USA 2.0
The American Dream needs an update, a USA 2.0, a new vision, a new sense of cohesion, a functional society that works for everyone, no more of the same old, the selling of individualism and competition as the way to get more pie, more glory, while social cooperation, any sort of we-live-together-in-the-same-hive, anything called “sustainable”, gets villainised and kicked to the curb.
USA 2.0 may require a re-brand, complete with a new flag, new colours, new rules for doing business, new definitions of success, and a new acknowledgement of the common welfare, a new thinking where the future of our children, yours and mine together, becomes more important than profit.
Can it be America’s become more of an economy, rather than the emotional and philosophical sanctuary it was meant to be?
The answer is obvious in the questions we ask of each other, the what-do-you-do, our expectations of ourselves and our children, the constant counting, comparing, the measuring growth in charts, reports and apps, using the language of money, war and pro sports to climb higher and higher, only to discover there’s always further to go.
USA 2.0 needs to love quickly and kindly, as awkward as that feels, to survive together, to adapt itself again, to leap into the unknown like that inexperienced nation of confederated states who wanted to discard the fears and hatreds of other societies to create a new future, and remember history doesn’t ever care what happens, or matter much at bedtime when only the safety of our children does, yours and mine together.
That’s How She Found Her Way
In memory of Harriet Tubman
Moses was willing to die. That’s how she found her way. I go to prepare a place for you, she said. I ask you to care for the people you’re with as if each one is a friend you trust. Say “yes” to what’s in front of you. Yes yes yes, no fear. Roar at your paper tiger, run right through its teeth, scare off your past, rip right through its need to impose itself on your present, to make itself known in your reactions, your biases, your aversions, your preferences.
Salvation’s dragons hold beer bottles in the shadows, in holy surrender, knowing the apprenticeship of this life leads to the next, to the sky within the sky, to the self within the self. There’s justice in the old man letting go what the young boy craves. To each his own, to thine own self be true. Real suffering brings together people who don’t know each other. Their unity becomes their miracle.
Look for the lands where the desperation and doubt of the mind can find the diamonds and doings of the heart. It matters what you think you see, but never stop wondering what it is you may not be seeing. Being a little unsure is all you need to open a lot of locked doors. No risk, no freedom.
Remember, what you feel is not who you are. There are new worlds to explore in knowing that.
Moses was willing to die. That’s how she found her way.
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