote in blue and read those again. Pause on each one. You gaze may rise, your face may relax, you may take a cleansing breath, you feel stronger, more hopeful, you might smile. You might even nod or breathe audibly at the recognition of a powerfully loving, giving, compassionate human being. You may see pictures of each in your mind - Mother Theresa holding a dying child, Jesus healing the sick. You may hear "I have a dream" in Martin Luther King's own voice in your head. You may feel the sacrifice Gandhi made of his own body. And all of these names together, emit Peace. A strong and sturdy Peace that each has left here on Earth for us in moments like this.
I was challenged by a friend today on my statement that war is never the answer. My friend challenged me not on the issue of Peace but on my insistence of "Never." My friend argued that had we not gone to war against Hitler, he and the Third Reich would have succeeded with the extermination of the Jews. As Gadhafi is now killing his own people, is war not a possible solution to allow his people to be free? My friend doesn't like war either but argued that opting for peace and hoping for the best outcome, while desirable, is not preferable to war when there are instances that seem to have no other solution. I understand this, but I still take a different view.
I respect my friend for making this statement as it planted the seed of what you are reading right now. What I said in response was this: Stopping Hitler was one thing, the world war that surmounted was something else. I believe that we are advanced enough as a human race to learn from thousands of years of war and death and destruction that war is never the answer. I think that something could have stopped Hitler years and years before he grew a following. Turning a blind eye was as much of the fertilizer for the Third Reich as Hitler himself was. And I still think that we are at a point in human history where we risk greater damage to the world and humanity than ever before if we do not find ways beyond war to address all of these issues that are arising and will continue to arise around the planet. My belief is that every Hitler, every Gadhafi, rises to power as a challenge to all of humanity to find a New Way to combat hatred. In order to find that new way, we must look outside the war "box" and see what else we have in us to employ. If we just keep turning to war, we'll never find that something else. Nothing changes if we keep doing the same thing over and over. So in order to turn hate to love, we must employ more love, more peace - and it is going to take ALL of us to do this.
Suffering around the planet is our opportunity to engage in the act of Ending Suffering. After thousands and thousands of years, we have evolved as a human race to a global community with responsibility to each other just as we are responsible to our family, our neighbors and our nation. There are no borders, there are no lines. There is no difference between you and me and someone we've never met 7,000 miles away. Our task as a human race is not to wage war, not to have more [money/food/possessions/power] than others, not to pretend it doesn't matter because it's happening to someone else born somewhere else. You could have just as easily been born into the body of a suffering orphan in Africa. And so could I. Because we are now all connected, we must feel empathy. And once you do, even for just a moment, you will also feel the innate need to replace the feeling of suffering (Hitler) with compassion (Mother Theresa). Hatred with love. War with Peace.
We were not born with a single cell in our tiny bodies that knew of hatred or violence or war. These are man-made things. We were born only with cells knowing of the need for food, human touch and love. Think of the number of times a day a baby smiles or giggles. The number of times a child laughs in a given day in comparison to an adult. It is not until we achieve adulthood that we begin to incorporate fear, pain, suffering, abuse, trauma, neglect into the psyches of others. And yes, we do it to others, just as others did it to us. That baby was not born knowing these things - the world in which he grows up exposes him to it. And therein lies the problem: The cycle of suffering from one generation to the next by being born into a world that solves problems with fear, not love.
We must now solve the problems we face with love in order to end the cycle. The time has come and we each have everything within us we need to become ambassadors for Peace on this planet. And if you can begin to live your own Peace and then send it out to the rest of the world, imagine the power it might contain. I won't try to convince you that I know it to be true (and I do), but the power of Peace, when spoken, when shared, when employed as a habit in your daily life, feels just as loving and powerful as the names of Ghandi, of Jesus, of the Dalai Lama, when they are spoken. Those humans are not in the same room with you, nor are some even some even alive on this planet, but the mere mention or thought of their names can be uplifting. That is the very same universal positive power that exists in prayers of Peace, conversations about Peace, and Peaceful action in your daily life.
And, just like love, when given, Peace comes back to you tenfold. So bring Peace to your life today and see what happens. Choose to not engage in road rage tomorrow even if you are late for work and someone cuts you off (while it is not about what you get in return, pay attention to what begins happening around you - you might find that someone else lets you cut in front of them in traffic - or a parking spot opens up just as you need it). Look for an opportunity to give something small to someone else - let someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store, or give a dollar to a beggar and look him in the eye and smile while you do.
Perhaps, just like the electron in the video above which acted differently once it was aware it was being watched, we too can affect different behavior all over the world by becoming aware that everyone is watching us. You're watching what I'm doing right now, who is watching you and how might knowing that someone is watching you change your behavior? If you think about it for a moment, you'll find yet one more reason to act in Peace because whether you think you are being watched or not, the universal laws that govern our world will bring us more of that which we give. So give Peace. Today and every day.
“As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself.
You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself...
Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.”
