Laughing Away Fear

Author: Marjorie Smith (original website:  http://www.people-for-peace.com/)

We Have What We Need

I believe that we presently have everything we need to transform the violent/coercive society into a peace society, where all humans can live with joy and satisfaction within the ecological bounds of our Earth.

We have the knowledge (especially if a few more of us get familiar with "systems" or the ecological way of thinking). We have the willpower -- oodles of it. We have a good bunch of us ready to drop everything and go to work on the transformation -- and some already doing so -- and we have gazillions more ready to do their part if somebody would just make it look possible.

We have all those human traits that are pooh-poohed and ignored by the violent, coercive, competitive, war society -- that are a huge and very real part of what it means to be human. We have generosity, respect, thoughtfulness, caring, mutual aid, compassion, and the tendency to enjoy thinking and working together on challenging, fun projects. We have "warm logic" -- the down-home, sensible logic of thoughtful action based on caring about our fellow human beings and our Earth.

The only thing in our way at all, that I can see, is fear. Fear of changing the "status quo," fear that the whole Earth system will fall apart before we can set things right, but mainly fear of the "big folks" from our childhoods, that still haunt us today, still make us feel like we're small and incapable.

Fear stops our thinking in its tracks. Fear makes us confused about what's important. Fear makes us act badly towards each other. Fear prevents learning, especially the most useful kind -- learning from our mistakes while going ahead with a leading-edge project.


A Way Forward

What I think I see around me is this:

Yes, the political, economic, and especially the environmental challenges do seem too big for us to handle.

But we actually have everything we need to tackle the whole lot of them, by transforming into a culture of peace. Peace is efficient -- it doesn't crimp anyone's gifts and skills by oppression. Peace lets us give and do our best -- it doesn't waste our days with the work of the war society.

As far as I can see, the only thing between where we are, and a peaceful society, is the fact that the whole lot of us (this includes me) are a little scared and don't quite dare stick our necks out.

So. It's time to cultivate laughter and shivering. Laughter -- the clear, joyous, ringing release of fear -- and that fine trembling of excitement that happens when you walk out to the leading edge of life, both have to become part of our culture over the next few years.

Let's find fun ways to laugh and shiver together, walk down the street in a happy gang and get the whole neighborhood hooting. Laughing needs to go mainstream. NO MORE COMPOSURE!!

Let's foster and cultivate the many natural comedians among us -- they will be our champions, our guides, in this next period. Our comedians and cartoonists will get really good at setting us up so we can notice we are finally safe from the "unpredictable, unfair, scary giants" we lived among when we were small. It's a reliable, easy way to get laughter, once you get the hang of it. If you know someone with a functioning "funny bone" who's interested, please put her in touch with me.

I have a favorite vision of how I'd like to be: I'm walking across the Earth. Behind me is a trail of people rolling on the ground with laughter. In a little while each one gets up, still chuckling, and goes off to do something she's always been too scared to do. (What might happen if a lot of us did THAT!!)

I truly believe that, with the widespread healing of fear, all our creative energy that has been cooped up under the lid of the war society will flow forth. I am so looking forward to it!


KAKO S SMEHOM ODDGNATI STRAH


 

Kar potrebujemo že imamo


Mislim, da imamo vse, kar potrebujemo, da spremenimo nasilno prisilno/družbo v družbo miru, kjer bodo lahko ljudje živeli zadovoljni, veseli in s spoštovanjem do Zemlje.

Imamo znanje (še posebno, če se nas nekaj več seznani z ekološkimi načeli) Imamo veliko volje. Imamo tudi nekaj takih, ki so pripravljeni zapustiti vse in delati na preobrazbi družbe -- in nekateri to že počnejo -- in ogromno je takih, ki potrebujejo le nekoga, da jim da zgled, ki bi mu sledili.

Določene poteze, lastne vsakemu človeku pa nasilna, prisilna, tekmovalna in vojna družba na priznava in se jim posmehuje – in prav te so bistven sestavni del člveške narave. Tako so del nas radodarnost, spoštovanje, skrbnost, prizadevnost, zajemna pomoč in nagnjenost k uživanju v skupinskem projektnem delu, ki je zabavno in polno izzivov. Po naravi smo ljubeča bitja – vezani smo na dom, smo občutljivi in v naših odločitvah spoštujemo soljudi in našo Zemljo.

V napoto pa vidim le eno – strah. Strah pred spremembo dosedanjega stanja, strah, da bo celoten sistem razpadel, še preden ga bomo uspeli vzpostaviti. Najpomembnejši pa je strah pred velikani iz našega otroštva, in ti nas še dandanes strašijo, ki nas želijo narediti majhne in nesposobne.

Strah ohromi naše razmišljanje. V strahu ne ločimo pomembno od nepomembnega. V strahu do soljudi nismo prijazni. Ko nas je strah se nismo sposobni učiti, še več, nismo sposobni najpomembnejšega učenja – učenja na lastnih napakah, ko smo sredi učnega procesa.

 

Pot naprej


Mislim, da okrog sebe vidim:

Res je, da se nam zdijo politični, ekonomski in naravovarstveni izzivi preveliki.

Toda, imamo vse kar potrebujemo, da se jih lotimo s preobrazbo v družbo miru. Mir je učinkovit -- ne gre za nasilno nabiranje darov in spretnosti posameznika z zatiranjem. Mir nam omogoča, da od sebe damo in naredimo najboljše -- dnevi niso zapravljeni z delom v vojni družbi.

Po mojem mnenju, nas od družbe miru loči le dejstvo, da je veliko ljudi (sem štejem tudi sebe) le nekoliko strah in si ne upajo pokukati na dan.

Torej, čas je, da začnemo gojiti smeh in drhtenje. Smeh – tisto čisto, veselo, zveneče osvobajanje od strahu – in tisto nežno drhtenje od vznemirjenja po novi izkušnji, oboje mora v bližnji prihodnosti postati del naše kulture.

Poiščimo smešne poti, da se bomo skupaj smejali in drhteli, vesela družba naj gre po ulici in spravi v dobro voljo celo sosesko! Smeh mora postati gonilo vsega. NIĈ VEĈ UMIRJENOSTI!

Spodbudimo in gojimo mnoge med nami, ki imajo smisel za humor – ti bodo naši prvaki, naši vodiči v prihodnji eri. Naši komediantje in ustvarjalci risank nas bodo znali odlično spodbuditi, tako bomo spoznali, da smo končno na varnem pred »nepredvidljivimi, nepravičnimi in strašljivimi velikani« med katerimi smo živeli, ko smo bili majhni. To je zanesljiva in lahka pot, ko se je privadimo. Ĉe poznate koga s dobrim smislom za humor, ki bi bil zainteresiran, naj mi piše.

Moja najljubša različica, kakšna bi rada postala je sledeča: Hodim po Zemlji. Za mano so sledovi ljudi, ki so se od smeha valjali po tleh. Kmalu vstanejo, pri sebi pa se še vedno po tihem smejijo, in se odpravijo početi tisto, česar si prej zaradi strahu niso drznili. (In vse to je mogoče, če bi mnogi izmed nas storili TO!)

Resnično verjamem, da bo z množičnim širjenjem zdravljenja strahu vsa naša kreativna energija, ki je bila ujeta pod pokrovom vojne družbe, pritekla na dan. Komaj čakam!