(image via flickr user tonupdamien)
Good Mmmmmmmmmmmorning SuperForest!
I think it’s high time someone said it:
Everyone on planet Earth is having a hard time right now, in varying degrees of severity. It doesn’t matter the color of your skin, your economic or cultural status, or your education level. If you, like me, are along for the ride on this magical iron ball, then you’re probably having a tough time.
And that is because times are tough right now.
Since the Industrial Revolution, our lives have been intertwined with a way of thinking:
Work Hard for the Man
Make Money
Reproduce
Die.
That way of thinking and behaving now seems totally inadequate for making a human being happy.
We the people of Earth stand at a crossroads. The end of the Industrial Revolution is the beginning of the Sustainable Revolution. The Industrial Revolution has quite literally run out of fuel, and now we’re left to wonder, what engine will drive us? What central force will propel us forward?
If production and profit are no longer the answers to life’s Big Questions, what then are the new answers?
It is this uncertainty that is resonating throughout all human psyches.
What can we rely on? What can we trust? Who can we turn to for answers?
I can think of only one response: Each other.
In this uncertain time, the most radical thing one can do is trust. To believe in something greater than yourself, and to dedicate your time and energy to it, requires a faith and trust that is in short supply these days.
Trusting and believing have become revolutionary and radical. In my opinion, this is wonderful.
It is this mutual trust in one another that will save the human race.
Perhaps you’re thinking: “Mutual trust? One, that’s a little soft. Two, that is a lot to ask.”
There has been a lot of talk lately about “The Reputation Economy.” To me, the reputation economy means that because our activities as human beings are so easy to follow (via twitter, blogs, facebook, etc.) the people that live as they say they live and act as they ask others to act will find themselves on a higher reputational level than someone about whom little is known.
As Jackson SuperForest, I try to share what I am thinking and doing, and more than that, I hope to share the mistakes I make along the way so as to save others from repeating them unneccesarily. This transparent approach to life means that I have very little to hide, as most of what I do and think is already public record. Not to suggest that readers of SuperForest know everything there is about me, but that is what I am working towards.
Transparency for me works to eliminate the hypocrisy in my life.
Because I have written so often about manners and being considerate to people, I try to uphold those lofty goals with every choice I make. I try and fail. I try and succeed. I try and try and try again and each time I fail, getting back up and apologizing get easier and more second nature.
I feel that if more people chose to live transparently, it would greatly increase our species chances of survival for the next hundred years.
When I boil the concept of transparency down to its essence, I realize that for me I am very afraid of seeming weak, stupid, mean, ugly, finite. My human qualities embarrass me. I don’t want people to see me naked and alone, because my very human-ness will be revealed.
I fight this neurosis by sharing my humanity via this blog. Rather, I give in to the neurosis. There is no fighting. I acknowledge that I am frail and finite, that I poop and pee, and fart, and am sometimes drunk and spiteful. Only by accepting my faults and humanity can I hope to move upward to a higher level of thinking.
This last week, Bee Ladd and I had a big falling out over Eco-Tech School, and it was all my fault. We had been working so hard, so close, for so long, that I didn’t have the space to bring my thoughtfulness to my behavior. Bee and I were very stressed over trying to get Eco-Tech School up and running and I exacerbated that stress by adding my own stress. I suffer from “Big, red, shiny, button syndrome.” If there’s a big, red, shiny, button, I push it. I need to know what happens when the button is pushed, for better or worse. So, Bee and I were incredibly stressed and I just kept pushing buttons. I hit the wrong button and things exploded.
That is my bad. I am a rabble-rouser. I try to make it clear to my friends and the readers of this blog that I am a rabble-rouser.
Bee and I have not spoken in a week, and the future of Eco-Tech School (in its present incarnation) is uncertain. I was initially saddened by the uncertainty (we had worked so hard!) but a few days of deep breathing and space (and a great Mraz concert) helped good ol’ perspective return.
I realized that whatever had been traded off in terms of forward momentum for Eco-Tech School, or the working relationship between Bee and myself had been replaced with something far more valuable: A return to self.
I had gotten so stressed about Eco-Tech School that I had done two things that I never wanted to do. I turned my back on transparency, and I stopped writing for SuperForest. Bee and I approach “business” from very different places. I believe that if I share everything I do with you, then everyone wins, and making money or getting my name on things is of little concern to me. As long as I am contributing to the Conversation of Consciousness that is the internet, I am happy, and feel fulfilled. That is not how everyone operates. Fine. That is how I operate.
I somehow thought that I could put that part of myself on hold. This denial of self stressed me out, and kept me away from my beloved SuperForest. This stress also led to Bee and I eventually arguing about the way Eco-Tech School would handle transparency, and that’s when things fell apart.
I am very happy now. I have remembered who I am and what I believe in. I know what I can do, and what I am passionate about, and that is to share and communicate the thrill of sharing.
I look at the world around me, and I see abundance and promise and hope and growth and renewal. I see a shimmering vision of the next hundred years slowly forming as we discuss all that is best in life via the internet. That is what I want to share. Abundance is what I want to teach and learn, and be known for teaching and learning.
SuperForest has allowed me a chance to play in the reputation economy. I am who I say I am, and I live as I say I do. I have gifts to give, so I work to present them. SuperForest has helped me to know myself and to see what I am and am not.
SuperForest is my transparency and transparency is my strength.
I am not perfect, I am SuperForester Jackson. I love and laugh and fail and succeed.
If the world ends, it will find me smiling, laughing and building. Even though I am sometimes afraid for the future and for myself and the people I love, I always have this laughter inside of me.
My trust in my fellow human beings allows me to embrace transparency the way I do. I know that I’m a dreamer, and I know I’m not the only one.
If we give each other the gift of trust, we are free to be ourselves. If we are freely ourselves, then we are unafraid to create the world exactly as we see fit.
If we’re going to create the world as we see fit, then we humans will succeed.
Trust = Success. Transparency = Strength.
For you reading these words, the biggest and best gift you can give to yourself and your fellow humans is by being unafraid enough to be yourself.
If you are unafraid enough to be yourself AND start a blog to share that fearlessness, it’s a win for everybody.
I made a mistake in the way I handled Bee, and Eco-Tech School. I was inconsiderate and self-involved. Now it is time to try to rectify that mistake.
I’ll let you all know how it works out. :)
In the meantime, let’s all take a nice deep breath together. Remember that our time as humans is short, and we must love with all of our might.
All my love to SuperForesters everywhere.
-Jackson
P.S. Bee Ladd, you are rad and I love you.
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