Friday’s venture into the country brought forth this seeing… something old, something new. It’s a bit out of the ordinary, but has been popping up in my mind for several days, perhaps a week or two. Perhaps there is some usefulness here….
Intentional Grandmothering… Creating What is Needed
Putting our faith in love… the all-inclusive love that works for all my children in the world… creating an active working presence of the love that works for all my children in the world and thus for the whole of life.
Current events and an experience of long ago have emerged and coalesced in this imaging…
Some 30 years, perhaps a bit longer, ago, as a developmental resource, I was invited to join in a work session with some folks from government and industry. Most, if not all, except for me, were Canadians… And too, most, if not all, were engineers and scientists… a group of men who met periodically to discuss issues that were relevant and timely to both their industries, and their government.
The pattern was to work a full day, share an evening meal, and have some open conversation following that. And then work the next day, until noon… focusing on thinking that had emerged from the previous day. So, one organized day of work, an evening of open – initiated by a question, a thought, by any and all – to discussion; seeking resolution, greater understanding and so forth of a particular topic, not necessarily from the subject matter of the day.
And so, on this evening, the subject that quickly became the source of the evening discussion was that of nuclear armament, nuclear war. Which gradually became, at least to my mind, a focus on detection and prevention. All of which was organized by the essence – the virtue, so to speak – of nuclear armament: deterrence… which itself relied upon each and all having access to nuclear weapons/missile delivered bombs in particular… which at the time were essentially all stored in underground silos. The notion being that no matter who or how nuclear war was started, all would suffer the consequences… images of total destruction were, in one way or another, frequently brought forth. Thus, the attention to prevention and detection.
And so, given their science and engineering background, the discussion began with technology… lively processing around technology… clever, fool proof, fail safe, technology. And then, however, the other critical element being people, people in power, took over the discussion… with depictions of concern as to their character, trustworthiness, and so forth. At the heart of the people issue, it seemed to me as I listened to the discussion, was found in words and descriptions of ego, ego maniacs, and the inability to transcend, predictably and reliably, that common experience of self-serving ego… ego organized by angst, vengeance, and so forth. Not so much thinking regarding folks in power as accidentally “pushing the button”; but genuine concern over unrestrained ego and its many manifestations.
And so, after an extensive, lively discussion by serious minded folks, the evening came to a close, without a clear resolution, but much to think about. As for me, as is my pattern, the energy and imagery of the process went with me, worked within during the night, and brought some coalescence early in the morning. An imagery that I shared with the group, after our breakfast, and before the scheduled days activity. Intentionally not seeking to process, but just to lift it up, for their consideration. The elucidation of my thought took only a few minutes… at the end of which I was greeted with silence… total silence. Which I sensed was related to their not knowing what to say. And so, we moved on to our morning’s schedule… and at least with me, there was no follow up discussion… not then, nor afterwards.
This then, was the charcoal sketch I articulated…
The core, the heart of the idea was organized around the grandmothers… and in what I have come to understand, would be that which we now think of as “intentional grandmothering”… bringing all-inclusive love through themselves, and through their processing into that which they create. Most simply, we would put groups of grandmothers in all the silos of all the countries possessing nuclear arms… with them being the only people who would have access to, and the capability for launching a nuclear armed missile. Now present in each silo would be pictures of grandchildren, their own, and the grandchildren of the grandmothers in the country the particular missile(s) were aimed at. Children they all knew because of frequent personal, actually getting together, interactions… as well as an ongoing exchanging of pictures, conversation and so forth. The premise being that these women, these grandmothers, organized by the essence – the love present within, and flowing through – of intentional grandmothering would, when it comes to prevention, be as close to perfection as humanly possible… close enough that all children in the world, all who cared for and about the children, could rest assured that this, perhaps the greatest hazard of our making, would not be activated.
The Living Philosophy of Potential (https://pathofpotential.org)
