co-creativity between the masculine & the feminine

The beat of her drum resonated every cell of my sweaty body and the chants of the people around me were united in a deep sense of surrender. The mind could not compute, the body felt like it was melting and all that was left was the breath inhaling air that singed the hairs of my nostrils. Like a womb, darkness clothed us as we huddled together in the sweat lodge; held together by the interwoven beats of her drum and her chants. It reminded us to stay, to breathe and if we could, sing with her the songs of her indigenous tribe. The excruciating heat was radiating from the steaming rocks facing me. As if it couldn’t get any hotter, someone took the towel from my legs, more heat, more sweat, I felt naked as I blinked through the sweat and saw the glow of the red hot stones next to me. Our abuelitas grandmother stones bringing us relentless fire.

Pat McCabe

In this place of absolute surrender, I remember, being called to pray. We prayed aloud muttering our heart’s well wishes. A prayer for all my relations, prayers for Syria and prayers for her people at Standing Rock sending them strength. The sweat lodge tucked among the giant sequoias woodlands held our sweltering bodies, our cries and exhalations under the starry night sky. The scent of indigenous incenses such as sage and copal filled my burning nostrils as the tears and sweat poured from me like waterfalls on mountain cliffs finding their way back to the Earth. It was the final evening of a short course at Schumacher College; Co-creation between the Masculine and the Feminine and it was a course like no other.

Charles Eisenstein

The five day course was held by two phenomenal teachers; the incredible Pat McCabe, an inspiring woman from New Mexico who came to indigenous knowledge through Lakota nation. She moves from the central knowledge that “We, The Five-Fingered-Ones, are born into Beauty, as Beauty, for Joyful Life”, she has a powerful presence and brings the understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing into discussion and inquiry. Alongside her was Charles Eisenstein, a visionary and author of The Ascent of Humanity (2007), Sacred Economics (2011), and The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible (2013). Since 2010, he has spoken over three hundred times in over one hundred cities around the world. His events are held voluntarily, organized by others who invite him to speak. He generally charges people expenses but no fee, leaving it up to them to give him something if they feel the urge. This appeals to his ideal of generosity and “living in the gift.”

During my time at Schumacher the protests at Standing Rock had begun and we were amidst the presidential elections in the United States. There was something incredibly reflective in what the world story was showing. Indigenous tribes around the world were uniting in peaceful protest against oil companies penetrating their sacred lands. The protection of Nature, our life-giving mother, that which sustains us, was embodied in the acts of those tribes. And then like the flipping of a coin, stories of Donald Trump sexually harassing women, a man who personifies the capitalistic system, standing for one of the most influential positions in global politics was infiltrating my consciousness and my Facebook feed. What could be a greater metaphor? I wondered.

So humbly held by these two incredibly inspiring human beings thirty of us sat in circle everyday, shared, absorbed, discussed, and debated. The process itself was illuminating as all our realities and perspectives were shared in the common union of space. And so over 5 days we commenced an inquiry into the Masculine and the Feminine; exploring what might be the limitations, opportunities and re-modelling necessary to empower the co-creativity of these dual forces within us all and for the betterment of our world today.

During this course I became profoundly aware of the many layers of pain in the relationship between the aptly termed “Men’s Nation’ and “Women’s Nation”. The suppression of the feminine being a story I am all too aware of. I’ve found the genocide of European witch-hunts, in some inexplicable way, living in me, like an embedded tale of devastation buried in my DNA still burning a fury. And then onto the modern worlds distorted perceptions of beauty and objectification with manipulated images of women tantalising our eyes and loins yet creating insecurity on how life can be beautiful without the superficialities of make up, pert boobs and smooth legs. 

I went into the course feeling frustration towards the male dominated world that has somehow planted seeds of insecurity in my psyche based on my sex and collectively created a world that continues to poison our planet in our endlessly consumerist culture. It became clear I wasn’t the only woman feeling frustrated about it. It wasn’t long before we were licking our wounds, sharing tales of heart wrenching violation and misguidance. It became apparent that there was much distrust towards ‘Men’s Nation’, especially, with his capacity to contain the great rage accumulated over the generations that the feminine had burning begging to be relieved yet without a safe place for it to go.

What I hadn’t appreciated before attending this course however, was how confusing and upsetting it also is for our men in our world today. In a world with industrialised ideas of ‘what it is to be a man’ with the numbing of human emotion, along with the backdrop of war, competition and destruction, no wonder there’s much confusion. And having sat in circle, sharing our truths on the subject we witnessed the dynamics playing out as we interacted with one another. We could see how women also played a role in the great divide. Women at times did not hear men and even shut them down while displaying behaviours counter to what we might consider feminine in nature such as nurturing receptivity. So I left five days of inquiry feeling incredibly compassionate towards ‘Men’s Nation’ and incredibly aware of the roles women play in enacting the divide between the two.

Pat McCabe explained the ‘devices of deception’, how one day she saw how we had been tricked into believing in a separation between these polarities and furthermore, pitched against one another creating mistrust within the relationship. A sense of clarity has since found me able to better discern when these devices come into play and practicing, to the best of my ability, non-involvement and compassion with full consideration for all I have learnt and humbly recognising my own prejudice. I have found my personal journey to wholeness requiring me too to reconcile the masculine and feminine energies within me. What the future holds for humanity however remains to be seen, but as we prayed for in the depths of our sweltering womb; I hope it will be supporting our togetherness in wholehearted relationship, co-creating a world that serves our planet as well as one another.

you dream, I dream, together we dream

In 2011 while trekking through the Himalayas of Nepal with my friend Steph Reynard, we met Jeff. Actually first we met incredible flags describing children's dreams on them around a local school at nearly 4000m altitude. And it won our hearts.

We interviewed Jeff back then and he won our hearts too and since, life on the road has enabled me to become a more practical supporter of the project and put more energy in to what I feel is one of the great examples of how we can all contribute to a better world for our children.

I feel very grateful for Jeff's friendship and humbled to know someone so committed to creating a platform that empowers children to dream a better world for themselves, to walk the path of their hearts truth and enable Schools to help prepare students to be part of a world they WANT to be part of.

I am a big fan and hence, would like to share a short exchange I had with Jeff on the project and its expansion in to the digital realm (with this Kickstarter campaign), enabling a shared dream, bringing dreamers together in an increasingly digital world.

What is the Dream Flag Project?

The Dream Flag Project is an invitation for students to reach into their hearts, to find what Langston Huges calls their "heart melody," to write about it, often in poetry, to put that on a standard sized piece of fabric, make it sing with color, attach it to a line with others, and share it with the world.
That's the simplicity of the project and the reason it's travelled so far and so deeply--around the world, into innner cities, into remote villages, all over. But at a deeper level, The Dream Flag Project is a path for bringing dreams back into the classroom for a better world.

What does that mean?

It means that when you look at the way education used to work, at least in America and much of the world, "the dream" was to do well in school, get the opportunties that afforded, and "do better" than your parents--to have a material life that's fuller and materially easier. It may or may not have ever been true, but it was a motivating dream for many. And it doesn't work anymore. Students do well in school, go to college, and can't find jobs. They have fewer opportunities than their parents, not more.
The old system was built on a model of continuous growth, a stockmarket that always increases in value. Greater GDP every year. Continuous economic expansion. And, as Jane Goodall tries to point out to everyone who will listen, that doesn't work in an ecosystem. It's a recipe for disaster--a recipie for death.

And The Dream Flag Project? Making stuff out of fabric and hanging it? Where does that fit in?

The Dream Flag Project brings a different kind of dream back into the classroom. It brings a "we dream." It's fundamentally a group experience. Students, inspired by the poems of Langston Hughes or whatever else their teachers provide, are invited to articulate their dreams. Some are simple--like having a chicken on a Dream Flag from a village in Madagascar.  Some are poignant -like the wish for a cure for Alzheimer's from a student I taught this year who lost her grandpa to that disease. Many are global, like the a Dream Flag from a village in western Russia about hoping that people will be kind everywhere or for an end to wars. But all are linked to a line, done in a group, and connected to each other. As in powerful poetry, it's the metaphor of the project that carries the impact. Connecting to others. Knowing you're not alone in your dream.
As it says on our Kickstarter site, "Schools should help prepare students to be part of a world the WANT to be part of. The Dream Flag Project already helps students to imagine that world. DreamLine will help them make it their reality."

How?

Through network and connection, the greatest single benefit we have from the sytem of technology that's part of all of our lives. Connection to others who share a dream, brings strengh and potential for real change. So it's a very open forum. And it's in schools, not outside of schools. That means it's safe for children. The teachers are in charge of making it a safe space through moderated exchange.

What will happen if we create this global network of teachers and students around the world who share dreams?

We don't know. And that's a great thing. Starting The Dream Flag Project, we just invited teachers to have their students take part in a simple process of Dream, Create, Connect, and Share. It's an open framework that's been taken in so many directions, places, and extensions, we never could have anticipated them. In today's educational world, everyone wants to know about outcomes. Like children are being processed and we can predict what we'll turn them into. Like any organic growth process, the outcomes are not completely predictable. We're not machines. Yay! But the growth that comes from connections has tremendous potential to instigate positive change.

It's very simple really. When you look at hundreds and hundreds of Dream Flags, or thousands and thousands, not one, not a single one, zero--say they dream of wiping out all of the so-and-so's or beating everyone in a war. They're about health, about safety, about prosperity. And they're about peace and fairness and harmony. When you create a global way to help children see those goals as tenable, and when they have a structure that supports small actions toward them, who knows what will happen.

So we want to bring dreams BACK into the classroom--but for a better world, for a we-dream.

Please pledge your support for DreamLine here.

the leaders of tomorrow

"Be careful of what kind of leaders you are producing here"

A powerful speech from A Scent of a Woman that tickles all the right places.

We live in a time where the major powers of the world have education systems yet to evolve to the 21st century. Besides that; they're elitist.

And so it does make one wonder... what kind of leaders are we creating for our future?

Ken Robinson has a very powerful talk on TED putting a case forward for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

The Internet of Things

"The Internet of Things" talks to how the internet has become a nervous system to our planet which can transform data and glean wisdom to create efficiencies in our every day lives.

I wonder what this means? Will humankind become lazy? Will this give us an opportunity to focus on different things such as innovation and creation?

(Thanks Conrad)

I’ve sent the future and its… Digital?

Increasingly we’re seeing communication channels expand and evolve in to more dynamic, interactive spaces. There’s been a gradual convergence between tradition and new media.

There are two fundamental changes I see:

1. People are increasingly less responsive to traditional broadcast advertising
2. Communication technology is developing at a very very fast rate

1. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.

In a traditional sense, you can define advertising as the science of creating and placing media that interrupts the consumer and prompts an action. Once upon a time this model was incredibly affective, ‘consumers’ had more time, less choice and so whoever shouted the loudest would win the argument. Not so anymore. Now we have less time and more choice, everyone is shouting at us at the top of their lungs why they’re the best and quite frankly it’s exasperating. I’m confused. I’m over-communicated. I’m cynical and having been exposed to traditional advertising all my life, I'm pretty savvy at avoiding it.

Seth agrees; "The interruption model is extremely effective when there's not an overflow of interruptions," Godin says. "But there's too much going on in our lives for us to enjoy being interrupted anymore."

That’s not to say that a new, innovative and incredible advert won’t grab attention but I think the challenge we have today is knowing how to shine amongst the clutter and appreciating that interruption is less exciting than interaction.

Its not a case of video killed the radio star; I don’t think it’s a matter of new media vs traditional media – it’s an evolution of our approach, the channels we use and an appreciation that the proliferation of media has changed the way in which people engage with content (remember that now consumer media consumption across channels leads to virtual days exceeding 24 hours)!

I’ve worked in agencies where this shift is emphasised to clients and yet in many cases, traditional media forms such as television remain the biggest investment, even if it’s not the best choice. One obstacle is lack of understanding of new media, followed by company inertia, another big obstacle is finding reliable metric models of these new tools and how a lot of marketers are still trying to retrofit those applied to traditional media.

Of course, the fact that people are less responsive to being shouted at also provides a great argument for a popular space at the moment, social media, where brands and people can have a dialogue. Personally whilst I think social media is a fantastic opportunity for marketers, brands and consumers alike, I also believe the facets of this space are really the beginning of things to come.

Our challenge as marketers is to find what might surprise, cut through, engage, entertain, add value and start conversations whilst using the right media to facilitate it in an increasingly fragmented landscape where ultimately the consumer's in control.

2. Communication technology is developing at a very very fast rate

If we look over the last century and examine the rate of technological growth its incredible to review the rate at which it has developed. We can fly, travel underwater, go to space, access the world wide web, we can see and talk to people on the other side of the world instantaneously, share still images by the click of a button, we can even carry our wallet, bank account, a GPS map, social network, search facility, computer game and telephone in our back pocket. Change will never be this slow again.

What I find very exciting is how traditional communication platforms are also progressing and moving in to the digital realm through these advances in technology and the internet. Some examples below:

TV channels are streaming catch-up TV online, TV channels are launching solely online, they’re integrating with social media (great post on this here), TV has got smarter, more relevant and started to allow for interaction at the push of a button. This I see only progressing.

Print: Newspapers and Magazines have been quite challenged lately and whilst there is seemingly a decline in the medium, the product remains strong. It is the means through which stories are distributed that are undergoing a rapid development. We’re already seeing print complemented with online articles/blogs/Twitter accounts. But this is just a glimpse of what we have to come, see the e-paper business and the likes of Amazon Kindles and Apple’s iPad to get an idea of what we might be reading stories from in the future.

And of course, not to mention, Outdoor Display which now commonly features interactive digital billboards, QR codes (personally not as exciting, but clever nonetheless), can create augmented realities, interactive window displays and not to mention feature hologram technology.

So to conclude, new technology allows for a much needed change of approach and engagement between brands and people. There’s more breadth, room for innovation and opportunities to do something amazing and interactive with people rather than just broadcasting a one-way message.

Forrester unsurprisingly has predicted a growth in interactive advertising and among the interactive channels, Forrester sees social media and mobile marketing spending expanding significantly between 2009 and 2014, with social media jumping by 34% on a compounded annual basis and mobile marketing increasing by 27%.

But these are young channels, at least as compared with relatively mature interactive mediums such as e-mail, display advertising and search which are also seeing a change.

I think it naïve to presume that interactive advertising solely rests within what some perceive as “Online / Digital”, we need to remember that traditional channels are becoming increasingly digitalised, technology is changing and whilst interaction is important and digital may facilitate it - you still need to be a brand that people want to interact with.