JUNE 2020 BLOG POST

RESILIENCE AND HUMAN NATURE

 

Dear reader,

This June blog is inviting you to reflect on the current events that have made all our global community a place of crisis of major proportions. I the USA alone 100,000 deaths and more to come. This is not new to humanity, we have suffered many pandemics, wars, and all sorts of damages but came out with more creative ways of dealing and healing. People are resilient in times of troubles. Michael Meade states:

“The common usage of the word resilience suggests “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties” the current push to reopen the country after shutting down to stop the coronavirus exhibits this desire for a quick recovery, especially at the economic level. The problem is not just that the choice between open or closed is a false dichotomy; there are many nuanced paths between the two positions. The greater issue is that those who worry most about the economy and want to rush back to save it, may cause a much greater loss of human life and still fail in trying to force the economy to recover quickly.

The word resilience means “to rebound, to leap or spring back.” There is also a connection to the word salient as in “salient point,” the tipping point at which the heart of a human embryo seems to leap towards life. Seen that way, the point of resilience is not simply “going back” to a state that existed before; nor is it seeking a “new normal.” True resiliency involves both springing back up and arriving at a new starting point in life.

Human nature, like great Nature, harbors a deep, but often untapped, capacity for resilience that leads, not back to how things were before, but rather leaps forth with new ways of envisioning life. Only then can the meaning of a life crisis be found in a process of inner growth rather than a simple return to the spell of normalcy. What I am calling radical resiliency involves using the hidden energy in a crisis to generate a creative vision and new starting points that quicken the pulse of life at all levels.” He adds:

“We live in a time of multiple crises, radical changes, and increasing adversity in terms of both nature and human culture. Only when faced with obstacles, stress, and even environmental threats does resilience emerge. Recent psychological studies show that children who do not face adversity early in life tend to lack a capacity for resiliency. As an old proverb succinctly puts it, “Smooth seas make bad sailors.”  That also implies that resiliency can be learned and that people can become wise old salts when it comes to facing waves of adversity and finding meaningful ways of resetting the course of life. The issue in a crisis is not simply survival, but also a transformation of the survivors”.  

               

CREATION AND CREATIVITY – ART

I am reflecting on what my mentor Michael Meade describes as RESILIENCE. I am back in my earlier life as a young teen in Venezuela when my mother left Europe after WWII. I am incredibly grateful to my mother who alone (father was killed in the Ukrainian conflict with communism) developed a great resilience to survive and give me a model of creative work for more than 70 years. She was a great cook and managed to earn enough for us to live well until migrating to Canada. There she worked in a food store and cooked for others, and thus we lived well until I graduated from University and was able to work. So, I find that only our soul is the centre of resilience. Meade states:

“The soul is the only thing in a person that cannot be overwhelmed. The soul is also the seat and living source of human resilience. Even in the midst of a great crisis or a tragic descent, the soul can find salient points at which the human spirit can awaken further, and a quickening of life can occur. Whether it is a crisis, a conflict, or a great loss; creation is the only outcome that satisfies the soul.”

As we are experiencing a global pandemic and slowly many countries are relaxing their strong rules of protection of people, we note, on the news, how everyday carers and helpers in all types of work are being very creative in developing new ways of saving and protecting whole countries. Leadership is required to direct all countries no matter of what political persuasion, to confront the coronavirus pandemic that causes greater activation of both the archetype of the healer and that of the leader. To consider how failures of leadership can undermine even the most heroic attempts at healing, Michael Meade turns to an ancient myth from India. When Indra, the prototype for all subsequent leaders, becomes wildly inflated and endlessly demanding, the growing sense of chaos threatens the entire realm of life. In the myth, an intervention on the part of the gods reduces the hubris of the ruler and brings balance back to the realm. At this critical time on earth, an awakening of genuine and inspired leadership may have to come from the hearts and minds of a multitude and diversity of people for even greater tragedies to be avoided. But human nature is resilient.

Finally, let us reflect on the source of creative resilience – the SOUL. Wisdom comes from a developed soul. Let the collective culture of all humanity start to listen to each soul that has great wisdom to heal and creatively lead us all forward to a new and different and more peaceful future.