Zaid, I think you are bringing here a very important and difficult subject: how to cope with reality without loosing hope, even though rather than hope I would use belief or resolve. To me hope is a very dangerous thing as I think it is passive and one can survive (not live) on hope a life of misery, waiting for things to change around oneself. I believe that leadership is about coolly watching (cool head, whilst in command of oneself) the world around as it is (or as close to what it really "is" as possible), accepting what one sees, in its current state, without being resigned that this state will remain. Then warmly embrace your belief, your vision of how you want it to be and *act*. Acceptance, belief & vision, action.
I have three thoughts that I hope will help with the dilema.
First there is no such thing as "the reality of the world" or "the world as it is". All perceived reality is made by us, by our mind based on what we experience through our senses and based our past experience to comprehend the world around us. If this reality is unbearable, it is because the projection we make of it with what we see/experience is unbearable. I am pointing this out for two reasons. The first one is that I am tired of people coming to tell me the "way things are" and how they are right about it, and how other people are wrong about it and bad because of it. The second one is that it more plainly shows that if we create the reality and then react to the reality we create, we can alter our creation and our reaction to help us to cope better with it. It all comes from ourselves, automatically and not, and we can change ourselves.
The second thought is that no matter how bad things seem to you, be ready to accept that they are always worse than you think. If you build sufficient strength, belief and resolve required for a leader to create the world he/she wants to create, this is paradaxically a quite helpful thing to do. Because it will help you not to be distabilised by what you see and keep on following your vision. If you don't beleive that things are worse that you actually think they are just go to the emergency room of a hospital for a night (I suggest those receiving people who have been in car accidents). Then you will realise that next to what seem to be a normal and peaceful life, there is plenty of horrible reality going on that you could not imagine. If you don't believe that this is key to help you change the world then you have never been engaged in something big enough or meaningful enough yet that will really change the world, because this is when things hit you really bad and destabilise you.
My third thought is: pace yourself. There is so much one can take at a time. Often when I felt desperate and was pesting against the world, it was because I reached a limit and I needed to be kind with myself, pick myself up before continue to get going. Too big a shock can stop you from moving forward at all for a long time, sometimes it can open your eyes. There is a time for one and the other. Sometimes we get burned out and we need to stop for a while to recover.
Em
Hey Zaid
having just been dialoguing with a young poet with a sense of things are going down (the drain) and we will just have to (relish and enjoy) bear it, I also found myself wondering about the conflict between what is and what is desired.
The "newer paradigm" thought-leaders suggest that we embrace the resonance of what we would have and desire, rather than focus on the negative (and flip in downward spiral).
These thinkings suggest that: What you send out you attract. What you resonate resonates you. You see what you expect. Life is self-fulfilling.
I wrote a poem to this young poet (letter to a young anarchist) and was reminded of "Letter To A Young Activist During Troubled Times" by Clarissa Pinkola Estés that I read last week ... http://www.mavenproductions.com/esteswindow4.html
My sense is that we need to become the eye of the storm, centered, in our power, with clear line of sight within, notwithstanding the impenetrable chaos around us.
Allow the "creative tensions" to hold you and surrender in the eating of the peach ... ;)
eating you..
We may choose to be the light, to shine our radiance of hope and love, to become the world we wish to see.
So Breathe, in Appreciation, That Which You Desire Most, Into Being. And Laugh when you see that all demons are but human projections, little farts in the night of our Ignorance.
Solidarity
Johann
