Yesterday, I planned to post a parable today. But then I went to see Dolly Parton in concert last night, and that set off a myriad of thought paths. This morning, I read a great article in the Guardian titled "Political Correctness: How the right created a phantom enemy", and that provoked more ideas, and then I read another great article in The Atlantic "The Case Against Reality", and that led to still more ideas.
I have to decide which direction to go, and to figure out if there is a relationship in all the idea provokers that coalesce as one blog posting. Here is my attempt.
There was a little girl born in deep poverty. The family lived first in a barn, then in a shack without plumbing or electricity. The girl was one of twelve children, so the children shared clothes and sleeping space. Clothing was often made by the children's mother, and were made of rags cast off by others. The little girl didn't see her poverty, or the difficulties of her life. She saw that she was raised with love, and the gift of music. The girl imagined herself singing in front of hundreds of cheering fans. Instead, she sings in front of tens of thousands of cheering fans, and has a net worth of over $450 million dollars. Because she believed in a different reality than she lived in, and was fearless in pursuing the reality she knew she could have.
You all know I am a great believer in imagining the life you want, and then going after it. Dolly Parton did that, in spite of the long odds against her success, and the improbability of her dreams. Had she asked, and listened to advice, I'm sure she never would be who and what she is.
She didn't just dream and imagine. She planned. She sacrificed. She created a persona, and she marketed that persona.
One of the things that Dolly said last night at the end of her concert really struck a chord in me. She said that we have been predicting and waiting for the end of days since the first of days. And what we know is we have this day. This day to be kind to each other, to be good to each other, to appreciate each other in all our wonderful differences.
BAM!
We all live in a different reality, and all we know we have is right now.
What I have been battling, what has had me in a funk, is disillusionment.
The illusion of reality that I had been floating in I felt was disproved by the election of a man who routinely mocks and belittles others, who calls for increased torture, who calls for the expulsion of entire groups of people based on their ethnicity or religion as President of the United States.
I no longer believe that my illusion of reality was disproved. I now understand that a man was able to use language to manipulate others' illusion of reality to believe that he is their savior. He was able to use language to create a common reality for people who already felt left out and left behind. People who had never imagined multiples futures for themselves so that they could then plan for how to close the gap between the reality they were experiencing and the reality they sought.
This man painted himself as able to restore an illusion of reality that they clung to. An illusion where their supremacy was never questioned, where their employment was assured, and where they didn't have to incorporate a changing society into their illusion of reality.
My disillusionment was getting in the way of my understanding that. I want to villainize those who were manipulated. Don't get me wrong. Some of them are bad people. And I know innocent people will be hurt by the policies of the incoming administration if those of us who can fight for a better reality don't do so. But if I view them all as other, I have no need to try to help them see a different reality, I have no bridge to present a new illusion.
So for me to have the energy to fight, I have to have hope. Hope and disillusionment do not coexist well.
My hope was reignited.
We can create improbable stories by imagining, believing, and working towards improbable goals.
We still and always just have today to wander through our respective realities and try to make the world better, and to bring it closer to that perfect imaginary reality of our dreams.
My reality and your reality will always be uniquely our own. But you and I can both learn to paint pictures, with words, with actions, with music, with art, that will allow others to join with us and create a common reality that is embracing of all of us.
One imagining, one dream, one kind act, one embracing of that which is other to us at a time.
I do not relinquish my power to create the reality I seek. And neither should you.
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