Words that caught us: What and who are you teaching?

 

Have you ever sat down and wished,

That you lived in a house,

With less grills and bars,

And fewer and lower fences,

That you may wave ‘good morning’ at your neighbor;

Or lived in a place

With less strife and congestion,

And more open spaces, parks and jogging/circling paths;

Or lived in a society

Where honesty, integrity and honour,

Are more desired, treasured and celebrated,

Than trickery and thievery;

Or lived in a rich culture,

Where beauty, art and aesthetics

Count for more than just a passing indulgence?

 

Have you?

 

Do you ever look at your country,

And community,

And wonder how we got here?

Do you ever wonder why we are so intent

At self-aggrandizement and self-annihilation?

 

Do you?

 

What does it take to create

A thriving and life-enhancing culture?

 

This is a question that has caught and bothered us,

Especially, after our just concluded series on Wayfinding.

 

If, as Simon Sinek says, we humans

Owe our survival and dominance,

Not so much to our intelligence,

But rather, to our gregarious nature

Of keeping together, protecting each other,

And building on each other…

How come, then, that we seem so keen

At destroying the very thing

That makes us strong?

 

If, as we saw in our Wayfinding series,

That Wayfinding is fundamentally a social process,

In which building and joining supportive communities,

And tribes of progress,

Is key to finding our way in and through life's intractable-s,

How come, then, that we are so intent at going it alone?

 

The answer seems to point eerily at our culture.

 

Perhaps we need to pay closer attention,

And be interested,

In how we build, or destroy it,

For, we are all actors and contributors to it.

 

Perhaps the best way to build a thriving,

And life-enhancing culture,

Is for each of us to take responsibility,

In teaching and inspiring what we would like see.

 

What are you good at?

How did you get that way?

Who are you teaching it?

How are you teaching it?

 

Sometimes, we let our ego run away with us,

In projecting an image of achievement and excellence,

As if the way we are now,

Is the way we have always been.

We often forget,

That we were all once a seed, who was planted,

And we have all grown magnificently,

Because of our unique exposure to sunlight,

Food source,

And manicuring.

We didn't get that way on our own.

Someone mentored us.

Someone inspired us.

Someone supported and encouraged us.

Someone took our hand and taught us the ropes.

Someone celebrated our wins,

And commiserated in our failures.

Someone gave us the first lucky break.

Someone gave us, or planted in us,

That crucial feedback, or insight,

That opened the floodgates to our success.

 

If we ever hope to make this place better,

If we really want to leave it better than it is,

Then it's time for us to start teaching what we know,

And to reproduce the greatness we see in ourselves.

For, how else shall we create this thriving,

And life-enhancing culture, we so much desire?

 

So,

Challenge yourself to answer these questions, today.

What are you good at?

How did you get that way?

Who are you teaching it?

How are you teaching it?

 

Let’s do our part in arresting this slide to the bottom.

Let’s do our part in creating what we desire, and want to see.

And together, we can thrive,

And progress the human race,

Like we have done for millennia.