The Meek and The Earth

And the Lion and the Lamb shall lie down together...

“⁴Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. ⁵Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. ⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:4-6

It’s a common theme. “The meek shall inherit the earth.” “Those who were last shall be first.”

In our current society, the idea that the meek will get anything but thoroughly stomped on is a happy lie the quiet and gentle people tell themselves when they’re being beaten into the dirt yet again. Sometimes it’s fear, sometimes it’s compassion, and sometimes it’s just easier to stay quiet. I know that for me personally it’s fear and lack of confident knowledge that holds me back from saying anything, from trying to ‘fix’ the world. I try in my own way, but always with that feeling of hopeful despair. 'How can I possibly make a difference?'

Even the word meek shows the depth of the degradation of this idea. Once upon a time, Meek meant gentle, kind and courteous. In the dictionary now, this is considered an ‘obsolete’ definition. The definition of Meek now is submissive, spineless and compliant. What a strange turn of events. Maybe it’s not the meaning of the word that has changed so much as the collective agreeance that kindness is weakness, being gentle requires you to be a door mat, and those that are courteous are only going to be taken advantage of.

Once upon a time, it was understood that the meek – the gentle, kind, compassionate and loving – would be valued and respected. Who knows, maybe it’s still within our grasp. Perhaps the world will change drastically enough that all those who are first – the overbearing and the ambitious – will become last. So far, in my short and sheltered 24 and a bit years on this planet, I’ve seen the cruel and the ambitious get ahead over and over again. I’ve seen it in my own life. When I am cruel and grasping, I get further in my life than those times I am kind and caring. Those who know no shame have more chances to achieve the current success metric.

You can see it in the way our society functions. Corporations rule our existence. The moment we step outside ourselves, we are bombarded with advertisements, suggestions and orders to buy this, do that, think this. ‘Big Business’ throttles the little guy and gets away with it. How did we get to a point where a tobacco company can take on a country in a law suit and win? It’s legalised murder. Simply because the little people have no money and therefore no power. Just look at the news, social media and the internet to see how many reports there are of business taking on the people and grinding them into the dust. All in the name of greed.

But there is a tsunami of change coming. It has been building for longer than I've been alive. It’s resonating throughout the human collective – more and more people are ‘waking up’ to the idea that commercialism is just a different type of slavery. Society is slowly shifting. Illusion is no longer the theme of the day. There are people all across the world standing up to say that it’s not right. 

It’s in our fiction and our entertainment, it’s in our news and in the back of our mind when we look at the world around us. It’s intriguing how our Pop culture reflects our changing beliefs.

We had an ‘attractive’ vampire craze a few years ago - a symbol of rape and power over others, willing or otherwise. Vampires suck blood and leave a husk, or a slave in its place. They are the ultimate apex predator, preying on us with all the caring of a man eating a steak. Even the romanticised vampires are dangerous and deadly. Is it any wonder that we liked the idea of giving ourselves up to something stronger by saying ‘I’m not good enough, take me’? It’s an enticing idea for some people. Particularly young women (like me) who are trying to find their place in the world and wishing there was someone to protect them, keep them safe from having to think.

After that, we progressed to the zombie phase, where society were happy to be mindless shambling followers, going through the motions exactly as they were told. We got mesmerised by our technology and gave up on free will and conscious thought. We wear, eat and buy what we’re told and follow the rules as laid out by big corporations. The closer we get to the ‘norm’ – the success metric that our society lives by; owning your own house, having kids and a stable job – the further into the trap we get. I don’t think we’ve entirely left this phase. I think there’s quite a way to go until it happens.

But now we have the superheroes, standing up and fighting back against impossible odds, never giving up no matter how regular people look down on them. We have those who will not go silently

into the night. They fight for even those who revile and threaten them. They fight for what is right, no matter the cost, without reward or hope of gratitude. They exist only to save the world. Whatever the threat may be. This is the stage where we wake up and start seeing that these heroes are not aliens from other planets, but real people like you and me. All of them have something that gives them power, placing them a step above us, but not out of reach. It’s a fine line to walk.

There are cases where they can trap us just as easily as the idea of zombies or vampires – we see the world in terms of other people stepping up to take on our problems, so we sit back and let it happen. But there is also the flip side. Some heroes inspire greatness in those with no powers. By giving us an example, showing us the way, they tell us it’s ok to strive. It’s ok to be more than you are. One of the defining traits of a hero is their ability to stand up and say; ‘No matter what you do to us, we will never completely stop fighting. We will come back again and again, beating odds that would crush anyone else.’

Obviously these are all just symbols, to be interpreted however you might want to see them. There is much more to the story than any one person can ever see completely. The truth can gleam and glimmer at us, but we still see it only through the cracks of our own psyche. Each person will see something different and call it their truth.

My rather abstruse point here is that change is happening now. Maybe the meek will not inherit the Earth, but then again maybe they will. It depends on what choices we make as a society. What ideal, what image are we going to fit our future into?

Give a Dollar a Week, End Homelessness in a Year

Imagine a society where the collective community could make a direct impact on some of our country's biggest social issues. Imagine crowd-funding an end to homelessness.

In theory, it's simple. If every Australian gave $1 a week for a year, that would be over $23 Million dollars a week for 52 weeks. That's $1.2 billion in a year. It works the same way that our taxes do, just on a smaller scale. But instead of having an elected group of representatives choose where to spend our money, we could designate where our contributions go. 

Before I get too far in to my grand ambitious idea, I’d like to stress that this is not solely my idea, or even a new one. I first discovered this concept in a stunning book a friend gave me called A Fraction of The Whole by Steve Toltz. Since then I’ve also discovered Huey Long’s plan to Share the Wealth in 1934, along with a few other interesting articles, like this one on what would happen if the world’s total wealth was redistributed amongst everyone in the world equally. And this one on homelessness. Our values as a race are very slowly shifting, and society is starting to question the status quo.

For now, I’d like to discuss a very small change each of us could make that could have massive impact on Australia as a country. Bear in mind that I’m not an expert. I’ve collected some research, made a few calculations and drawn some conclusions. I make no assertions that they are correct. I'm human. Please feel free to do your own research and calculations. Maybe you will come to a different conclusion.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), in 2011-2012 the average household worth of all households in Australia was about $728,000. But the median was $434,000. This was due to the asymmetric distribution of that wealth – the top 20% had about 60% of the wealth, the top 40% had about 81% of the total wealth, and the bottom 60% of the population had about 18% of the total wealth. (The extra 1% is due to rounding down. It's still in there somewhere.) They also gave the statistics that over 1.2 million households had net worth less than $50,000, with 114,000 of these households having negative net worth.

There are about 23.66 million people in Australia as of November 13^th 2014. As mentioned above, if every one of them donated $1 a week, or had someone donate on their behalf if they don’t fit into the 67.5% of Australian taxpayers, there would be a pool of about $23 million to distribute every week to those dis-advantaged families. If we started with the people who have negative net wealth, and distributed it evenly between the 114,000 people, they would then receive about $200 a week. It doesn’t seem like a lot, right?

Here’s where the next stage of my idea comes in.

The definition of homelessness, as per the ABS definition established in 2012 is the following;

“When a person does not have suitable accommodation alternatives they are considered homeless if their current living arrangement:

·         is in a dwelling that is inadequate; or

·         has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable; or

·         does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations.

The ABS definition of homelessness is informed by an understanding of homelessness as 'home'lessness, not rooflessness. It emphasises the core elements of 'home' in Anglo American and European interpretations of the meaning of home as identified in research evidence (Mallett, 2004). These elements may include: a sense of security, stability, privacy, safety, and the ability to control living space. Homelessness is therefore a lack of one or more of the elements that represent 'home'.”

As of 2011, Homelessness Australia gives the figures of people experiencing homelessness as 1 in 200 people, or about 105,000 people. This is spread fairly evenly among age ranges, from children under 12 to over 75’s. More than a quarter of those are under 18 – roughly 28,000 children. And 6% – or about 6300 people – are currently living on the streets or in make-shift dwellings such as tents.

I have a couple of friends who fit under the heading of ‘Home-less’ simply because they don’t have the money to move out of their current situation into one where there aren’t too many people crammed into a tiny space. They have no opportunity to ‘control their living space’. Occasionally, when there’s no one else home, they can have people over for social interactions, but most of the time, they’re expected to go out to be social or sit in their room and be quiet to minimise the impact on the ‘important people’ in the house. What would it be worth to them to be able to have their own space?

During my periods of intermittent work, I experienced the very real fear that I could soon be ‘home’-less. Which could quickly have turned into ‘roof’-lessness without the support of my family and friends, who were there for me through the difficult times. What about those who don’t have access to support from their friends and family? They would have nowhere to go, and no way out. You can’t get a job without a house. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the community extend a helping hand?

Imagine walking past a homeless person on the street and dropping $200 into their bowl. I know I’d feel pretty amazing if I could do that. Wouldn’t you? So why don’t we? What’s stopping us?

I can’t answer that for you. I know I don’t because I have bills I have to pay, groceries I have to buy, and when I do have spare money, I have a car in serious need of repairs. I can’t afford to give away $200 just like that. But I can afford $1 a week. I’m betting that you can too.

While doing my research for this, I found out that the Greens have a plan to end homelessness by 2020. As stated on their website;

·         Providing a new home for every rough sleeper by 2020 would cost approximately $233.2 million per annum.

·         Doubling funding for Specialist Homelessness Services provided under the National Affordable Housing Agreement would cost $507 million per annum.

·         Signing a new National Partnership on Homelessness to 2020 would cost $160 million per annum and would be matched by the states.

That adds up to 900.2 million per year. Which would still leave 295.8 million per annum that we could put to other great causes. Wouldn’t that be an incredible accomplishment?

Now imagine that we could keep that giving going for 5 years. At $1.196 billion a year, that’s $5.98 billion over the 5 years. It's not a massive amount in the grand scheme of things, considering that (from what I can tell) Australia's Total Taxation Revenue was roughly $400 billion during the 2013-2014 financial year. But there are a few different ways we could make a difference.

We could;

·         Fund a collective social revolution that calls for a change in how we deal with members of society who have been marginalised and forgotten.
·         Further causes that will directly benefit our society, such as sustainable energy – for instance, the Solar Roadways I like so much, or basically anything that cures us of our dependence on rapidly dwindling natural resources.
·         Assist the community in other ways, like funding research that may have been passed over by higher-profile fundraising.

·         We could make a contribution to a global cause, such as ending world hunger or extreme poverty, and extend the hand out towards others in countries that don’t have someone to look out for them.

I could go on forever. There are any number of ways this could be used – by the people for the people. It’s such an amazing concept – if we all shared a little of our wealth, not even enough to ask for a sacrifice, we could make such a difference to our country.

*Disclaimer: This is my opinion, drawn from the information that was easily available to me. As I said before, I make no assurances that what I have said is correct. I encourage you to look into it yourself. And if you find that I'm wrong in any way, I'd love to hear about it. I’m also more than happy to discuss this idea. If you have any questions, issues or ideas, please feel free to comment.

The Story of the Girl With a Hole Over Her Heart

Once upon a time, there was a baby girl born with a hole in her chest over her heart. As she grew up, the love of her family and friends taught her how to hide the hole, but they could not teach her how to heal it.

She covered the hole from those she didn't know, but she trusted some enough to show them. Once they knew about the hole, she thought they would avoid it and she would be unharmed. But she was wrong. Often they did not realise that they had hurt her, but some knew just how to avoid the flimsy coverings and reach in to stab her heart.

Those that knew her best were the most easily able to hurt her, but often the least aware, as it became just a part of her. She grew up expecting to be hurt by those who she trusted, knowing they didn't mean to, that they still loved her. But the fear grew and grew.

She left her home to join the 'real world' and found that it was harder and harder to protect herself. The hole grew as she did, making it bigger and easier to get through, and even the scar tissue growing in her heart was not enough to protect her. These people did not care whether they hurt her. To them she was only a speck, too insignificant to notice.

She started to withdraw, to hunch, and developed armour on the rest of her body to try and protect her. But nothing helped. Finally she fell to her knees and cried out in despair. But noone could help. Noone understood, because their hearts were protected. They could not help her, though many of them tried.

She lay crushed and defeated on the ground until the Universe took pity on her and offered her a hand in the crowd. She did not understand at first, but slowly she realised that she did not have to do it alone, in fact, could not do it on her own. She realised that there was a way to heal the hole in her heart, if only she could trust in the Universe.

It was a slow and laborious process, and by this stage, each fresh injury to her heart brought her back to the floor, but she kept at it, trusting that one day, she would be strong enough to stand on her own.

---

Today is the day I accept the truths about myself that I have always dismissed as overly dramatic and self-serving. Just because something seems to be made-up didn't mean it's not true.

I am different, I am flawed and I have been broken, again and again. But none of that detracts from my value. It allows me to understand others who have been through similar things, allows me to grow and soar through the ups and downs. Sometimes the drops and the backward swoops are what keep you moving forward. (Like an albatross crossing the sea.)

I have been healed, one way or another, through my friends and family, through the higher power that guards and protects me. Sometimes my stories and my idle imaginings have more truth to them than I've ever realised. But they are in my past, and they may have shaped who I am, but I can choose whether they shape my future.

Today is the day that I accept myself as more than broken. Today I accept that I have a gift to give the world, and to myself. I give myself permission to admit that I have a gift that noone else does, one that sets me apart. It is not an easy road to travel. My talents have withered along with my self-confidence, but I choose to set aside my armour and face my fears head-on.

I give myself permission to love myself, for all that I have been, for all that I am, and for all that I could be. My future will come, regardless of the choices I make, and only the Universe knows what will be. I march into the unknown with love in my heart. Forgiveness is my sword, and courage my shield, but love is what will end the war.

I believe in myself. I have faith in me. I approve of myself and the person that I have been, am and will be. I love who I am, regardless of my flaws. I love myself enough to accept the fact that I am flawed and broken. I am not perfect, and that is perfect for me.

I give my fears, my shame, anger, pride, selfishness, greed, arrogance, inferiority, laziness, judgement, and my dishonesty to the Universe.

I choose to live in love, accepting that my life is in the hands of a power bigger than me.

I accept the peace that is freely offered, and place my trust in something that I can neither prove nor understand.

Everything we experience has an effect on us. What do you choose?

I've watched two things today that affected me profoundly and brought me to shaking tears. One was a movie, the other a you-tube video. One was a terrifying trip into the darkest parts of society, and the other was a 5 minute message from the future.

Right now, walking away from The Purge, I still feel sick to the stomach, trembling and crying at the violence of it. The movie was fine - but knowing the reality behind it is what scares me. That if it were to be a part of our reality, human nature would assert itself and we would fall to evil.

Watching Life vs Entropy earlier today, I felt my heart swell with what we could achieve. So I offer it up in the hopes that the good in us can drown the evil. We may be creatures born of darkness and violence, but we can make a choice. We can choose to fall to the dark, or we can rise above to the light, accepting who we are and working to change it. Let there be light.

Beating 'Second-Best Syndrome'

You know that feeling where you're prepared and confident, walking into a job you know you will be perfect for, and you go through the interview, make what you think is a great connection and walk away thinking it's a done deal? It's a pretty familiar feeling for me now. I have plenty of natural talent and experience, I'm excellent at what I do, and I have the sort of personality that seems to fit well with most team environments.

On the flip side, the feeling that I am most familiar with from that point in my job search is disappointment. When I don't hear by the pre-agreed time, I call to check up on the progress, and this what the answer I receive boils down to; "Unfortunately, we've gone with someone with more specific experience than you."

Sometimes I want to rail and shout and scream that just because I haven't worked in their industry doesn't mean anything. I know my own value, and I know that I would be perfect. Why can't you give me a chance to prove myself?

After that I'm tempted to get despondent about my abilities. What am I doing wrong that you would hire someone else, even with that little bit more experience? Is it because I'm support and not sales? Is it because I want to give instead of receive? Is it that I don't sell myself well enough?

Finally, I call up my 'sour-grapes' attitude, telling myself that if they couldn't see my value then they didn't deserve me. Best of luck to them, they missed out on someone who would have swept them off their feet with efficiency and competency.

After a lot of soul-searching, I realized the truth. It's not about me at all. Duh, you might be saying... And you'd be right. Sometimes, there are just other people out there who are better in one way or another. And since they're applying for the same jobs that I am, it makes sense that I'd miss out. It's not that I'm doing something wrong. It's not even luck. It's just part of the job-search.

So I'm picking myself up and dusting myself off. It's time to pull up my big girl socks and keep going. It's not over until it's over, and failure is not final until we admit defeat. It's time to reconnect with my internal optimist to make my career dreams come true. Having said that, it is definitely time to find other avenues to my dream career - rather than applying through job-sites and recruiters.

So I'm exploring all of my options, evaluating my key skills, my passions and what I'm looking for. My Hedgehog Plan is coming together slowly, and while creating my (extensive and super-detailed) Sumry page, I am discovering exactly what my strengths are and what makes me unique and eminently hire-able.

In summary: In order to beat 'Second-Best Syndrome', I pledge to follow and clarify my dream until it becomes a burning desire, and persist through all obstacles until I achieve my clearly defined goals.

Scents of a dying industry

A rich and exotic scent drifts out of a doorway, carrying with it hints of the warmth of jungles and bustling cities, and conjuring up images of mouth-watering curries. This is what I smell almost every day, as I pass the little Indian corner store on my way to the train station.

We’re a small suburb, and though it’s nice, people aren’t queuing up to buy spices. Over the last year, there has been a trend of small stores in our area closing due to lack of business. The food stores have held on up to this point, but as our expenses go up, we spend less, just trying to make ends meet, and slowly these stores can’t break even.

More and more, the cheapest prices are in the big grocery stores, who can afford to make price cuts, and soon enough, unless they’re lucky enough to buy into a business that has outside backing, such as food store franchises like 7 Eleven and IGA, these little corner stores will go the way of the dinosaur.

And what a shame that will be. In a world where value and convenience are at our fingertips, with nothing more than a click of a button or a swipe of a card away, where do we go for that real interaction that used to be a part of every small store? Some of my best experiences of customer service have been in corner stores. Where they greet you by name and know your usual orders as soon as they see you.

I read an article recently that suggested that the experience of shopping could be enhanced by personalised service based on data collection – what you buy, where, when and how. It immediately conjured images in my head of robot servers in a future supermarket who greet us by name and comment on our food choices. “Good morning Bob, I see the diet’s not going so well today.” “Good afternoon Sally, I see you’re having a party for Billy’s 5^th birthday today. Would you like to buy some balloons with that?”

Which is great. As long as there’s also a centre where you can visit for a real human interaction.  Come to think of it, isn’t that what we have psychologists for nowadays? I can’t interact on a human level with my friends because I only ever see them through my technology, so I’m stressed and unhappy and need to pay someone to listen to me for an hour to compensate.

There are a lot of good things that come with a growing economy and developing technology, but we seem to be leaving the old world behind. And in the years to come, when I look back and wonder what happened to the human race, I will remember the whiff of spice from the now-extinct corner store, and think of the welcoming smile of the girl behind the counter.

On creativity and old dreams

A cute puppy just for you...

I've been going through the writing I did at the end of last year as writing exercises. The exercise was to wake up early and write for half an hour. I thought I'd post an extract of one of my better entries. It’s a little bit loopy - the early mornings didn't agree with me - but there are a few ideas I thought were interesting.

2/12/2013

Creativity is a strange idea. Who can tell what fathomless ideas will spring fully formed from our minds like we are giving birth to the collective’s child, or what idea we will drag kicking and screaming into the world and bully into a semblance of creativity. There are so many expressions and various turns of phrase that will allow us to reach across the gap between people and shove our ideas down their throats, but who knows which are the right ones? What do we do when we can’t express ourselves and the block is marrow-deep, with no end in sight?

I had a dream last night that I found fascinating. The elusive tendrils of my dream are fragmenting like mist in the sunlight, but I remember thinking - while I was experiencing the dream - that it would be fascinating to write about, as it was a shocking and tragic event. I also remember thinking that it was a good opportunity to remember that writing requires depth and … What’s the word. Despair? No – more like adversity. We need to deal with ideas bigger than ourselves and overcome the tragedy to come out triumphant. Every good story that I’ve gotten drawn into has been vivid and tragic. Bad things happen to the characters, and they grow stronger from the events, overcoming the adversities.

I feel that my mind is trying to help me now, with the vivid and chaotic morass of dreams in my head, but I have trouble recalling these dreams when I wake up. I aim to remember these in greater detail as I continue my project, so we will see what changes, and how I go from here. The dream this morning was enough to wake me into a panic attack, but the dream itself was not that scary. It was tragic, like a car crash might be, but I have already forgotten the details, after swearing to myself that I would remember. It was one of those dreams where you think you’re awake, and that it’s real, until you finally wake up and breathe a sigh of relief that it’s all over and that you’re still here and safe.