From Polka to Pasodoble: learning the new steps

I love autumn in full color, falling leaves, and darker evenings. I have more time for listening to good music and seeing movies. The shorter daytime hours actually help me focus. It is as if I need to be more productive during these hours. I am busy with several new projects that require my full attention, which I will write more about soon.

The darkness invites thoughts that are slow and quiet. Like water, these seemingly impractical ideas nonetheless carve deep canyons in my thinking. Certain music transports me into these deeper streams. Making and observing art does the same. Humor helps me shake off my prejudices and makes it easier to connect with my ridiculousness. And many individuals, some of whom are friends, are my portals to deeper thinking.

When I connect with this slow, slow layer of myself, I become a tiny participant in a millennia-long story. This big story has three chapters:

First, we humans lived in reverence of mother Earth. We, the children, danced with her seasons, thankful for and respectful of the many gifts that nourished and sustained us.

Then we shifted into a teenage-like rebellion against her, declaring our independence and the right to do whatever crossed our minds. We were full of incredible innovation and endless cleverness and industry. We all know the story. We created machines and cities and armies. Mesmerized by instant gain, we invented products that intentionally broke down or otherwise became obsolete, making them for a short life of usefulness and an extended stay at the garbage dump. This productivity destroyed nature and fragmented communities. In the process, we ruined some 70% of forests, killed endless animals, and brought misery to countless people.

We are on the threshold of the third act now. The task is to balance ingenuity with reverence and combine our past's best elements into a working synthesis. This graduation into maturity should be our collective goal.

I have dedicated my work to this goal. For me, it is the central theme for our times. Even though the news of the day is about fragmentation and polarization, I believe something nobler is trying to emerge. For me, the next step is all about collaboration. It is about knowing that even at our very best, each of us only sees a tiny fraction of the world, and a tiny slice of the change that is underway. To succeed, we will need each other to fill in the gaps caused by our unintentional ignorance. We will need to relearn how to collaborate with mother Earth. And we will need to tap into the vast resources of knowledge stored in people who are different from ourselves.

The shift requires new steps, new dance steps if you will, because the music has changed. I've observed three different responses:

In the first group, people reject the very idea of change. They cling to the old dance steps, which look like a polka with only two steps: back and forth, left and right, us and them, for or against, this not that, because that is where they have power and authority. They are utterly unwilling to connect the dots between this attitude and the misery it causes.

The second group sounds like they want change, but not seriously enough to learn the new steps, staying on the sidelines and commenting amongst themselves. This group wants to rearrange the existing system so things look different while staying the same. It looks like they want to change, as long as it doesn’t alter their lives.

I place my faith in the third group: the creative minority that thinks of change as requiring the will of all, from governments down to families and individuals. These people know that the idea of change is empty without the willingness to push it into our lives and work; that the smallest actions need to reflect the professed ideals. It requires us to have the courage to do slow work in fast times. But the reward is joyful and inspires the rest to follow.

If you want a hilarious illustration of what I am talking about, I direct you to Strictly Ballroom, a quirky Australian film from the '90s. It was a favorite of my daughters, who danced to the soundtrack and quoted the movie's lines. It is about a young man who tires of the soulless dancing routines in the ballroom dancing community. He wants to replace meaningless moves with authentic ones, even as the entire ballroom dancing community insists there should be NO NEW STEPS. He persists and, in the end, gets all to dance the new steps.

My youngest daughter Anya helped me select a few video clips from the movie. And if you haven’t seen the film in full, perhaps one of these long winter nights you will be inspired to do so. It helps me imagine what needs to happen next and that we all should try new steps. We may look silly at first. So be it. It is more important to dance one new step than walk a mile towards a failure. Our future depends on it.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you have your own version of the big story? Do you also recognize the three responses that I mentioned? Do you see it differently? Please write your thoughts in the comment section below. I thank you in advance.