Prologue
Where to from here …?
A conversation, mitigating crisis, a sharing of thoughts
This is a book about re-imagining our communities, relationships and the development of a media which supports and nurtures people in crisis.
It is said a man’s life is fleeting,
But we must find time to make that change,
In the way man thinks or does things,
Or how he should play the game.
It is said man’s life is a duty,
To make sense of the way things are done,
We should look to the past for our future,
As if our future is there preordained.
It is said man’s life is a struggle,
But that one should never complain,
We should stand tall and be counted,
Amongst all that look just the same.
It is said man’s life is wasted,
If he shies from money or fame,
When he runs away from danger,
Or says no to playing the game.
It is said man’s life is his alone,
But this makes us all a bit lame,
For man doesn’t write his own epitaph,
Because life is never that tame.
By now you would have an inkling that this is a cross over text-book where the following pages will speak of many things in a manner which I hope is conversational rather than tutorial. But times are strange and so in the shadow of fake news and manufactured dissent I suspect you, my reader, may be wary of a conversation that might appear to politicise or critique contemporary thinking without offering the source of the basis to such critique. So, if you were to flick to the back pages you will find both a Glossary and Referencing, just in case you require these details. Although I write this in Australia, I believe our conversation to be universal as I am trying to discuss and critique the ways of thinking and the language used to progress ideology, rather than the belief structure the ideology rests upon, by utilising a global canvass.
There are occasions however where my personal beliefs will intrude and for this I make no apology for the book will argue such intrusion is what makes conversation itself vital to humanity and the expression of democratic ideals amongst people. I started this book in 2018, when my companions requested I share some of my experiences and training with them. We planned that we, together, would be able to mitigate some communal crisis that was concerning our community. However, our world, as was yours, was changed, firstly by some terrible bush fires and then by a growing recognition of political incompetence. It was, of course, this incompetence which was to eventually exasperate the efforts to mitigate Covid19 and its unfolding horrors. I decided therefore, as times became much darker, to make our conversation ongoing and so, with this book as a primer, we will discuss the ways communities can enable new pathways to social and emotional wellbeing within individuals.
Our purpose from here is to explore how we can encourage communities to reconnect to the skills and talents that enable folk to celebrate those impulses of a deeper birth. And how these arts, once blended, nurtured and shared, allow for self-determination and resilience to grow within individuals to enable communities to walk confidently into the perplexing winds of change.