Words that caught me: V is for 'Visionary Horizon'
I
mean, take a long, deep look at it?
If
you look outside your window,
If
you talk to your friends and neighbours,
When
you read your morning newspaper,
And
watch the evening news broadcast,
And
scroll down your social media feeds,
And
then sit back, relaxed, a hot cup of coffee in hand,
And
look at it all,
What
do you see?
I see
possibility.
Enormous
possibilities.
Let’s
look at a few of them:
Lockdown
restrictions are easing worldwide. Possibility.
New
infections are rising. Possibility.
Angry
marches and protests on the street. Possibility.
Statues
coming down. Possibility.
People
questioning age-old histories and believes. Possibility.
Economic
and social disruptions. Possibility.
Political
arrogance and dysfunction. Possibility.
Now, I
can picture you rolling up your eyes,
Wondering
what sort of possibility could exist in a spike of infections,
Or in
an economic downturn.
Well…it
so happens that in the idea kingdom, there exists two species.
Those
who see possibilities in every situation,
And
believe in a better and kinder future;
And
those who are held back by inertia and status quo.
There
are those who are looking at the world right now,
And
seeing only pain, death, gloom and disaster.
And
then there are others who are looking at the same world with the expectant eyes,
Of a
mother at her newborn.
From
the ashes, they see emerging a phoenix, reborn, new, and better looking.
The
first specie are brimming with eagerness and imaginative-ness.
The
second is full of fear, stasis and cynicism.
We
can be either, but not both.
Where
do you belong?
“One
of the greatest capacities we human beings have
Is
the capacity for growth.
We
can change, transform, expand - not only ourselves, but our world.
And
if we want to live into, and live up to this capacity,
I
think we'll have to ditch allegiance to ‘That's just the way it is’,
[For]
an expansive curiosity about how things could be.
Could
they be better? More generous? More just?
Unbending
devotion to the way things are will not move our world forward.
Our
world moves forward when the greathearted among us
Push
for a future that is kinder than the present.”
The
world has never needed people of the first specie like it does right now!
We
desperately need believers of a better tomorrow.
People
who see possibilities in the now.
And
are willing to plough and slough through the messiness of 'now',
In pursuit
of better.
“Right
now demands not a manageable or realistic future,
But a
visionary horizon.”
Visions
that show the world what could be possible.
Visions
that paint new images of our future.
Get
out your paint brush, we have a lot of painting to do,
And
we need all the believers and visionaries we can get!
*This post has been inspired by Deb Mills-Scofield in these three Lightning Notes: this, this and this.
POSTSCRIPT:
Here is an important insight that came up after publishing this post: we seem to be suggesting in this post that the biggest obstacle to developing 'Visionary Horizons' is the lack of good painters (thought leaders). We now know that this is not necessarily true. There is something more insidious going on within us. The biggest obstacle we face in crafting new visions for the future seems to be our fear of "vision arsonists'. So, in trying to appease them, we try to make whatever visions we conjure up look 'realistic' and 'manageable' thereby falling prey to the limitations and boundaries already set by existing ideas. In the result, our visions of the future aren't bold (transformative) enough. Here is how Deb puts it:
"A vision is never guaranteed to be realized; then it wouldn’t be a vision, it would be what’s manageable and realistic... The thing with Manageable and her comrade Realistic is that they’re based on what the world has shown us to be possible... But the most powerful visions don’t need to be realized to still widen the outer edges of what’s possible..."
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