What’s next?

Here’s the thing, Humans. We’ve just learned something really, really important. We’ve learned that the leaders of the free world can act in unison with record speed. We’ve learned how quickly they can make sweeping multi-national policy changes. We’ve literally just watched the free world expedite everything in less than 5 days. Some of those days were even over a WEEKEND!? A WEEKEND!!

These people worked on a weekend! They even called emergency meetings and had things happening in TANDEM!?! Apparently, big change doesn’t need to take years.

I’m in my mid 40’s and here’s the thing about that, I’ve seen some shit. Not just in my own life experiences — but in the world. I was in the first grade (or grade 1 as we say in Canada) as I watched the AV Cart get rolled into the classroom. An old TV on a cart that we had the privilege of watching a real space shuttle take off on. We got to watch TV at school. A real rocket was going to take people to space. This one even had a teacher on it!

It wasn’t even 5 minutes later as all of our little eyes watched as The Challenger exploded. No more space shuttle. Our first grade teacher turned off the TV and they rolled the cart out of the class. Most of us were too shocked to cry, but one kid did and one kid, screamed. I just sat there. Stunned.

Yeah, so that’s the generation I come from. We also were the first generation to watch a live war on TV. The real birth of CNN. The Gulf War. For good measure for my nervous system I ended up starting my career there. I watched the feeds come in during Columbine. Then there was 9/11.

I’ve been braced for impact about catastrophes and nuclear war since I was born. It’s like Generation X was born with gas masks at the ready. The generation where our parents smoked cigarettes in the hospital, and in the car with the windows up. The generation who got sent to the store to buy things for our parents that are illegal to give to kids now. We also raised ourselves. We were the first generation where both parents worked. We watched things we shouldn’t. We wore keys to our houses around our necks and cooked on the stove by ourselves before we could even see over the side.

I was a kid who played “bomb shelter” with my cousins. We’d lock ourselves in a crawl space and eat our rations. We also played “pioneers” and pretended we had no running water or electricity. It was like we were somehow preparing ourselves for this.

I always joked that I didn’t camp because maybe one day I’d need to do it for real. I just never thought it would be a reality. I thought our leaders would move faster. I remember writing a rap (yes a rap) about the Ozone layer and climate issues when I was 10. THAT WAS 1988. WHAT THE F*** LEADERS?
Now we see how fast you can really move, we’re going to demand you do it again.

Yes, we’re in the midst of a terrorist madman trying to instill fear and dread to an innocent country. The situation in the Ukraine isn’t new. What’s new is how humanity seems to be responding to it. We’re also in the midst of a global pandemic that’s killed millions of people, and perhaps most glaringly, most importantly — the actual planet we live on is on FIRE. You know that one where we do all this fighting, and fear mongering. The one where we argue with each other about whether we should be doing unto others or not by wearing a mask or getting vaccinated (we should).

This planet, this climate crisis we’ve been in since I was a kid. That’s 4 decades we’ve accepted the mostly elected leadership of this planet not changing what we need to change.

It’s clear now why.

Capitalism has had a firm grip on humanity. Here’s the thing, there’s another way. There’s a world where we admit that this whole capitalist, colonialist, imperialist, patriarchy, whatever-the-fuck-this-is, isn’t working. It’s failed us.
That here we are staring down the barrel of another war and it’s about the same thing because we haven’t figured out that these systems keep leading us here. Over, and over, and it seems, three times is the charm.

So, what’s next? What do we do now? We grow up.

Humanity evolves. Humanity as a species takes ownership of the fact that we really haven’t been as concise or clear as we needed to be with our voice. We haven’t been able to move in the kind of unison we needed to, until now. The internet, social media, global connectivity isn’t just wired. It’s our consciousness. We have a collective consciousness that is far more capable than our egos ever were. We’ve all been praying a lot this last week, this last few years I hope. We’re praying to source, to creator , to the Universe, to Energy itself. Spirit, really. The fuel that actually powers us. The star stuff we carry, the nature that lives inside of us. We ask for help and deliverance from evil, but what about deliverance from ego?

Can we do that too? Can we all recognize that it’s time to move in unison to save the planet, ourselves, our legacy if we’re ever going to have one?

We can build something new. We can put into place leadership that is human rather than politician. We have seen that is possible. We have seen that in Zelensky. We have seen the magic of the world when we come together to say, no, not one more time.

Humanity will not evolve until we put down our weapons. The words, the hate, the fear the anger. Those things are all things that nature doesn’t do.
Until we return to the old ways and get back to community, and sharing and loving our neighbors we will continue to go through this cycle. We are inherently connected and all we’ve been doing for the last several hundred years is shoving one wave of pain and anger to the next generation.

This is hitting the baby boomers, gen X, gen Z and millenials. Here’s what I know, we’re a really wiley population. We have some skills. We also have something which is going to save the planet if we use it. Magic. We have gifts we have a wonder returning and an interest in not organized religion but Spirituality. We’re remembering.

As I write this there’s a 40 mile convoy of armored vehicles full of war, hate, inauthentic power and pain. One sick human being is again holding the world hostage. How many times do we need to do this to know that the way we’ve done it isn’t working? This is where we choose. This is where we figure it out.

This is where we return to greatness. Or, we camp for real and one day someone will land on this planet when it’s returned to perfection, because it will, and they’ll wonder why we left it behind, and by that I mean abandoned saving her. We need to use this to change everything, elect leaders who are of the people and for the people and get our leadership to move in unison to disarm, disavow all governments who harm their people, and move as fast as we’ve seen them for war — for life.