A new way

January 22, 2010

Dear Sir,

Stormy days are part of living on this planet. Their main purpose is to wake us up, throw us out of our comfort zones, and force us to re-evaluate our priorities. In all likelihood we have all gone through our share of downpours and more or less survived them all. We have learnt from these experiences, and in most cases we have become stronger and more confident.

But more people than ever before are worried and afraid. Watching the news on television makes us believe that the future outlook of our world is bleak. In our environments, religious and ethnic violence, social unrest, bankrupt government, over population, natural disasters, many dark clouds are gathering.

In any case, the troubling state of our anxious world is a direct result of an old and outdated value system in which everything divided into us and them, in black and white, in right and wrong. This 'us' can be myself my family, my group, my nation. It is a form of tribalism where the major driving force is the belief in being superior to others by pointing fingers and blaming them with self-righteous cries for justice and revenge. This old Paradigm has not worked and needs to be replaced with a new way of thinking and acting if we want to survive individually and collectively.

In fact, the more we carry from the past the less we will be able to respond to the present, because the present is not a repetition of the past, it is always new, it is never old, it may sometimes appear like the old, but it is not old, there are basic differences.

Life never repeats itself. It is always fresh, always new, always growing, always moving into new adventures. Your old ready-made answers are not going to help you, in fact they will hinder you; they will not allow you to see the new situation. The situation will be new, and the answer will be old. That's why we look so stupid in life. But to remain stupid seems cheaper. To be intelligent needs effort. To be intelligent means you have to grow. And growth is painful. To be intelligent means you have to be alert and aware, you cannot fall asleep.

And to be intelligent has a few more dangers too. To be intelligent is very difficult because you have to live with the stupid crowds.

To live with blind people when you have eyes is a dangerous situation, they cannot tolerate you.

You are an offence.

SENSEI BURNELL WILLIAMS

City of Hamilton