Just thinking..
How are we going to manage ourselves for the difficult task we citizens face going forward?
The following was simply an entry in my journal, upon re-reading I thought it might be useful to share…
Late morning here in the South West, a day of some relief, a time to refuel our sense of faith in our democracy and hope for a more compassionate and less divisive future! And yet…Unfinished and thus unclear about the chaos quotient going forward…
In any event, no matter what, we are still in social shambles as a country. The huge task ahead of us as citizens is to build a sterling coalition of intelligent and open minded people, grassroots, who are willing to devote decades to building and rebuilding education, communication, trust, with social innovations dedicated to discover “what works”, “workability in the now,” the same things that characterize the best principles of team building that we have learned from organizational development work with large non -political entities. How about we use what we know about building teams to create a productive working environment for the common good?
Perspective. We are in the process of re-assembling America on a human scale, and the best we can expect from a new president and his administration is thoughtful planning to address the myriad sources of dissatisfaction and chaos rumbling for years. It requires setting in motion groups of open minded thinkers and capable implementers who can work with people of all ages in communities across the nation to give every citizen a voice, to dig deeper into the reactive posturing and polarization to surface what’s underneath and discover ways to address what ails us.
It’s going to take a whole different mindset on the part of citizens of all stripes- from a singularly “me” mindset, to a “we.” It will take patience with the difficult and plodding nature of respectful listening to one another, small steps, understanding interpersonal compassion and what works to help people help themselves and one other.
America is not just a victory to be had, but millions of human problems to be addressed in an earnest process of solution finding—at least “toward” a more perfect union. The pervasive entitlement and demands for immediacy in all arenas are part of the childhood of democracy, one that overlooks the importance of development— lacking the patience and maturity which is required of us at THIS time in history.
Much to the dismay of what has become the entitled American psyche, there is no immediate gratification afoot. Going forward, the essential personal and interpersonal work in front of all of us will take an historic effort of beginning again. Our pain, frustration and disappointments usher in a path for something else to unfold. Let’s do our part in the more fulfilling process of positive imagination and creativity. Let’s put our jubilation energy to work!
(The above are my thoughts about WHAT we need to do. Stay tuned for more on the psychology of managing the HOW to do it.)
A n d r e a