What To Do Now?
Author: Jess Freer

Considering what it means to have an online presence today,
I wonder if there is effectively something of ourselves
that comes across when we write online, sharing an opinion
or insight in some forum or another.

Is there something we honestly project as our personal
expression, some authentic evidence of a creative identity,
looking hopefully to rest properly in another intelligent
mind, possibly surviving the slight dendritic pulsings of
weary surfers and searchers, too busy, or languishing
perhaps, in some far away chair, some near or distant
moment of our timeful imagining?

Might we somehow be alive for a brief particular moment in
this unknown person's thought? Is this background mulling
now an integrated feature in how we reach out, how we
attempt to touch each others' hearts, to leave some lasting
impression in the mind? Or is this a more creatively primal
and preliminary exercise, precursor to our learning to
socialize more responsibly at deeper levels, to become more
present not only at these multiple distances, but even
more, to be present and awake in our communities and homes?

We move so fast, consume so much information, restless to
keep up with a world wired already beyond our imagining,
chasing a technical culture designed and destined to speed
up more each day. How do we maintain our shared humanity,
our dignity, our sensitivities to friends and beloveds, to
our dearest comrades in this accelerating vortex of
transformation that so stirs the pots and begging bowls of
our deeper longings?

Do we ask too much of this cyberspace, this virtual commons
and meeting hall? Do we expect enough? Too little? Can we
gain anything constructive at all, besides witnessing the
distraction and breadth that enriches this expanding
marketplace of ideas, with clues floating so sparsely
across the surging river of tomorrow's commerce? How does
one maintain any consistent identity or sanity even,
navigating these tides and eddies of continuous change and
varied superficiality?

Philosophers have lamented the enormous waste of our
throwaway society, something like three or four planets'
worth of recycling presently needed to keep up if we all
consumed with the disregard of the most indulgent among us.
With more countries and peoples 'modernizing' all the time,
global warming and such, polluted oceans and all, do we
perhaps need some new way of being, not just here online,
but in our neighborhoods, in our communities, our
relationships; in our commerce, in our politics and
diplomatic relations?

Lots of questions to consider. We could spend hours posing
more. Weeks and months exploring endless complaints and
worries about what we're all doing together, and
individually here, to either improve this mess we're in, or
frankly, many days, to ignore it. This later option becomes
less dignified, less responsible every day that we hesitate
to find some better approach to focusing our energies, some
more effective use or expression of the gifts we've been
given, some more visionary motive to get us through the day.

Yes, I used the word visionary. We are at a place in
history, in time and space, in the re-imagining of our
humanity where vision is being democratized, popularized,
energized and resurrected yet again as a viable tool to
restore integrity to our homes, to our gatherings, to our
lives.

Buckminster Fuller titled one of his essays 'No More Second
Hand God' describing how we each have revelatory
capacities, creative ingenuities and inner musings, that if
well tended and cultivated, would provide answers to solve
even the most intractable problems of civilization. But
this requires us to pay attention, to slow down enough to
retrain our minds and our hearts.

Carol Adrienne, in 'The Purpose of Your Life' reported one
of her students coming to a realization, saying he was
struck by the thought that, "You can have anything you
want. But you can't have everything."

We CAN have anything, but not everything...

Here is where we see that our intentions are more effective
when focused, observing how they can also be rather fuzzy
and diffuse. When they are focused, it is because we've
decided as individuals that this is necessary and helpful
to having a meaningful success in life. If our intentions
are scattered and vague, it's because we haven't yet
learned the value of limiting our desires and wants, of
directing our energies in a more disciplined and purposeful
way to get done what we know needs doing.

Individually, we can do a whole lot to make this a better
place. We can each work to reclaim the central passions and
callings of our lives, respecting one another's distinctive
service and belonging to some higher order as well. That we
can each be more fully ourselves seems clear. That the
world will advance more quickly toward our best shared
future when we support this in others - in all others - to
me, this seems a lot more obvious every day.

Poets and mystics have always imagined some personal
version of this better world. Our time, watching us move
warily into this new century, in fact into a new
millennium, carries the vision of a potentially huge step
forward, practically demanding we clean up our acts,
morally and ethically, while beginning yet again to better
engage, encourage and support each other in coming more
alive, more real.

Integrity, dignity, intelligence, respect, honor - these
are all timeless and profound compasses pointing to the
lives of fulfillment and satisfaction we might all envision
with each other. For we cannot do this alone. If we are to
have this golden prize for ourselves, it's imperative we
offer it to others.

I hope you find echoes of this in your own thinking,
overlapping ripples of connection, so you might share the
realization that these thoughts can have real meaning only
when they're lent something of the heart, something
intangible, given freely from your own longings and dreams,
from the irreplaceable presence of your own being.

This is how we find our way to gratitude and finally, to
peace. Focus the inner purpose, pursue it with the best
that's in you, and by doing so, discover how much easier it
is to greet the many new friends waiting along the way.

So, what do you most want to do now?


About the Author:

Jess Freer believes every day brings us opportunities for
authentic expression of our personal voice and integrity,
waiting on our choice to focus our willingness to grow into
an ever more expansive consciousness and vision.
http://mypieceofthe-e-pie.com