Recently I've been stuck in the rut of predictability. One might consider it illogical to associate predictability with immovability and dullness. But any such skepticism is the product of modernity's conditioning. We're taught that if we can calculate and predict outcomes, we can ensure both survival and success. Yet, pivoting only on certainty is inherently limiting. We continue to generate scenarios based on what we already know, and what the majority of us already know is shaped and manipulated by deleterious forces that prioritize profit maximization at the expense of life itself. We increasingly live in "states of exception" where our lives are reduced to "bare life," wherein we can both be sacrificed yet remain unprotected (Agamben). When the essence of our existence is highly controlled and exploited, designed for output and profit, the possibilities are significantly limited. Activity for the sole purpose of making money versus autotelic activity are two very different experiences; the former dictated by the myopic confines of the mind and the latter, open to the expansive possibilities of the spirit.
Is this starting to sound a little "woo"? Or perhaps "woo" has become the colloquial way of referring to and dismissing what the comforts of our mind are not able to hold and make sense of. This is precisely my argument - the unknown is an inherently fertile space. We need more woo. It beckons us to go where we have not yet been, to become other than what we have been. And what we have been is profoundly problematic - automatons acting in service of profit. I don't believe we are inherently apathetic, self-centered, and destructive. The capitalist, patriarchal, and racist systems of modernity have conditioned us to behave in these ways.
I believe we are inherently good with the capacity to live in right relation with the land and one another. Yet choosing to do the right thing is not always easy because we don't always know where it will lead. But that's precisely what we need more of - action based on a feeling of what's right and the contours of which are not easily mapped with language, Western science, or laws. Doing what feels right allows us to enter into a realm that has not yet been commodified, legalized or socialized, hence untainted by the malevolent and toxic structures of modernity. When we act from this sacred space, we enact a new paradigm and proliferate new realities.
Still feeling skeptical? I challenge you to just try, to act from a heart-centered space rather than a mental model that has already been colonized and weaponized. Without knowing the outcome, do what feels good. Take the leap. Let your feet land where they may. Perhaps in a body of water where the lotus flowers have grown out of control and the surrounding fauna are creating a ruckus. Or in a sandbox where the perimeters extend beyond sight and the kids make castles out of fear, anger, boredom, desire, joy and any other emotion that suits their fancy. For fences do not keep out the wild. They just mark the areas we are too afraid to go beyond.
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