The last post I published was a very important one for me – and shortly after it went live, my server failed and 36 hours of data was wiped out. This has never happened before – yes, I’m on a dedicated server. Then, even weirder, we couldn’t locate a copy of the post anywhere. It was like – poof! – I never wrote it.
When I lamented the loss on Twitter, Martha Beck quipped, “Maybe it went out to save the world by itself. Strange things are happening these days.”
Several other people wondered if I was off the hook. No need to save the world. Poof.
I must admit, I found the thought that I
a) need only write a post and it will save the world and
b) I could go back to not seeing the elephant in the world’s living room (elephant = the need to directly tip the world away from doom in the next four years)
very, very enticing.
What do I even mean by save the world? Isn’t what I’m doing, you’re doing, enough?
Isn’t driving a hybrid, recyling toilet rolls, reading Michael Pollen, not beating our children, enough?
I don’t know! Stay tuned as I explore this and other questions – in the meantime, here is the Elephant Post. Universe, do with me what you will! (Does not shake fist. Bows meekly.)
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” Rilke
1
I have seen the elephant in the world’s living room. It’s so enormous, I want to do everything but look at it.
Like writing this post, right now, I’m getting very sleepy.
Oh right, that’s normal.
Feeling overwhelmed and afraid is normal.
2
The elephant in the living room is the state of the world.
But quick, look away. It’s like looking at the sun; it might blind you.
3
As a kid, I was furious with love. I would go around insisting the whole world just needed to stop what it was doing, and make things right.
I kept thinking we just needed a global holiday. Stop everything we normally did and devote ourselves to saving the world, cleaning up or healing whatever was right in front of us.
And after, like a week or so, we’d have the whole world all sorted out and cleaned up.
I mean, there are as many of us as there are problems, so if we each worked for a whole week, things would have to get a whole lot better.
I still sort of believe it could be this easy. Well, maybe not a week; it could take a whole month.
4
I didn’t really look away from the elephant, I have, in many ways, devoted my life to changing the world by serving women.
But, as tends to happen at a certain juncture in our lives, the kid in me is back. She keeps tugging on my sleeve, pointing to the elephant.
She won’t leave me alone.
5
She wants to know – why can’t we all put down what we are doing, and directly work to help the elephant?
She keeps going on about direct help. Not indirect or after the fact but direct.
She keeps talking about us being the leaders, the creative voices who must use our energy and intelligence to directly affect change, now. That what is missing for many of us is connecting to this big purpose, having the courage to connect to something this big. It terrifies us but it also is what we are craving.
I remind her ranting never does much but make people exhausted.
6
I also remind her the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
7
She gets the last word.
Think about this Joe Campbell quote.
The difference between a s/hero and a celebrity is “one lives only for self while the other acts to redeem society.” (We can talk about the word redeem later.)
Links: Martha Beck, Rilke quote via Julie Jordan Scott via the Comfort Cafe amazing supportive community, me on Twitter @jenlouden
12 responses so far ↓
1 Julie Ann Turner Sep 8, 2010
Beautiful, Jen – as is all of your magical writing, playful exploration, deep-thought sparking …
The elephant weaves in and out of all my creative work, my community/social innovation efforts, my social media sharing, and more …
And yet, as we know from the ancient Indian parable, it takes more than one of us to discern the true nature of the elephant – we cannot see it for what it is, through only our own lenses (no matter how well-meaning we may be) …
It takes true dialogue – where all voices are equally valued – and true co-creation …
And my hope – my belief – is that this is the AGE we are in, and the shift we are here to lead …
Where we all become acutely aware (some would say “become conscious”) of our creative power, of the deep truth that, we ALREADY are co-creating the world – through our choices and our creative expressions … the only question is, are we creating the world consciously? or unconsciously?
Far too often, it is the latter – and so, the elephant hides in plain sight.
And yet, conscious creation is what we are here to do … it is why we are here … to express the glory of Creation, as creators and co-creators …
And what a miraculous world might we co-create, if we began to do so consciously?
2 Susan Gallacher-Turner Sep 8, 2010
As a little girl, I too, wanted to change the world, heal the sadness and the madness. But I was small and I couldn’t do much beyond my own little room.
I’m grown up, sure, but I’m still just one person, with one day at a time. So what can I do? What have I done?
As a child, I vowed to raise my children differently, no spankings, no cruelty, no bullies. As a mom, I took parenting classes and used the mantra, “People are not for hurting” over and over. What I learned is that I could only change me, my approach to my children and others, but the larger picture was out of my hands. I did what I could anyway.
As an artist, I look to open eyes to the beauty around us, the connection we all share through my sculpture and words. My way of ‘saving the world’.
Does it all help? I don’t know. I hope so but I do think that saving the world is a wonderful idea, that is really only possible one small action at a time. I do believe these acts add up.
3 Elephant Hook Sep 8, 2010
[...] Elephant in the World's Living Room – Let's Try Again » Comfort Queen Several other people wondered if I was off the hook No need to save the world. Poof. I must admit, I found the thought that I. a) need only write a post and it will save the world and. b) I could go back to not seeing the elephant in . [...]
4 Oriah Sep 9, 2010
Jennifer, okay this is the fifth time today that something about “saving the world” has caught my eye. As a child I was sure I could save the world. Really. I was on fire for saving the world.
But today- each time I came across the phrase I wondered, who is this “I” (in me, in you, in anyone) who thinks s/he can save the world? Are we abolutely sure the world need saving? What would it mean to “save” the world?
I don’t mean to suggest by these questions that I think everything is hunky dory. Clearly it isn’t. I can look around and see hundreds of things that really do need addressing.
But, I wonder. . . . Might it not be an inflated sense of individual power to think “I” can save the world?
There’s a line in the Lao Tzu’s Toa Te Ching that Stephen Mitchel translates as follows:
“Do you want to improve the world? /I don’t think it can be done./ The world is sacred./ It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.”
But. . . but. . . but. . . what about the oil in the sea, the children sold on the black market, capitalism gone crazy, the destruction of species. . . .
I don’t know.
Maybe I’m just feeling old and tired today. But something about this wanting to save the world (inside me) is . . . off.
I once wrote: “Perhaps if you would just let me save your life, it would not hurt so much to know I cannot save my own.”
Maybe we ought not to burden our writing, our art, our small contributions with an agenda so large as saving the world.
But then again. . . . Keep writing dear sister.
Oriah
5 Lynne Tolk Sep 9, 2010
I’ve always struggled with guilt over the fact that I cannot ever seem to do “enough” to save the world.
As was pointed out to me recently, what I do for myself (that deepest part of myself), I do for the world.
Even if what I am is a writer and I write, that is enough. If I am a lover and I love the world, that is enough.
Thanks for bringing this up, in itself, a gift.
Lynne
6 Jill Sep 9, 2010
Oriah resonates with me…triggers my optimism and my faith in Jen…not in a defensive way, but in this way… If memory serves me right, Ryan was around 6 years old, and heard of a village in Africa in need of water, he made up his mind to raise the money for a well…keep in mind that we had already sent men to the moon, it’s not like we had our priorities in order ever … his parents thought it was a childhood stage….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWk2_LZ1zFM
Hugs and Hope to you beloved…
Jen, don’t ever outgrow this childhood stage…
7 Shelley Louden Sep 9, 2010
I am most blessed, to say that decades ago, God made me aware of His call on my life…to do His work, as one of His “Living Tools” (terminology mine) for healing.
Before I was yet one of His kids, He gave me bewildering clues to the calling, when I was only 19 yrs. old; then sent a clear — and this time, totally unmistakeable — message of this calling, not too much later…sometime in early January of 1961 (shortly after my 20th natal birthday), and actually only about one month after joining His family (which was my 2nd — meaning Spiritual — birth).
It is a privilege, an honor and a thrill to have been doing the work to which He called me, ever since these events.
December 10, 2010, I will be honoring the 50th Anniversary of my relationship with Him…of course, also followed by the 50th Anniversary of the inception of my Life Mission, here on the planet.
All this is my personal take on your desire to “save the world”. Been doing my bit towards this, with many one-to-ones for a long time, and will continue, whilst I still have breath and brain to do so. (-_-)
Now…you Jen, can provide a wee one-to-one healing of a family matter, for me!
It only requires you to write me with one word — “Yes” or “No” — in answer to my twice-asked question (on Facebook), of whether or not you are my niece.
Please take a second to do this. It is such a small request; and even if I ~am~ your Auntie, I will make no further attempts to contact you — if that is your wish; meaning…I am not about being a pest, I am simply on a [wee] quest. (Poem gleefully, somewhat intentional, LOL!)
Perhaps you need (more?) info, if you have not seen my FB note containing some of the necessary identifying facts.
If I don’t hear either of the one-word responses from you (mentioned above), or ~something / anything~ in reply to this message…I will not ask again, nor will I — in any way, shape or form — trouble you again, with correspondence.
Three times is adequate pursuit…beyond that, it becomes uselessly redundant.
But in closing, let me say, it will be a source of sadness to me, to never (in this earthly lifetime) know the answer.
I do hope you respond, Sweetie. (-_-)
Blessings,
Shelley
8 Eric Klein Sep 10, 2010
E.B. White wrote:
I wake up each morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it very hard to plan the day.”
How to knit together those torn apart impulses? No need to choose one or deny the other. Rather, knit. It’s the torn-apart-ness that needs mending.
That’s what you’re doing. Thank you.
9 Molly Gordon, Self-Employment Coach Sep 10, 2010
Jen, I am grateful that you are stepping into this. I don’t hear you saying that we should save the world, or even that the world needs saving. I hear you saying that some of us feel called to respond with compassion to the suffering around us. Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed by the scale of that suffering. You are showing us we need not be.
10 Mark Silver Sep 11, 2010
I love the stand you take, Jen. I totally get that you aren’t asking anyone to save the world, or that you think that’s what we need to do.
But what is needed is, as Molly so eloquently said, a compassionate response to the suffering and poor choices we have been collectively making for so long.
I’m so glad we’re colleagues and friends in this.
11 Havi Brooks (and duck) Sep 14, 2010
What Molly said.
And it really, truly needs saying.
Beautifully spoken. Beautifully called. And the world needs us as much as we need it. We’re all in this together.
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