Star Trek Comes to my Street via Polarities and Infinity Loops…Whhaatt?

My husband and I just finished watching the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series again.  It left me wondering, “How DO WE get to a Start Trek world?”  A world where humans’ objective is not to accumulate wealth and possessions.  Where there is no hunger or poverty and where curable diseases have been cured for all.  With some of my recent musings I may have partially answered my own question. 

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My first post was about Taking Action to make the world a better place.  This assumption comes partly from a book that has influenced me, “Making Hope Happen”, where Action is central to making Hope happen.  It is also based on my belief that ACTION IS NEEDED to make change.  If nobody TAKES ACTION, how will things change?

Talking with a spiritual teacher recently, my bias for Action was held up to the light and challenged.  My teacher said something like “Colleen, the way YOU ARE in the world changes it.”  She spoke about how my daily practice of identifying what I’m grateful for changes me and how I interact with the world, and thus impacts the world.  Another reminder of the importance of BEING surfaced when I read an article called “Six Habits of Hope” by Kate Davies.  One of the habits is “BEING present” in the moment. It’s simple, yet incredibly powerful.  http://www.dailygood.org/story/2053/6-habits-of-hope-kate-davies/   Both my teacher’s comments and the article showcase examples where us simply BEING impacts the world. 

Since then, I’ve been pondering a polarity of Doing and Being.  Should I be busy DOING or just BEING?  Which way can I impact the world more?  By DOING, taking action to change the world around me?  Or by BEING, breathing, being still, meditating, being grateful, i.e. changing myself on the inside? 

A quick explanation of polarities may be in order…According to Neesa Sweet of the Braided River Group, a polarity is “Two equally attractive possibilities that exist in tension with each other such as a part and a whole.  Overemphasis on one pole leads to the neglect of the other leads to its ‘downside’ and eventually the ‘upside’ then the ‘downside’ of the other pole.” 

My brain hurts thinking about that.  Suffice it to say that the tension between these 2 seeming opposites keeps us moving in an endless (infinity) loop between the upside and downside of each pole and then being pulled back to the other pole.  For beautiful examples of this take a look at http://braidedrivergroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Polarity-Thinking-Overview.pdf

Then I realized the feeling that I need to choose between either Doing or Being is a false choice.  Like all true polarities, both poles are needed.  Neither one on its own is sufficient, let alone optimal.  So, to change the world, I posit that we need to BOTH DO and BE, moving between them in ways that maximize the benefits of each pole and minimize the negatives.  The infinity loop can thus avoid being a vicious circle, and instead be a virtuous cycle.

As I struggled with how to apply this realization, I suddenly saw how these 2 polarities played together in a recent situation in my life.  A while ago, I saw a “Little Free Pantry” outside a church near my house and thought it was a great idea.  I’ve wanted to put one in my front yard since then.  But I thought, “I’m not a church.  And if I did it, what would my neighbors think?  They’d think I’m a weirdo.” And the idea sat. 

After a lot of BEING (work on myself), I’m now able to risk looking like a “weirdo” to my neighbors.  And when I consulted neighbors about the idea this week, they almost unanimously agreed it’s a great idea.  They are willing to help keep it stocked.  Not the world of Star Trek exactly, but a nice step forward – neighbors freely giving to neighbors to fight food insecurity. 

I now see that the BEING (the work on myself) enabled the DOING (taking action on the Pantry).  I’m excited to see how the DOING will enable a shift in BEING, and so on.  Please share your reflections on DOING and BEING and how you navigate those to change the world.

With Love and Hope,

Colleen