By Linda Romey
“What time is it on the clock of the world? Awakening to a longing for change.” —Grace Lee Boggs
We talk about “past” and “future,” but we can only create change in the present.
The past our minds create determines how free we are in the choices we make today. The not-yet-existent future is shaped by the consecutive string of present moments we’re given, with each one becoming the past as soon as we live it.
Past and present, then, are the keys to creating future change.
Our past is our lived experience. Freedom lies in giving attention and discerning thought to whose perspective and what motives shaped the histories, the theologies, the physical and social sciences we were taught. Up to those last five minutes on Grace Lee Boggs’ clock of the world, a very small segment of victors, mostly white, western, Christian, educated, often wealthy men, told us what to think.
“Fast thinking,” autopilot thinking, is much easier than the hard work of “slow thinking” that entails deep questioning, vulnerable and open dialogue, and letting go of the familiar. But this is one thing we must do in our distorted present to reset the stage for a more just future.
Recent research has found that our past is also shaped by generational and collective trauma, sometimes passed down over centuries and often buried in our unconscious.
Much of the conflict and division we experience today, the ongoing damage we inflict on others and our earth, have roots deep in our collective psyches.
Throughout history human beings with power over other humans routinely used (and continue to use) violence as a means of control and extracting value. Think slavery, buying and selling human beings, brutalizing them into submission to fuel our greed.
Think colonialism and imperialism cruelly destroying entire populations and their land and resources—with the backing of the Catholic Church’s Doctrine of Discovery as well as many governments including that of the United States.
Think women, passed from father to husband with no legal rights, no viable options, no means of independent existence.
We must know and accept our connections to our past, relearn where necessary, ask forgiveness over and over, and heal trauma as we can if we are to create deep cultural change.
And what about the present? We are not free from our past. But are we free from the present?
As I noted, in the last five minutes of Grace Lee Boggs’ clock, the world has changed. But our cultural definitions, how we relate to all life around us and how we make sense of it and care for it, have not kept up. We need some deep thinking here, because we no longer know who we are or how we relate in this new world. The fear and uncertainty of this existence is bringing out our lizard brain and it shows.
At the same time our old cultural definitions are failing us, we have turned a great deal of our decision-making over to algorithms intentionally designed to turn us into non-thinking, non-questioning, consumers and followers. This reality is sucking us under, and we must fight to be free of its pull with the same intensity as a drowning person trying to escape an undertow.
Which is why we are here, connecting with others as fully human and fully spiritual beings who progress together when we uphold rather than oppress. Building a network that thinks and lives differently with others and our earth to change systems and structures, creating an equitable and livable future.
“We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness.”
Also the words of Grace Lee Boggs.