Consuming Thoughts: Y

Y is for Yes and the Power of Intention. Peter Gabriel: And the tears roll down my swollen cheek, I think I’m losing it, getting weaker…I hold the line, I hold the line. Record numbers of homeowners are walking away from mortgages that they are fully capable of paying. According to a Times Magazine article Their decision is strategic. It’s good business. As the writer says, “we are all economic pinballs, insensibly colliding for better or worse.” Financial services organizations routinely make such “strategic” decisions. Banks no longer own mortgages, why should we?

This is economic nihilism and it does make sense – if we view our lives as one thin transaction after another. If we believe we’re losing it we probably will. Disconnective thinking breeds disconnected action. It is a a symptom of withdrawal, collapse, contraction and fear. Mentally, physically, spiritually we grow weaker. We believe we can separate our “selves” from “the world.”

We hold the line. The line is a thread. A thread that connects and binds us together. We can ignore it. We can say “no” to it but the relationship won’t go away. We hold the line. We can turn our backs on responsibility. We can put our heads in the sand and refuse ownership and obligation. We remain connected, however, the quality of that connection is weakened, degraded, frayed. Or, we can say, “yes.” “Yes”, opens us to opportunity, possibility and abundance.

They hold the line. What would happen if a line of credit was also seen as a line of connection? What would happen if banks looked at us less as risks to be managed and more as opportunities to increase social and relational capital in the communities they serve?

We hold the line. What would happen if we said “yes” to spending strategically to build value in our cities and communities? What if our intention as consumers was to support and sustain the banks, businesses and services that sustain us?

Try it. Say “yes”, reach out and connect. Manifest the intention to support and sustain each other. Share what we share anyway to strengthen our connection. It is within our grasp. We hold the line, the line of strength that pulls us through the fear.

Tags: abundance, credit line, mortgages, Peter Gabriel, strategic defaults, We hold the line

Consuming Thoughts: T

T is for Trust That We Now Sorely Lack. Peter Gabriel: You can blow out a candle but you can’t blow out a fire. Alone, and many of us feel more alone than we care to admit, no matter how brightly we burn we are still a single flame, an isolated candle. I love Ignite Portland, an event where an unpredictable array of individuals assaults, entertains and inspires us with a non-stop onslaught of 5 minute presentations. It’s brilliant. It truly shines. Thank you Raven for making it so. Yet, it is a collection of bright spots, a series of separate flames, a parade of fireflies.

Most of us in our work, often even in our home lives, remain disconnected. Work has demanding deadlines and we sacrifice the human quality of our teamwork to function mechanically. We sacrifice “trust” for “alignment.” I’ve been in a number of meetings where the detente of alignment censors discussion of deeper, later very destructive issues. At home the distractions of PS3, computers, smart phones, cable TV-technologies that are supposed to connect us-actually make us experts at remaining apart.

One of the catalysts for our over-consumptive ways is a lack of connection. We substitute stuff for substantial relationships. The foundation of strong, healthy relationships is trust. The source of Abundance in our lives is trust. Trust in our selves, trust in relationships with others, trust in the power of community, trust in the wisdom of the systems that support and sustain us.

Trust demands an openness, an intermingling of mutual vulnerability. Somatically, energetically it is supported by a strong core of self-awareness and feels and acts a lot like love. Ask people who were part of high-performing teams. The adjectives and descriptions they use to describe their experience could easily describe a good marriage. High-performing teams emerge from deep and enduring trust. Strong communities are sustained through webs of relationships woven with threads of trust. Together, we burn brilliantly, much brighter, than a collection of disconnected  individuals.

Tags: alignment, cable TV, fireflies, healthy relationships, high-performing teams, Ignite Portland, Peter Gabriel, PS3, Raven Zachary, smart phones, trust

Consuming Thoughts: DEF

D is Design as the Place to Begin: Freddie Mercury: ”Is this the world we created? What did we do it for? Our current economy of relentless consumption is a lack of design problem. Nobody in their right mind would design a system that is so consistently wasteful and capable of altering the very atmospheric conditions that allow life to thrive. Yet here we are. So, what can we do? Start by designing your own life. Be your own Lean consultant. Cut waste. Keep what gives life. Life creates the conditions conducive to life. Get to work!

E is for the Edges Where Economy and Ecology Meet: Peter Gabriel: “What ever may come and whatever may go that river’s flowing.” Either now or later the economy we’ve built on air will settle back down to it’s earthly foundations. As consumers I suggest we help it along. Invest in that which enriches your Value Web. Find those opportunities services and things which provide value to you and to the people around you while enriching our cities and communities while enhancing the health of the environment that holds us. We’ve been “conquering” and “subduing” nature for long enough. It’s time to go with the flow…

F is for the Flow of Feedback Beneath our Feet: Mike Patton: “It’s it. What is it?” Call it what we will: Karma. What goes around comes around. We are what we eat. We do as we do. We get what we get. Sometimes you get the bear-sometimes the bear gets you. We do not live, experience, think, intend or act in a vacuum. We are living, open systems. That means we affect and are affected by everything that goes on around us. What we consume consumes us. If we pay attention, the feedback we receive-instant or otherwise-is constant and instructive. What we choose to eat, buy, keep and throw away have very real ramifications in our lives and reverberate throughout the Value Web. As a consumer you can ignore “it” and continue being eroded and washed away in a muddied, waste strewn stream or accept and acknowledge “it” and start taking responsibility for “it.”

Tags: design, ecology, economy, feedback, flow, Freddie Mercury, karma, lean, life creates the conditions conducive to life, Mike Patton, Peter Gabriel, the Value Web, waste