I think I've figured out a preventative approach to fostering social wellbeing. Not figured out myself, but identified.
It's not all there but the backbone is.
It's all in Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin. Understanding life stages and development. Rights of passage and supported transition between them. The only question is how. How to facilitate, exactly? What kind of forums for bringing facilitators and practices together with people would work? It used to be church. Now what?
It's not the whole story but a major, major part of it. Right now the invisible but crucial aspects of our wellbeing are slipping through the cracks in our visible, material world and priorities.
A five year old girl was paralyzed from the waist down in a corner shop shooting up the road from me. It's in the papers this week. Her dad, the store owner, was shot in the face.
Three men aged 18, 19 and 20 are being charged for attempted murder.
Would they have done it if they had a clear sense of purpose, coupled with hope and social support, perhaps a relationship with a wiser older person? I doubt it.
Hope you're well,
Briony x
Bri,
Thoughts:
Rights of passage have been a key notion in the work I've done with youth. In Utah, we'd have a lot of ceremonies, and expose young people to the wilderness and the raw realities of facing themselves there, and then guide them through and out the other side. It was flawed as a preventive model only because the youth were forced to be there after having already, generally, dive-bombed. Of course, catching youth at that age is still preventative of further calamity.
Animus Valley Institute--Bill Plotkin's place, I believe--employs a couple of my old colleagues.
Truly preventative rites of passage must be organic, I think. I want to take my kids and their friends backpacking regularly. I want my friends and I to lead these trips, with our kids and whomever else we have the capacity for. The wilderness facilitates rites of passage. Travel facilitates rights of passage. Going out to meet the world on its terms and offer oneself up entirely to what awaits. I have had mine. Not only once, but many times over. They occur at various life stages. They require that I be open, paying attention to how the world interacts with the narrative of my own life, and willing to rise to the challenge of the next level. Hell, I haven't always been willing, so maybe that's not an absolute criteria.
Forums and fora... I don't know. I have a distrust of programs, but then, that's what we operate in, that's what I'm learning to run. The military provides a powerful rite of passage but it is incomplete. I spoke to an ex-marine the other night who, after a couple of beers, had no problem ripping the military to pieces with me for its absolute idiocy when it comes to developing people holistically and transitioning them back to regular life. We are a deeply specialized society, and within our silos we lose track of the whole so easily. "one hand on the laptop, one hand on the spade" is a good start. Enacting rites of passage within the meaningful relationships of one's own community (geographically or otherwise) is a great start. Rights of passage can be subtle, too.
I think about these things from the point of view of social policy, economic development, youth development, and education these days. I'm not sure what role the government has. I'm not sure what role schools have. Bureaucracies are so deadingly inept at these sorts of things. Meaningfulness gets lost quickly at scale, you know? It seems to me more and more to be true these days. I find myself wanting to focus on my self, my own development, the example I can set, what I can come up with to offer, how I'm going to show up for the people around me, the impact I want to make on a daily basis. I'm in the constant project of trying to pull my big ideas down to my daily life and enact just a little bit at a time, but regularly, and see if that way starts to yield results and offers some genuine satisfaction.
Sorry to write so much. It's easier than writing more concisely, and in the midst of finals right now, I knew I'd never get around to crafting a better answer.
Matt
Hey Matt
no need to apologise for writing so much! It was a great email, great to hear from you.
Humm yes I don't think the response is about bureacracy. I look more at something like my yoga teacher's economic model of doing a few workshops a week at like £15 a workshop, then doing a few retreats throughout the year where deeper work is done. Some model like that, led by the individual or collective guides, could be cool.
Organic sure but that requires a 'soulcentric' society for the practices to emerge out of. I think we have to be a little more intentional about it in the egocentric society we have around us. At least in London. Maybe less so in Seattle. I don't know.
Anyway. This stuff is fascinating. It's grabbed me by the balls that I don't have and captured my heart. Particularly the ritual side of things.
Good luck with the exams.
All the best,
Bri x
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