A teacher of mine once said that there are no original ideas anymore; it is all just new and different expressions of the same idea.  So a smart phone is just a new expression of 2 tin cans and a piece of string. An ipod is a new expression of a pianola. A car a new and different  expression of a horse and cart. She said that in the early 90’s; before I had a computer at home.  Before having access to ‘ideas’ at my fingertips.  We all know we live in the age of the information revolution.  We all can find anything we need to know about anything with a search and a click.  So are we just re-imagining the same things or is there room for something really new?

I am loving hearing so many stories about young people re-imagining their worlds; coming up with amazing inventions that solve a problem.   Here’s a couple of my favs:

A 13 year old boy in Massai invents a solution to lion attacks of cattle:

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_turere_a_peace_treaty_with_the_lions.html

Next is this one on possible sources of power…I’m not sure of the science behind this, but I love the concept:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7oMIR_MoH0

As the information age blooms and we are re-aligning our priorities towards new expressions that prioritise communities and connection over material things – well hopefully - I wonder if we are allowing the possibilities of re-creating a platform where we can grow completely new/original  ideas?  Have we reached an evolutionary stage that could possibly prove my teacher wrong?  I for one would like to think that there is renewed potential for original ideas – things that we have never thought of; concepts that we have not even dreamt of. Unless we can imagine a brand new world with brand new ideas, are we doomed to the same same?  Capitalism, so-called democracy and a money lead society is clearly not working. As Einstein said “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”

 Bring on the new ideas...please!

I have been working out of the rat race for nearly a year, nearly a full season cycle.  Winter is indeed coming (thanks Game of Thrones)...so to the turning in, and the recognition of the difference in my life this coming winter to the last.

I left a very full on, full time, adrenal draining environment a year ago and I have replaced it with a nurturing, strengthening and stimulating world of my own making.  I spend my days thinking, writing and being.  I choose to meet and network, have cups of teas with interesting people and talk about inspiring topics.  I have created an office of my local beach where I go and contemplate, and thanks to mobile technology, make some phone calls and emails. I am learning and loving the ‘Essence of Ease’.  

Am I afraid I’ll slow too much? Not be able or willing to go again? Not at all. In this busy busy, more more, bigger bigger world of ours so many of us seem unwilling to give ourselves the time and the space to relax to truly be at ‘ease’ fearing if we do we’ll never start again. I am learning how wrong that is.   Given Seneca coined “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”, I am doing the preparation and creating the opportunities; it is exhilarating energy producing stuff and I am very grateful for it. Am I lucky? – you bet!    Every day we have a choice.  A choice to remember that we have inside of us the ability to know, the reason to understand and the wherewithal to discover what actually matters at any given point in time.  We have a choice to swim in the soup or to put our attention on the difference, on the change, on the new.  Its just a turn of attention.

So often in this topsy-turvy world full of loud opinions and so much harshness, it is easy for some more sensitive souls to feel locked out of the world; to feel at effect rather than at cause of what is happening in our lives.  I know for me when I read of horrendous and frightening events around the world, there is one option available to me and that is to retreat behind my closed door and believe in my inability to do anything about the big wide world. Other options of course are there, but don’t seem half way as accessible or even attractive because they mean some self reflection and question asking and courage taking.

I ache to feel impactful on my life and on the lives of others.  How do I access that in this world of seemingly no-personal-power?  I believe that the democracy that operates currently in Australia, and other nations is set up to disempower the people.   We get a bite at the cherry every 4 years and after that we have to put up with what decisions are made by a person that we might not have even wanted to be making those decisions in the first place.  Diarmuid O’Murchu, a theologist, says that the right to vote is a token gesture to keep people subdued...citizens are passive onlookers.  I often feel that, absolutely.

Thank goodness for the 21st century.  For the social media, for the cyber networks, for GetUp for Wikileaks.  I think what everyone will agree that the politics of the world is changing and there are options now for us, for our views to be heard...above and beyond the wheels of the democratic society.  I watch and participate with wonder and awe at petitions that receive signatures in the 100 of thousands and actually get the ‘powers’ to listen and act.  I now have a platform that I know one voice can make a difference when that one voice gets others to back them, and the others are accessible and willing.

Naomi Goldberg said in 1979:  Being a loyal, docile member of a single tribal group does not offer salvation any longer, if ever it did.  Now the world is in need of people who can feel several loyalties, several affinities, several identities.  Its taken years, but this to me is a key statement of where we are possibly heading as a society.  We are now able to be members of many groups, can choose to engage in discussions on line and feel ok about having our opinions and our motives questioned and our mind changed.  We are now not – necessarily – if we are able to separate enough from the democracy that binds us – at the will of the economic forces of capitalism that we have previously defined ourselves by.

It is time to push the gate and realise it is unlocked and all we need to do is walk out. TOGETHER!

Numbers do matter!