Fly on the Wall Tells All

On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit walked the wire between the Twin Towers. This abides in my mind as an act of great bravery, artistry and extraordinary beauty. His dance on the wire stands equally with and tonic to the toxic devastation of the towers and all the ensuing fallout. In the pairing of 9/11 and 8/7, consider the symmetry of all that homo sapiens is capable of: acts of destruction and acts of creation, horror and the sublime. It is important to hold both as part of our human story. Many who have been discouraged and saddened by all the iniquities and inequities of an era so egregiously like the dystopic visions of Huxley and Orwell, are, for the first time in a long while, hopeful, thanks to brave resistance of those who are Occupying Wall Street in the interest of the many whose needs and well being have been sacrificed to the pleasures and privileges of the few.
My real hope for humanity is this, that we are educable. As toddlers, we who pooped at will, any where or when, took the first step in being civilized when we stopped pooping in our pants. We learned self control with less stink and mess for those who picked up after us. Unaware, we were learning to consider the rights and well being of others along side our own. Now we must stop “pooping” in our world.
Ilya Prigogine, a contributor to Chaos Theory, states: Things fall apart and reconstitute at a higher level. In nature, winter dormancy follows harvest. All that has flourished dies back and the earth rests before spring quickening. Hence farmers rotate crops and let some fields lie fallow to reinvigorate. Artists stop after a period of productivity to refill the cup of being and knowing before entering a new period of making. Our work will be deeper and wiser because we have had a chance learn and grow. There is an old saying : The child dies to the man. The old skin or system is shed and in its place a more capable and effective state of being emerges.
Of course any archeological dig reveals the layers and strata of being. The child doesn’t really die. Sometimes we are lucky enough to encounter and embody our playful child selves again and this seems central to our future. Children are quick to forgive if they are loved and cared for and have an innate and acute sense of what’s right. Give any two kids a cookie to share and at least one of them knows that an equal division is what’s wanted, needed and fair. We can and we must revitalize our perceptions if we are to continue our tenure on the planet. We must be as little children and willingly adapt to the prevailing conditions and circumstances and evolve, to leave our self centered adolescence behind, to embrace the difficult and good work of maturation and generativity, with equity, justice and compassion for all. Of course there are no guarantees. There never are.
I think what we are seeing today is a kind of devolution. Things are falling apart. This is a requisite stage of an evolutionary process, the transformation of consciousness and behavior. I am first to say of these thoughts, well actually in the words of Salman Rushdie, that they are an “interim report from the consciousness I now possess.” Having emerged from the paralysis of misery over the state of the world and being, I am hopeful. Whether or not I am deluded remains to be seen. But I mean to put my shoulder full tilt to the wheel or whatever it is we are turning in the direction of more heart and soul, equity and justice, human kindness overflowing, much as we envisioned in the formative Be Here Now years… and I think it’s going to rain today .

Personally, I’m averse to, distressed by the prospect of a fascist dystopia superseding  the open society which permits us to come and go as we choose.  I am never- the -less  foolishly, perhaps, hopeful. The basis for hope is this:  As toddlers, we who for so long couldn’t refrain, finally learned not to poop in our pants. That is not nothing, kids. Double negative, be damned.

This is the moment, I think, when each and every must resist the siren spell of the Lemming directive and find our way through the bottleneck of conflicting realities to find comfort and surety on common ground.

I send love and great good wishes to all.
May the force be with us.
Carlotta Vertspiel